The Portland daily press., 1868-10-03
The Confesss0ns Of Cat0-~ Call for DEM
e Ucrapic L,terature. ..F

The old Cato committed suicide at Utica, II
history-a VIGOROUSLY unreliable species Vi
literature may be credited. The modern
CATO committed hari-kari in Portland, II the
Arpus-a uniformly mendacious journai-may
he lel;eved The modern "Cato"is frank to
fap1t- He saws in his communication to the
columns of our eighbor, that the late Dr.
Beecher and other clergymen years ago form
ed dark and desperate conspiracy in behalf
of the anti-slaverv cause. They did not EN-.
ploy assassination,or bribery, or fraud, or lies
In their great battles for freedom and emapci-
patton: By the confession of "Cato" they
orly employed newspapers, magazines, the
pulpit and the schools. They and their sue
cessnrs kept on with these horrible methods
TILL slavery is dead and the ownership of labor
by capital well-nIgh obsolete
Now" says Cato, in effect, Democrats
have never understood clearly the value of
the ,e Intermediates. We need something
that shall be to the Democracy what the AT
lam ic' and Harper are to Republicanism.-
We need Democratic literature. We need
Democratic poets, historians, elergymen, and
schools. We lack all these"
Cato, "thoureasonest wellr'--as well as Plato
himself. Your position is perfectly impregna-
BILE, dear man. We have had all the poets to
sing for us-Longfellow aud VIII tier and
Holmes and Mrs. Child and Miles O'Reilly and
Pierpont and Lowell and Emerson and Bay
ard Taylor aud thousand minor songsters. -
How could it be otherwise2 What inspira-
ton would such themes as This is a white
mans government" or DO you want your sis
70 n ma ,air I'D n m
per himself would be daunted, if required to
make his brick with such straw as that. OF all
the American poets, Sake alone is a steadfast
adherent of Democracy, and SAKE is a funny
fell"w whose Democracy is no doubt one OF
bis humorous caprces.
Yes, Cato" we have the literary men and
women On our side, the Boston transcendental-
lists and all. You have only c. Chauncy Burr
and Hilton Rowan Helper. whose capabiity
for literary effort has hitherto only displayed
itself in disquisitions upon shin bones aud
elongated heels. The Democracy undertook
abont the year 1868 to have an Atlantic" OF
their own. SO they started the 'Federalists, !"
but it soon died. 1t is well settled that the
democracy do not read The shrewder lead
ers of the party do not want their followers to
read, we'll knowing that it is the first step to-
ward Republcansm. .--
1t is somewhat remarkab but not at all sur
prising how incompatible facility in any de-
partment of literature is with Democracy. The
historian is not mole surely a Republican than
the humorist. Mast aud Nasty, both inimita-
Bile in their way have done good service in the
Republican cause.
Literature! why, look you Cato, you are sup.
piled already. We had forgotten, and so had
you. The Ii Crosse Democrat is the only
distiuctively Copperhead publication that ever
gained marked and unquestioned success
That has been and Is success, insomuch that
it is the ambition Of all the minor Democratic
journals in the county to initiate it. Shame
upon you!-holding such wicked doctrines in
the brold MONDAY of the nineteenth century
that you can OILY teach them by the hideuus
wood CUTS of the Belfast Journal and the Bid
deford ID imocrat-doctrines so vile that no
god, or muse viii help you so atrocious that
you have arrayed the whole literary world
against you, except the sooty scullions in Min
ervi's kiteh en-, like Pomeroy, Burr, Pollard
and Helper. 49, 81 " -
Talk of procuring or making Democratic
literature! Itcan't be done. You can no
more have literature made to order than you
can religion. Truth, right, liberty and justice
m Ike literature. You may perhaps buy few
vernal pens to glorify iniquity, as Nero bought
Seneca and James Ii. bought Dryden but the
hand is paralyzed that prostitutes the sacred
office of author to such base uses.
Beworthy Of your name, Cato, and be con-
tented stole, like the Utica party Be content
with the La Crosse Democrat, the sporting
papers and the bawdy books which now make
mp the whole catalogue Of Democratic litera-
ture." A SIN Ill volume of funeral sermons and
obituary notices will soon make the catalogue
complete. g.H 4 81. Ria ata