The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1867-02-19
The Democratic Party and the late
Rebellion.

that very many Democrats were svmpath
izers with and virtual allies of the late Re
: bellion, compels us to ask attention to Ger
tain historical facts If any one can con
tradict them or break their force, we beg
him not to hide his candle under bushel
| l. Secession was first inaugurated III
South Carolina, directly after the popular
choice of Presidential Electors, early ii
November, 1860, whereby the accession o.
Mr.. Lincoln to the Presidency was assured
J The men who inaugurated it were all Demo
; crats-that is, they had supported for Presi
dent Van Buren in 1910, Polk in 1874
Cass in 1913, Pierce in 1852, Buchanan
in 1856, and j. G. Breckenridge in 1860.
There may have been one or two excep
ftions, but we know none. There was GER
tainly no Republican among them, wheth
er in that or any other State. And what
ever their impulse to Secession, their pre-
text for it was the triumphs of the Repub'
licans in the choice of Mr. Lincoln afore-
said.
Ii. Other States-at least ten of them
followed South Carolina in her so-called
Secession. Two or three more pretended
or were claimed to have done so. In every
instance, this so-called Secession was sub
stantiaiy the act of the Democratic party
Of those States respectively. That is to
say: the great body OF those who had pre-
viously run the Democratic machine were
early and ardent SecesSionists, while the
mass of the opposite party are either ad-
verse or lukewarm. Thus every Demo
cratic Governor ola State, those Of Dela-
ware and Kentucky excepted, was at the
head of the hunt for disunion; and of the
exceptions, each openly contemned all fore
Ible resistance to the mo ement. ..
III. The Federal Government was then
wholly in the hands of the Democratic
party, save that the House of Representa-
tives was tied-Wm. Pennington moderate
Republican, having at length been chosen
is Speaker by one majority. But in no
single department did that Government
oppose any earnest resistance to Secession.
President Buchanan in his message of Dec.
3, 1860, squareIy proclaimed that Congress
had no right to use force to prevent the
withdrawal of State from the Union, nor
to compel her to yield obedience to its laws.
To do this, he argued, would be to make
war on a State, which Congress had no
constitutional power to do. (See Ameri
can Conflict, Vol. l., p. $40 This procIa
nation of national anarchy was backed by
a formal opinion from his Democratic
Attorney General, Jere. S. Black, who was
afterwards his Secretary o. State, who
affirmed that the use of armed men to en-,
force the laws, 10 the existing state of thing
would be "wholIy iIlegal''-He further
urged that an attempt to make seeded
State fulfill her Federal obligations "would
be iPso tacto, an expulsion of such States
to the Union" (The very sophistries which
we hear every day from the Democrats Of
1862
~. During that memorable winter
Democratic Conventions were held in sew
eral States-that in this State (held in
Tweedle Hall, Albany, Jan. 81, 1861 be
ing one of the abIest and the strongest that
was ever convened. But from none ofthese
Conventions, nor from the Democrats in
Congress, nor from the thousand to fifteen
hundred Democratic journals published in
the country was voice raised IN depreCa-
ton of, or dissent from, these disorganizing
doctrines. On the contrary, they were
generally re-echoed and almost universally
acquiesced in.
V. Seven States having secceded before
Mr.. Buchanau's term expired, their Demo
cratic members vacated their seats in Con
gress, with very rare exceptions. Of their
few anti-Democratic members, nearly or
quite every one remained to the close.
VI. Mr.. Lincoln was inaugurated on the
4th of March, 1861 and his Inaugural Ad-
dress was mainly devoted to the inculcation
of doctrines regarding Secession and Co
ercion, the exact opposites OF Messrs Buch
anan and Blacks. Mr.. Lincoln was well
known to hold (as we did and do) the
right of the people to modify or change
their form of government as concerning all
written constitutions or charters; but he
with great clearness and cogency, yet in
perfect kindness, demonstrated that Presi-
dent must, to the utmost limit Of his abil-
itv, cause the laws of the Union to be re-
spected and obeyed in every State and Ter
ritory-that, should collision of forces re-
suit, his position would be richly defen
sive and conservatiye-that the consequent
war would be made upon him, net by him.
Never was manifesto more firm and Iu-
! cid never wss one less irritatino, Either
its doctrines were sound, or any State
might at any time dissolve the Union.
Yet, of the FIVE hundred Democratic jour
nails within our reach, We believe no single
one approved and sustained the positions
of Mr.. Lincoln. -