Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1867-07-05

I While endeayOring to extend to the
II negro. in Justice TO him and for reasons
of public policy and peace, our system
Of self-prOtection, it is natural that we
should offend certain pref udtces and an
tlpathles, the results OF the wrongs the
I white race has inflicted on the black,
/ I'VE generally dislike those whom we
iniure - is an old saying verified by
the Democratic party in this case. Butt
] if anything distinguishes our people,
it is the facility with which they over
1 come obsolete pref udices. Look back
I at our short history, and you viii be-
I hold with astOnishment how many
preiudices and popular errors we have
/ overcome. We have overcome the mis-
taken belief in the necessity of State
church, a prejudice from which Euro
pean nations are not yet emanclpateu.
We have overcome the time-honOred
prejudice in favor Of hereditary arls-
/ bOcracles, We have overcome that mean
I relic of barbarism-the prejudice
! against JeWs-Which disgraced Europe
/ an civilization for so many centuries.
/ We have overcome that prejudice and
timidi6y with which during the war, we
! approached the first steps toward eman-
| cipation. We have overcome the pref
/ udice against negro soldiers, so deX-
/ terousIY famed and stimulated by the
1 Democratic party.
Now if YOU consider how little time,
/ comparatively, it took to overcome each
/ of the preiudices I have referred to,
/ you will agree with me when say de
! liberately that the policy OF people
1 like ours cannot permanently be guided
I by a prejudice. Preiudiees may gain a
/ temporary hold on the public mind
] They may temporarily sweep every
] thing before them and 'tstrut and fret
/ their hour on thestage," P" but You cannot
/ engrafE them upon our Government or
make them the basis for successful
| party organization. The sober second
] thought of our people viii always De
sure to sweep them away.
/ And herein, Mr.. Chairman, lies the car
I Clinal error of our opponents. The in
| stincts of our people are democratic,
/ Democratic ideas have ever sWaySd the
/ country. Our national existence was con-
| eeived in the spirit of Democracy and
/ Democracy stood watching over its era
] He. As long as the Democratic party
understood this it was successful. As
| long as it understood how to appeal to
| the democratic instincts of the masses,
I it almost invariably carried the day,
! and governed the country almost with
out interruption. The moment it tuIn-
/ ed it's back on its. own fundamental
] DrfuciDIes. and openly and unequivO-
/ caIIv discarded the Declaration of In
/ dependanceth that great evangel Of Ameri-
1 can democracy, the doom OF the party
W as sealed. As long as it was possible
/ to cover up its apostacy, or to dodge the
/ real issue, the masses clung, with the
/ old affection. to the Democratic name,
! though the Democratic spirit had long
/ departed. To that lingering delusiOn,
/ Pierce and Buchanan owed their cleo
/ ton. But when perversiOn and eaui-
! vocation was no longer possible; when
| the party which the people had suppos-
/ ed to be the party Of equal rights, bold
4 lv unfurled the banner of slavery and
/ aristocraey; when it preached political
/ inedualitY, and encouraged treasons in
| order to defeat the very principle to
/ which it owed its origin and CORNER
/ power, its days were numbered and its
/ With incomprehensibIe blindness the
/ Democratic party, untaught by sad
/ experience, persists IN lJs suicidal
! course. At q time when democracy
/ and general acknowledgements seem to
i be the unmistakable drift of the age in
4 America as we'll as in Europe, the DEM
/ oeratie party wages an unrelenting war
/ on the very principle to which it owes
/ its birth. Instead of appealing to all
! chat is noble and generous in human
/ nafure-appeals which almost always
/ prove irresistibIe-it appeals to the
/ preiudices of the rabble and to the ha-
tired and passions of the vulgar and
vile. 1t has deserted its fundamental
1 principles. lit has placed itself in di-
/ rect antagOnism to the political history
/ and cherished traditions of our people.
/ It has placed itself in antagOnism to
the spirit of the age. 1t has placed it
self in antagOnism to its very name. It
has placed itself in antagOnism TO the
/ spirit of christianity, which teaches that
all men are the children of one Heav-
/ eulY Father, before whose throne OF
love and iusti se no distinctions are rec
ognized. 1t has placed itself in antag-
1 Onism to the religious as we'll as to the
/ political views and convictions of a great
| majority of the American people How
then, in the name of common sense, can
it ever expect to succeed?
I repeat, Mr.. President, the blindness
of the Democratic party is iucOmpre-
hensible. The warning voice of the
/ Chicago Times WIS raised IN vain. The
/ Democratic party persists IN course
/ which il must know to be fatal. Itper-
sists in opposing what it knows must
| come, and partly has come already. 1t
/ must know that impartial suffrage, as
/ matters now stand, is only a question OF
| time. Sooner or later twill come. The
Democratic party knows that it cannot
he prevented. Why, then, does it vain-
/ " try to stem the current which will
I sweep it aWay2 Why does it throw
itself under the wheels of the car the
( course of which cannot be arrested p
/ Why does It persist in saddltng itself
4 with the weakness and bearing the
odium of the most palpable incOnsist-
ency? Why, knowing the instincts OF
our peOple to be Democratic, does 1t
stake its all on the fruitless attempt TO
uphold an aristOcracy Of race Why
will it sacrifice its very existence by
persisting in its appeal to a prejudice
II which it knows to be rapidly wearing
away =? 1 can account for it only in
one way. It is the illusOry hope Of
temporary success that leads it-On to q
Il willful destruction of all its hopes and
expectations for the future. To the
vain hope of carrying a few local cleo
. In lon III n 81
its fundamental principles, its consist.
ency, and its only chance of partially
atOning for its dislOyal record during
the war. But, sir, after all ''it is mol
my funeral" on which I have beer
! commenting; and so I shall leave tbs
Democratic party to its fate. IL need
not make us sorry to see that our oppo'
uents are incurably blind. If the wick
ed were not occasionally struck with
want of foresight, this earth would be 6
very uncomfortable place for the
righteous.
Indeed, I cannot understand with
! what right our opponents still claim
J the name of Democrats. They are OPP
posed to every fundamental principle
: Of Democracy. They are opposed tt
/ equality before the law. They are op-
2 posed 10 the very theory on which oul
: government is based, and they hailed
and encouraged the blows that were
, struck at its very existence
The war being over, cOnulGiOns un
paralleled in their magnanimity, wer'
3 proposed by Congress to our defeated
adversaries. Negro Suffrage or Military
Reconstruction were not dreamed o
: then. The lives, the liberties, the prop
! erty, and even he feelings of the eX
. rebels were to be spared. Simple Sc
] curity for the future was to be exacted
. consisting Of civil rights to all classes
/, a Just basis of representation, a veal
3 and lenient censure of perjury, and q
f ! guaranty of the national, with repudia
' ton of the rebel debt Had the South
! erners accepted these conditions, they
2 would now be restored to almost thet
D former political power. The coustttu
- tional amendment would not hav
e worked any material social or politica
s. change. I6 was an offer, perhaps, dan
/ gerous for us to make. It was incOm
{ prehensible folly and blindness for tn
{ South to reject it. But the Democrat
= party was again at work. The serpen
r had again twisted herself around Eve
s Whispering poisonous council into he
r ear. Again the South was told to wal
g for a Democratic reaction in the North
a UHOld ont. % the serDent said, Huntu