The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1868-10-13
BRawssru1E Sent. %.


in view of the solid contributions made
to their ranks by the Radical speeches
delivered here on the 18th. Thanks
to the sagacity and discriminating intel
ligence of our citizens, they cannot be
ideluded by the empty parade of mean
ingless language used on that occasion, ,as
a substitute for argument, vigorously con-
forming, it is true, in idiomatic phraseol-
ogy with their masters at Washington !;
yet of the wrong venacular cast to meet
the appreciation of a moral community,
and of an invectiye too barbarous to
move conviction.
The speakers, Messrs. Wildes and
Dawes, who graced( p the cause of their
party on the occasion referred to, seem
ed peculiarly adapted for the discharge
of the duty imposed, that of invoking
the gods of their institutions, miscegena-
ton and taxation, on the Democratic
hosts ;who yield not the cardinal point
of faith in the former and who in the
latter still contend for the practical con-
: summation of the abstract principle
evolved in '76. Nature seems to have
labored in vain in the case of the first
named speaker for the production of a
man, the result being a miserable carrica
ture on humanity sort Of intellectual
centipede that has by his hybridism thus
far baffled all attempts at classification;
and the latter one is, by association and
training, all that could be desired by the
strictest adberent of his political school,
whose only claim to justice is total
disregard of all that is Just.
Both affect the title of General, whether
conferred or assumed we know not, but
from analogy weinfer the latter. If the
former is true, then evidently the COM
mission is devised for the consummation
of q work, for which none other could be
found !; as example, that Of compelling
wounded white soldiers to give their
places in an ambulance to able-bodied
blacks--a work in which men of charac-
ter would not engage. Coming, as they
publicly declared, prepared to answer
any questions that might be propounded,
and giving general invitation to par
ticipate in this respect, they utterly failed
to answer objections made by the Demo
cratic members of their audience, who
constituted one-half of those present. =
Being ready supplied through parti-
san source. with figures purporting to
come from the office of the County Au-
ditor,a comparison was instituted between
the administration of our county and
the General Government; but in con-
test so unequal, the result could not be
doubtful hence their failure. We will
. here observe to those who are designedly
obfvious that the Freedmen's Bureau, a
standing army, and a corps of useless
salaried officials, with their train of kin
dred institutions, being the result of eight
years incubation by the Radical party,
and thereby entailing yearly increase of
hundreds of millions to the public debt
are not recognized as of valid necessity
by the Democracy of Monroe County.
We do not propose to notice in detail
their speeches, and admit, without equiv
ocation, their efforts have fairly placed
them beyond the reach of criticism. 1t
is, however, worthy of remark that not
one word was spoken touching the ques-
tons of vital importance now before the
people No explanations of the past or
promises for the future The only fact
recognized by these devotees of Mars lin
totally ignoring their past party record
and the necessity of a speedy reform
was the force of the oldl proverb,
"a death-bed repentance seldom works a
restitution of crime" With a people
less characterized by the inherent love
Of liberty than the American; the vain
threat Of war, now the popular argument
Of the Radical party, might be sufficient
to intimidate from the chosen path of
patriotism; but already from the orient to
the occident, the people are rising in sub
lime abhorrence of the miserable failure
Of the party in power, demanding a
change, and if war is to stand in the way
Of that change, then will it become an
auxiliary in the consummation of the
very work it is now designed to thwart.
In conclusion we will only suggest
what is already appreciated and soon to
be verified by the people, that after the
Radical leaders have exhausted their Con-
gressional glossary of billingsgate, they
have yet work to perform, for the ac-
complishment of which no amount of
present shrinking will suffice, plea is
demanded in answer to the powerful in
dictment preferred by the peoples repre-
senfatives at New York. And that plea
must Unsupported by argument sufficient
to produce conviction in the minds of
their peers, otherwise they are "consign-
ed to the tomb of the Capulets." Dem
ocrats and Conservatives, che suspicious
moment is at hand when by united action
on your part will be secured the bles-
sings of those principles which for eight
years you have been denied. Remem-
Der the predictions of your great states
men and now observe their literal fulfil
ment; and be assured, in virtue of the
past, you cannot extend the prestige of
your franchise to man who has no re-
cord as statesman, but one of blood,
who openly defed the living and odtrag
ed the dead soldiers of the Republic by
his edict, which determined the de ath of
thousands of soldiers in loathesone
prisons; who publicly declares he has no
policy, but to become the willing and
plastic tool of Congress, ard such Con
gress as has been recreant to their oaths