The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-08-08
Sham Democracy in Pennsylvania.


who, during our recent great war, sympa-
thized with the Rebels, who resisted all the
war measures adopted by the Government,
who preferred the dissolution of the Union to
the suppression of the Rebellion, who rejeiced
over Rebel victories and mourned over Rebel
defeats; in a word, those who are best known
and described as "Copperheads." The other
element is composed of those who may be
termed War Democrats, those who were
loyal to the Government, but who have still
clung to the Democratic organization. 1t is
needless to state that the Copperhead element
Is the dominant one. 1t completely controls
the organization of the party, names its candi-
dates, and dictates its platforms. We can see
no indication that the War Democrats exert
even restraining influence upon the public
course of the party. They give it their votes,
but they neither shape its policy nor receive
its Offices.
There are sufficient reasons why the Demo
cratic party of this State should be so
thoroughly and violently of the Copperhead
order. Nowhere else in the North was the
Democracy so completely debauched by pro-
slavery doctrines, so cringing and abject in its
selfimposed servitude to the slave power, as
In Pennsylvania. In New York a large por-
ton of the party-the entire "Barnburner"
wing, as it used to be called-had imbibed
good degree of Northern tone and spirit from
such leaders as silas Wright, the Van Burens,
and others. Throughout the West Douglas
was the master-spirit of the party, and when
he finally broke with the slave power, emanci-
pated the best portion of his followers. In
New England the Democracy was in hopeless
minority, but had been educated up to some
thing of manliness and independence by the
very atmosphere of RepHblicanism in which it
lived. But in Pennsylvania, under the lead
Of James Buchanan, the Democratic party had
become the merest tool in the hands Of the
slave oligarchy. 1t had no higher ambition
than to wear the collar and do the bidding of
the naughty slave lords of the South. 1t had
lost all spirit, all independence, all manliness,
all devotion to principle, and, as the event has
proved, all patriotism and loyalty also. In the
election of 1860, while the lion-hearted Douglas
carried with him the masses Of the Democratic
party throughout the North and West gene
rally, in Pennsylvania he received but a hand
full of votes, the greater portion of the party
going it blind for Breckenridge on his ultra
proslavery and State-sovereignty platform.
When the final breach came, therefore, it
found the Democracy of Pennsylvania utterly
and completely demoralized. Poor old imbe-
cle Buchanan, sitting still and letting the seces-
sionists have their WILL was its appropriate
fgure-head. There was not loyal life enough
in the party to get up healthy reaction. 1t
had been drugged and stupefed by pro-slavery
narcotics until it was past recovery. 1t saw
nothing in the country worth saving excep.
the aocursed institution of slavery-nothing
worthy of loyalty except its old master, the
slave power.
1t learned nothing by the progress of the
war. The sight of the dear old flag borne on
q hundred battle-felds, and consecrated by the
blood of thousands of brave men, awakened
in it no emotions. 1t absolutely went into the
contest of 1868, with Judge Woodward as it,
candidate for Governor onthe issue that slavery
was morally right!
And thus it has fought the great revolution
at every step. To-day, if its leaders could
have their Wag they would put everything
back where it was in 1861. They would re-
joiee at nothing so much as to see the old
slave power once more dominant in this coun-
try. While all the rest of the world is look
ing forward, and advancing towards the light,
the Democracy of Pennsylvania is looking
backward towards the dark ages. Retrogres-
sion is its watchword. nIliberal, bigoted, OBJ
stinate, unreasoning, it has no sympathy with
the advancement, the hberality, the culture of
the age. The old virus of pro-slaveryism is in
its bones, and will never come out.
We submit that it is high time for the ele-
ment which we have called the War Demo
Gratis to cut loose from this body of living
death. They have vastly more in common
with the Republicans than they have with
these Copperheads. Aman may sometimes dc
more good by staying in his party, and at
tempting to correct its errors and elevate it'
tone, than he can by fOrsaking it; but in such
a case as this, where folly and falsehood have
become chronic, where the evil is so strOnl
and the good so weak, where the whole tend
ency of the organization is downward, every
honest, liberal-minded lover Of republican in
stitutions should at once fOrsake it. Gran
that the Republican party has its errors o
doctrine or policy, yet its whole tendency i
liberal. towards the elevation Of the masses, tn
e e.u..1., r;oI,ts and nrivi1aoas AM