The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-06-20
Gen. Longstreet's Letter.

for the benefit of our friends of the Cop.
perhead persuasion, the able, eloquent
and interesting letter Of Gen. Longstreet.
There is no disputing the Generals right
to talk-no disputing the genuineness of
his Democracy, and, therefore, Democrats
should read everything emanating from
his pen, and ponder well over his sugges
tlons before rejecting them. What the
leading Democrats of the North promised
to do before the rebellion, in aid of their
Southern brethren, the General did during
the rebellion. He fought and suffered
in the contest waged for the destruction
of the Government, and for the erection
over its ashes of slaveo ocracy, = and
fought to the last, long after he discover
ed the treachery of the Northern part Of
his political compeers, and long after he
was satisfied that the idea of a Southern
Confederacy was irrevocably exploded
He was whipped, most emphatically whip
ped; and, having submitted his supposed
wrongs to the arbitrament of the sword, as
an honest man, and real hero, he quietly
yields to the situaton-acknowle wledges his
wrongs, under the decision of the highest
known law-the law of victory-to be in
reality all the rights he has even rea-
sonable right to expect
The leaders of Democracy. somehow,
fail to see things as they really are, and
as Gen. Longstreet from his moro exalted
stand point sees them plainly. They en-
dured no suffering, save that possibly at
tendant upon an absence from home,
while peregrinatiug in Canada, to avoid a
draft, or hunting up Doctors certificates
for the same purpose-or that. growing
out of a sparse larder, superinduced by
the raising of means to pay communication
or hire substitutes. They endured no
bloodletting, no wounds, no fatigues OF
the march, no fevers of the camp, none
of the evils of a scanty camp commissariat,
either for the salvation or the destruction
of the Government-nothi save, posi-
bly,, short sojourn in Fort Lafayette or
Fort Warren; while they really enjoyed
with impunity the decrying of the North
ern arms, and, in more ways than one, the
manner in which they clogged the wheels
on1 L. 1 =.
fort to its enthusiastically, treacherous
ly, despicably. Not SO with General
Longstreet. Openly he drew his sword
and manfully he welded it, even though
in bad cause; and, with his men, on the
march, on the battle field or in the camp,
he suffered all the priyations incident to
soldiers life.
The close Of the war found the leaders
of the Democracy North, in better trim, in
pecuniary aspect, than they we're at its
commencement. Speculation and pecula-
ton had enriched them, and they were,
in every respect, better off in this worlds
goods, and without an iota of their politi
cal status harmed. The close of the war
found Gen. Lopgstreet ruined in fortune,
ruined in political standing, disfranchiscd
and below his former slave in the scale
of political manhood-ruined, in short, in
everything, save that nice sense of honor
which impels him to acknowledge him
self whipped, and to accept, cheerfully,
that position among his fellew. men, which
the victors in the great struggle have as
signed him. How marked the contrast,
between this type of real Democracy,
and those anti-types of even the first ap-
proach to Democracy. The former de-
sires to heal the wounds of rebellion by
submitting to the law of the sword, and
by laboring earnestly to uproot discord
secure unity and extend the area Of broth
erly love, and to bring our beloved coun-
try to point of greater perfection that it
has yet been blessed with. The latter
only see partizan life and the prospect OF
partizan success in continued agitation
and strife, and labor only to secure that
end, without thought or desire for our
country's future.
Gen. Longstreet is not alone in his
views. The most radical of his cotempo.
rary confederates are, to man, with him
in his sentiments, and especially the senti-
ment that country is before party, and
that, OF all parties in the country, the
Democratic party is least worthy Of the
confidence of honorable men. They all.
with one accord, accept the situation as
they find it, and are prepared, by the
trials through which they have passed,
RI riald n haarfy TO Ill ~.