Litchfield enquirer., 1867-02-28
The Democratic Nominee.

The Democratic Nominee.
 The Democrats of this Congressional District have put in nomination MT. Will jam H. Barnum of Salisbury, a gentleman, as we are informed of great wealth, of great business capacity, of good private character, of @ far better war record than most Connecticut Democrats, and of great personal influence over the voters of his part of the County. The Democrats have, therefore, nominated man who may be expected to make good run, and who might fairly represent certain special in- terests; but he happens to be exactly the kind of man, and his interests happen to be the special interests which the Demo- cratic party are just now most bitterly de- nouncing.
 The great question between the Demo- cratic and Republican parties last fall- whether the disarmed Confederacy should be reconstructed upon its own terms or upon ours-has been conclusively decided. That, even MT. Johnson now feels; and so little interest do Democrats take in the matter. that the Sentinel, in it's last issue, confounded together the two most impor- tant Reconstruction bills before Congress, in e manner which showed conclusively no attention had been paid to the greatest parliamentary struggle of the session. The Democracy have ceased, in short, to rely upon their conservative merits, have come awkwardly forward in the garb of radical ism, and this is the issue they now pre- sent: Capital, say they, is now and ever the enemy of labor; it demands protection for manufactures, and thus wrings exorbi- tant gains from the poor mans necessi- ties; it requires so much hard manual la- Dor that the poor man has no time for any thing else; it further takes advantage of his condition to master that sword and shield of the poor man-his vote. These great wrongs, cry the Democratic journals and resolutions, we will redress.
 Such are Democratic acords-now what are their acts' Till lately. in one third of the United States, capital ossned labor against the bitterest opposition of the De- mocratic party we freed it. In that same section of the country the Democracy still maintain that labor should be kept depend ent-we are making it independent. In our own State they commence by nomina. ting for Governor, James B. English, a rep resentative man of the very class which they are proposing to attack by legislation. Then, in their strongest Congressional Dis trict, they nominate another great manu- facturer and employer, Julius Hotchkiss, 8 man who systematically takes his twelve hours of daily labor from each of his work men. Their browning piece of consisten- ey, however, is in this District. Had their professions been sincere, their nominee would have been man who was interested for the employed against the employer who opposed protective duties-who ha- ted any tampering with working -men's votes and, especially, who was free from the suspicion of such practices himself.
 They nominated, on the contrary, man of that most exacting class of protection ists, an iron manufacturer. He is, more- over. large employer, with works in ope- ration night and day, (run by t,oo relays of laborers, working t,0etrs hours each; not by Mres, working eight hours each)- just man, who pays his employees all he agrees, but knows how to get as much labor out of them as any employer; the last of all crea- ted men to convert into a soft-hearted. eight hour philanthropist But, above all, If what the Democracy tell us is true, that iaoorers' votes are not their own: if thev are indeed as sheep and their employers as wolves who consume not only tbe;r bodies but their souls-then that partv bas proved its sincerity by nominating the nusest' hungriest wolf in the District with sae. blood of last springs work vet red on nas jaws. and for the single reason that thev expect just such work from him again.
 We say. therefore, that the nom;na,;on of such man on such a platform ia not q, honest piece of work; and that when th. Democracy label their candidate, "A rem resentative man of those laborers who need protection against high tariffs, hard labor and interference with their votes" they set up more atrocious humbug than our nominee verhad the audacity to exhibit in his Museum.