The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-03-01
a TKENCHASr ARr1CLE.

N@--GA AeA~s AOI y CT Dccl4 lOunu-
A TRENCHAST ARTICLE.
The Recent Gathering of Kentucky
DemOcratE---TheIr ProEessIOns Con-
trasted with their ReeOrd---Faets
for the People 10 Remember For
ever I'm Regard to Democracy.
From NE CTHciHnGI Commercial
The Democratic party is to be judged
not by what it itEsays, but by what it
does. The rule is perhaps applicable
to all parties, but it has peculiar force
when applied to an organization that
has carried on a profitable business in
political a1ioms, the abstract truth OF
which is questioned by no one, and has
largely dealt in generalizations that
captiyate those VINO look rnther to the
professions than the acts of men. We
of the present generation are not likely,
TO forget, and history will not fail to
remind those who come after US, that
up to the hour of actual secession and
war, no public men ever so ostenta-
uously paraded their veneration for the
Constitution and their idolatrous affec-
ton for the Union of which il is the
bond, as these counselors, controllers
and leaders of the Democratic party
who resided in the Southern States.
While these fair professions giided with
an oily smoothnesS from their lying
lips, they meditated in their hearts and
in secret communings with each other
how they might best take the giant
Republic unawares, shear him of his
strength, put out his eyes, and after
making him the sport of his enemies
and a Missing reproach in the mouths
OF the nations, deprive him of life alto
gether. In the permanence of that
IL. l.. l.
the hopes of successful experiment in
self-goveTument, and the aspirations of
all people who sigh for a larger meas
ure of individual, civil and political
freedom than had been vouchsafed un-
der the old forms of government. Pro-
Tossing to be the admirers and servitors
or human freedom, they were at heart
its assassins, and only withheld the
blow that it might be more deadly
when il descended.
Baffied in their calculations, defeated
in the execution of their plans, COM
PEELED to relinquish the design of found
ing government on the ruins ofa Re-
public, whose corner stone was to have
been human slavery, and whose walls
were to have been Quarried from the
same bleak abyss OF cruelty and in
fanny their armies routed, their flags
hauled down, their territory occupied,
they themselves compelled TO surren-
uGL OE lAcSS against
the existence of the Union, these trail
tors to the Constitution. these assassins
OF human freedom, without a blush Of
shame, pretense of regret, or the sur
render OF a single principle by which
they squared and now justify their
conduct, come back, and with insolent
swagger and brazen faces, assume to
dictate to those who staked their lives
and fortunes to preserve this great
Government and its institutions from
overthrow, what measures they shall
adopt for its protection in the future.
aud to decide whether those measures
are in harmony with the Constitution.
The snivel and cant of hypocrisy with
which they worshipped at the shrine of
the temple while stealing its treasures,
the pretense of affection they made
while undermining its foundations, is
again heard wherever two or three of
them are eongregated, demanding to
be clothed upon with the vestments
they defiIed, and made officiating
priests at the altar they desecTated.
1t is not, therefore, wonderful that
the Convention OF Kentucky Demo-
Gratis, held on the 22d of February at
Frankfort, and which was largely made
up Of those who are exceptional be-
cause of their double treason TO the
Union and the State, should have been
lavish in expressions of attachment to
the Union and the esteem for the Con-
stitution. Such can't is cheap. But
from first to last, there was not one
word of expressed or implied regret
for the course they have pursued, nor a
single sentence written or spoken, that
could be construed by the most liberal
Interpretation into condemnation of
the war of secession, or of censure of
those recreant Rentuckians who have
not the poor apology of obedience to
the beheSts OF the State to 0tter for their
crime. Running through the re-
solutions adopted, there Is a for
id profession of warm attach
ment to the Union of these
States,r a-nice sense of the duty each
and all felt in upholding it, and faith
fully observing the principles upon
which II Is based, but these are counter
balanced by the reassertiop Of the pre-
tensions OF State rights and limited
Federal prerogatiyes, by which il was
the administrators of the Government,
while domestic traitors banded to-
gether TO destroy it. Many of the
principles set forth in their dec
IaraIion of opinions viii receive
. a cheerful approval among tens
of thousands of Republicans. For in
stance, there Is no one, We presume,
who questions the declaration that the
Federal Constitution requires the rep
rsseutation Of the Southern States in
Congress; or that IN times of peace, and
where the civil courts are open and able
to try all causes within their iurisdic-
ton, trials ofcivilians by military COM
missions and courts-martisl are not
sanctioned by the Constitution; nor
! will the declaration that the Govern
meut should be economically admins
tered, and all It's officers held TO a strict
accountability, be disputed. The Whig
and Democratic and Republican parties
J have affirmed the same = thousand