Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1867-08-08
What Democracy would do, if
in Power.


What Democracy would do, If
in Power.
1t is useless to disguise the fact,
that the Democratic party In all Sec
tions of the country are making most
vigorous exertions to regain their
old supremacy in national affairs,
and with some apparent degree Of
success. 1t becomes the people,
therefore, to consider well what
would be the result of the restora-
ton of the Democratic party to the
control of the Government. This
much, we can safely say that party
will do, if they get the power. They
will at once put an end to the system
of reconstruction inaugurated by
Congress, and admit the rebel States
back into the Union, without condi-
tions or restrictions of any kind
whatsoever. This they are bound to
do, if they are honest, for they now
constantly denounce that measure as
unconstitutional and base usurpa-
ton of power. They will not only
thus admit the rebel States, but they
will also repeal all laws imposing re-
strictions and disabilities upon indi-
vidual rebels, so that leading rebels,
as well as the masses, will be made
legal voters, eligible to the highest
Office in the land, and clothed with
power to make and administer the
laws of the land. Congress will be
opened to the very men, who, in 1861,
left it for the purpose of joining
grand rebellion against the Govern
ment. The men, who sought to
destroy the nation, who cost us
millions of treasure and thousands
of lives, who starved and murdered
our soldiers at Andersonville and
Libby; these men will become office
holders and lawmakers in the land.
Such will be the order of things un-
der Democratic regime. Nor will
they stop here. They will repeal
the Civil Rights Bill, the Freedmen's
Bureau Bill, and all legislation both
State and national, by which the
legal, civil rights of the black man
are now secured. We should then
behold the strange spectacle of four
millions of people, nominally free,
yet with no power to enforce their
rights as freemen in the courts OF
justice, with power to acquire prop
erty and make contracts, yet power
less to protect that property or en-
force those contracts, because the
courts are closed against them
That such a state of things could
long exist in the South without re-
sulting in war of determination be-
tween the races, is in the highest de-
gree improbable. Nor will they stop
here. They will violate the sacred
obligations which the nation ass umed
during the war, in order to raise
money to prosecute it. In a word,
they wiH repadiate the national debt
They can feel no binding obligation
to pay it, because if honest in their
declarations, they believe it was con-
tracted in an unconstitutional, aboli-
ton war against the rights of the
Southern people. They may deny it,
but reputation is part and parcel of
their policy. They have already
taken the first step in advocating the
violation of the contract by which
tuS ~. .. DOuOo dIC CAOIupb lIOm
taxation They mean reputation,
nothing more nor less.
Such are some of the inevitable
results that would follow the restora-
ton of the Democratic party to
power. Read their leading papers
and you wiltshire find cur state
ments confirmed. Allthis and more,
they intend to do, if they get the
power. If then there is any weak
brother in the Union party, who is
about to be frightened into the Dem
ocratic ranks, because .he can
not fully endorse all that Thad.
Stevens and Charlie Sumner may
happen to say or do in Congress, let
him look at this other side of the
picture, and estimate what he will
gain BY the exchange.
EE The cholera is still raging in
Che far west. At Forts Harker and