The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-08-23
why the Democratic Party opposes
the RecoustructIon OF tue South.

Inc real nOSilllly Vi lhS OeAhOSlahiN
party to the Congressional scheme OF
reconstruction, arises from the fact
that that scheme at once and forever
breaks mp the old status of Southern
unity, by virtue OF which the Demo
cratic party was SO long enabled to DOM
ineer over the country. In the days
! before the war, slavery was the bond of
union which held the South politically
| together as unit. 1t was the vast
moneyed and social interest, which
stood as the one great centre around
which Southern life Ievolyed. Politics
had no other meaning and end to the
Southern people than to preserve, pro-
mote and strengthen this institution.
It as the source of their wealth, the
minister to their pride, the support to
their luxury-in a word, the one great
and oversbadowing interest of their
| social life and being. The South, thus
arrayed as a unit, chose the Democratic
! party as its organ through which
to- act. The problem Of ruling
the country was simple enough. 1t WAS
consolidated South, reinforced by a
divided North. The Democratic party
went into our national elections with
almost;tte certainty of carrying every
Southern State to start with. 1t only
needed one or two Northern States to
make the victory complete. But one
thing was required of their Northern
allies, and that was, fealty to the slave
power. The result was political com
bination of Exceeding strength, and one
which dominated the country almost
without interruption from the close OF
y Il Il - IFT,an 80
| the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln.
During all this time the slave power
really constituted the Democratic par
ty. The Northern wing supported the
slave power, because the slave power,
by its unity, enabled the party 10 OBJ
tain and hold political control of the
country. Van Buren,, Pierce, Fillmore,
and Buchanan were AS subservient to
the benesIs of that power as any slave
holder could have been.
When the rebellion came, 1t was re.
ally Il rebellion of the Democratic
party. Its leaders were th great lead
ers of the Democratic party-the men
who for wears had controlled its nom
nations, filled its offices, and dictated
its policy. The secret OF the support of
the rebellion by our Northern Demo-
Gratis, commonly d"COpperheads,"
was that they suw in the downfall of
the slave power the overthrow of that
abled the Demo cratic party to rule the
country. The Woods, the Vallandig
hams, the Seymours, the Blacks, and
that class of politicians, saw that the
logical result of II national triumph
must be the destruction ofslavery, and
with it the downfall OF the Democratic
party. They sympathyzed with the
rebels, therefore, not because they loved
the country less, but their party more.
The loss of political p0lrer was TO them
"a thing to be avoided ut all hazards.
And this explains why these men were
so anxious during the war that slavery
should not be touched. They clung to
the hopethat somehow peace might he
reached and slavery saved. So long as
that institution should remain, the
bond of Southern unity would hold,
and the Democratic party might hope
once more for power.
we have in this the whole secret OF
that peculiar phase of our politics
during the war which took the express
sivenumc of "COpperheadism." II was
simply Democratic partiGanship rising
above all tIe demands of patriotism,
and vainly striving amid the general
upheaval 10 hold on 10 the elements OF
previous political power. The personal
debaSement involved in this position
must be ascribed to years of unEnanly
and degrading subserviencY to the
slave power. and which had well-nigh
ODllteFhleu III IN6 LlluuS vi lLlS GIdSS VI
politicians all perceptions OF moral
right and all instincts of true patriot
ism. The laws of the moral univel Sc
are inexOrable. Men cannot for years
worship fraud and violence and iujus-
tice, and at the same time preserve
love of liberty and supreme devotion
to country.
When the war was over the Demo-
cratic party at once sought to establish,
but on new basis, its old relations.
Slavery, IL is true, was dead, but the
rebellion itself had proved bond of
Southern union equally powerful. The
first step to be taken, therefore, was to
restore the rebellious members of the
slaYe oligarchy TO political power in
the South, TO make them the State, TO
the exclusion ofthe new elements which
the abolition of slavery had introduced
into the body polite, and by thus estab-
fishing an dIiStOcTdcy in every Southern
State, to still have one dominant and
controlling interest that atwould hold the
South together in sectional opposition
to the rest of the nation. This was the
essence OF President Juhnson's policy.
He attempted to create re6et di'IStoc-
rdcy out of the slave oligarchy-an ar
istocracy which would be held in unity
both by the memory OF its past triumphs
and struggles, and by its present eXclu-
sive rights and privileges in the midst
OF nominal publiCanism. Each State
Government, hS IL WIS TeOT8hnlEeut WIS
to be placed in the hands of the old
Democratic leaders, the States were at
once to be admitted to the Union, and
the old game of politics., united and
consolidated South against n divided
North, was once more to beinRugura-
ted. Had Mr.. johnson been allowed to
proceed unchecked, there is no doubt
that in the coming Presidential election
| of 1865, the Democratic party could
have counted with moral certainty
upon carrying every one of the late
rebel States for Its candidate. This
was President Johnson's object, proba-
bly, hoping, and not unreasonably, to
be that candidate himself. The pre-
tense that he made of being personally
! in favor of allowing the colored citizens
OF the South TO vote, but that II WAS
matter exclusively under the control OF
the old laws of the rebel States, was a
mere blind. He knew very we'll that
they tpouLd not be allowed TO vote under
those laws, and that the very essence of
his scheme of reconstruction was that
they should not vote.
Now the Congressional plan of re-
construction at once lays the axe mt
| the root of this whole scheme of sub
/ stituting Rebel nristocracy for the old
slave oligarony as the basis of South
ern unity, and through it of the return
of sham Democracy to power. The
| Congressional plan reorganlzes the
/ rights. 1t recognizes all the people as
| fuses to establish class institutions, or
| to put power into the hands OF an aris-
| tocracy. 1t says these people are all
! ojti1 onu of Tho TIuitn1 States and the