Delaware State journal and statesman., 1866-08-28

IL fOleu uOWn RESOLUTIONS simply thanking
the soldiers OF Delaware who were defend
ing the Government and expressly told them
it had no sympathy for the wounded, or for
the orphans and widows of those who died
upon the battle field. And, if no other proof
was wanting-if every act in the catalogue
l have enumerated was blotted out and for
gotten-the rejection of the proposition to
appropriate few hundred dollars to decent
ly inter the heroes who fell upon the bloody
field of Gettysburg, would bring home to
this Legislature, the charge, that all its sym
pathies, its hopes and its prayers, were with
those who, in that conflict, fought under a
strange banner, and for cause unworthy
the civilization of the age. | sometimes
think of this insult TO the dead patriots in
anger-l sometimes think of it in SORROW
and always its remembrance comes as burn
ing disgrace to Delaware. Her brave sons
were treated as outcasts; in life, they were
repudiated, and even in death they were re-
jected. The State as a State, sought to dis
own and dishonor them, but there were those
among its citizens, who provided for the last
rites to remains which the Republic has no
temple too sacred to enshrine. u0f those who,
in classic ages, have thus served their coun-
try and honored humanity and have fallen
in the protracted struggle with malignity,
treason, folly and tyranny, it has been well
said, in terms which richly express the pro-
per sense of their claims, that
"They fell devoted but undYing;
The very gales their names are signing;
The silent pillar, lone and gray,
Claims kindred with their sacred clay.
Their spirits wrap the dusky mountain,
Their memory sparkles DER the fountain;
The meanest rill, the mightiest river
Rolls mingling with their fame forever y
The Legislature of 1865 was but a second
edition of that which preceded it, without
revision or improvement. It absolutely ig-
nored the fact, that in the Union army were
four regiments Of infantry, battalion of
cavalry and battery of artillery, who march
ed under the arms of Delaware. 1t had no
sorrow for the gallant dead-it had no thanks
for the living. II extended TO the widows
and orphans the cold charity Of the world.
II would see them beggars in land saved
by their great sacrifices. In making pro-
visions to meet the military drafts, It pro-
tested against the continuance of the war,
and then offered premiums to our citizens to
stay at home, in place of inducements for
volunteers. Its hatred to the general gov
ernment was so intense, that il refused to
accept the donation of public lands for the
benefit Of education in the State. Il could
not look beyond the contracted lines of
miserable party spirit. In affairs but remote
ly connected with politics there was no ac-
ceptance of facts as they existed. 1t reject
ed prudent and discreet action, comporting
with surrounding changes and circumstan-
ces. Hence the refusal to assist, by an ena-
bling act, the conversion Of our State banks
into banking institutions of national char
acter Hence the present condition Of the
Farmers Bank, in which the State is SO
largely interested as stockholder. Hence
the denial of the legality of the Constitu-
Amnndmant clo nd
the refusal to accept it as part of the fGnda-
mental law of the land. Delaware IS a free
State, but her Legislature in Its action has
carefully excluded any avowal of the great
change in her condition; and still insists
upon the retention on our Statute Book of
all the barbarous barricades with which the
slave power surrounded itself when in the
vigor Of life, but which now have nothing
to pi iotect but the fetid carcass of an institu-
tion, destroyed in storm and whirlwind, by
the acts of those who blindly imagined they
were preserving it. To the Democratic
party, Delaware is still slave State, with
out slave, or the right to hold one, within
its borders. No concessions are to be made
to freedom, and all the incidents of dead
system are to be retained in the body polite.
BY an act of Congress, approved August
D., 1861, tax of twenty millions was levied
upon real estate, and ordered to be collected
for the purpose of meeting the expenses of
the war. Delaware has never paid her quota.
In November 1861, the Legislature rejected a
proposition assuming the payment of the
portion assigned to this State. At the ses-
sion OF the present year, it was proposed to
rob the School Fund to provide for the pay
ment of this debt; but the political consequent
ces of such action, and not its impolicy upon
other grounds, deferred democratic politi-
clans in the consummation of measure so
injurious to one of the first interests of the
State. The State holds investments, not
belonging to the School Fund, sufficient to
meet this claiLi, but fol- some unaccountable
reason, the Legislature refused to apply these
Investments to the satisfaction Of the just
demands of the General Government. II
the act of Congress is executed by assessing
and collecting the tax from our citizens, they
should remember that their rulers, having
means to pay it, without annoying their con-
stituents, or disturbing the School Fund, re-
fused 10 make the proper provision for that
| object.
At the commencement of the war, it was
the wish of the National Government TO
protect our coast from the ravages of either
foreign or domestic enemies. Application
was made for a grant of wild land near Cape
| Henlopen, on which to erect defenses. The
Legislature so clogged the grant with condi-
| tions-of no importance whatever to the
State, but in their acceptance at that time in
| volving humiliation and a recognition of re-
| dictionary sentiments-as to insure its reiec-
tion. If the Government refused to recog-
nize the democratic" doctrines of slavery,
and declined TO allow its chains TO hang
around its Notifications, then the land
should not be granted. The people of this
State, and the commercial interests at the
Breakwater shall have no protection, without
the Government, then at war with the slave
power, comedies 10 that power in the State
| Of Delaware, the shelter and guardianship
| Of the law. This was the doctrine OF the
Democratic party, and by this doctrine the
lives and property Of the people of the State
were left at the mercy Of public enemies
That traitors failed to avail themselves oi
this action on the part of their sYmpathizerE
does not change its character.
In vain have sought the record of the
Democratic party of Delaware for one single
act, during the rebellion, which should en-
title it to public confidence as being friendly
to the Union. Formally it professed in words
such friendship, but every act falsifed Its
profession. do not say that there were
not Democrats, who in the struggle, desired
the success OF the Government, but they
more than neutralized their position by de
stroying its moral power at the ballot-box.-
speak OF the leaders and rulers OF the party
who are also the rulers Of the State. Fail
ing, for the reasons l have alluded to, il
adding our star to the rebel flag, they resort
ed to the next best means TO assist thei
friends in the South. They refused to ait
the National Government in its effort Il
thwart treason. Whatever moral force the
commanded, was freely given to the rebel
in arms against the Tightiul authority of tn
Republic In the Spring of 1861, it wa
dangerous in many parts of the State to rails
a. ~ a 4 ~
State to fight in the rebel army were Demo
: | crnis. nnd IL ihnv hnNe reillrnnd are my