The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-27
THE UNION LEAGUE.
THEIR ADDRESS TO THE VOTERS OF
THE STATE.

ulBnl'-
Fellow.citizens Again you are called to the
polls to defend the cause for which, since 1860,
you have shown your devotion in so many
sacrifices. o,,,,
down their arms aud acknowledged themselves
vanquished that the struggle was over, ana
that all for which you had fought was secured.
ask wmy snprI yeaaT are s
necessary to settle the questions which were
apparently decided forever at AppomattoS
Courthouse; and perhaps you fee dissatisfied
that the country has not subsidized into the
peaceful quiet so earnestly desired by all good
citizens. II so you have erred and still err IN
regarding the Rebellion as merely the move
ment of a few unquet spirits, who made
sklful use of slavery rs the means by which to
crafty the longlngs OF personal ambition.
The Rebellion was much more than this. 1t
was the struggle between two opposite systems
of society. On the one hand we're the traditions
OF feudalsm, OF caste, OF class privileges, the
reaction against modern thought and liberty,
which for three generations had moulded every
institution, and had trained the people to one
unyarying course OF thought. On the other
nand were the expansion of progress belief in
the dignity of labor faith in the liberty of
thought-in fine the absolute right of every
man TO reason tor himself and to carve out his
own destiny. That systems so antagonistic
should, sooner or later measure their strength
in deadly strife was inevitable.
Human slavery was the most prominent bull
wark of the Southern system, and it naturally
became the ostensible cause OF struggle. Natu-
rally, also it perished in the war which it had
provoked, because it was the most assallable
and least deiensible portion of the system.
When we marked the downfall OF that great
iniquity We shouted that our work was done,
for we mad given too little thought to all that
lay behind slavery, that had lostered it, and had
been fostered by it. Nor had we yet sounded to
its utmost depths the OasenGss of that faction,
falsely styling itself Democratic, which, crazel
with the lust OF Office, is ready to sell itself
into bondage again to the masters whose rule
had wrought such ruin to us all.
No, our work IS not yet done, nor will 1t be
done until Northern ideas shall have penetrated
throughout the South, and society there shall
have Reconstructed itself on the basis Of true
democracy. When Abraham Lincoln said that
the Uuited States could not remain half slave
and half free, he gave utterance only to por-
ton of a great truth. Our country must be
homogeneous. One section Of it cannot be
aristocrauc, nursing sedulously the exploded
because they labor for their daily bread, or
because they entertain ideas repugnant to the
dominant caste; while the other section honors
labor and the iaborer, admits of no distinction
between citizens, and grants the fullest tolera-
tion to every shade of opinion on every subject.
One section cannot set up the state as the sove-
reign object of its allegiance, while the other
admits OF no rival to the Union in its claims
upon the citizen. Yet now, that slavery is
legally dead, and secession has been nominally
renounced, these differences between the North
and the South exist as sharply as ever. Until
they shall be removed, political strife must con-
tinue as keen and eager as the strife lately
hushed on the bdttle-ielj. The result must
necessarily be that either Northern ideas must
conquer The South, as Northern arms have
already done, or that Southern ideas must .
compllsh what southern arms SO miserably
failed in attempting.
Enclosed as we are between two oceans, oc.
cupers forever OF the same land, this is the
struggle which is Sc. before us. We cannot
shirk it. We cannot shun the necessity which
is upon US. We may seek in cowardly mood to
shrink back from our appointed work, but we
shall merely postpone the IneVltaole, aud pro-
long the labor and suffering. 1t is only by
pressing forward resolutely, but prudently aud
wisely, TO do that which Providence has Or
daned US to do, that we can escape with the
least amount of toll and loss.
The burden of this work which lies before
lis has been immeasurably increased by the
selfish stolidity and short-slghted recklessnes3
OF the Democratic party. Even as in lo6o-6l
they invited their saveholding allies into
1uinous rebellion, so now, in the hope of a
temporary restoration to power, they are
sedulously urging those same allies TO resist
afrcsh the inevitable course OF events. FOR
gettul of the fearful record Of the past, will
fully dIsTegardiug the irresistible developments
of the future, they seek only to pander to
popular passion in the present, and rest their
hopes of success solely on their skill TO work
upon the meanest motives and prejudices of
their dupes.
We would not judge them harshly, for they
are our leloW-countrymen. That the masses of
the party are honestly wishing to do their duty
we dare not doubt, bat they have surrendered
themselves to leaders who make sport Of their
nOnCr ana sell Llem lOr Tue NllesI price IndI
ever ireemen were barganed for. Who is there
so hardened that his cheek did not tlngle with
shame when he learned that General Forrest, of
Tennessee; Forrest the negro trader, Forrest the
guerilla Forrest the butcher of Fort Pillow,
was Democratic delegate to a National Con-
yention assembled TO frame platform, and TO
select candidates for whom men of the North
are expected to vote? Yet abject as is thir
degradation, they succeeded in reaching fur.
ther depth, for this same Forrest was able to
boast publicly on his return that four-htths oi
the Northern Democrats whom he had met
apolog,zed TO him for having opposed the South
in her rebellion. When the Democratic party
thus entrusts itself wholly to men who abjurt
their manhood, is it 10 be wondered at If thIy
adopt set of principles dictated to them by
Wate Hampton, aud present for your sutlrages
men who are pledged to undo as far as possible
all that the war has accomplished, even at the
cost of another war! Or can we be surprised
that the South, finding such facile allies, shOulC
eagerly revert to its old ideas, and should striv,
TO MAKE those ideas permanently trium phant a
the guiding principles of the republic?
In this we do not blame the South, for South
ern men have been educated in the beliefs t
which they cling, and they, at least, are homes
in their faith. That they are struggling for ai
obsolete theory of society is their misfortune
and while duty to the country and to million
yet unborn cOmpels us to combat that theory q
destructive to the well being OF us all, yet 70
the men who couscientously uphold it W
would personally entertain none but the kindes
and most charitable feelings. 1t was the frs
act OF the Government, after the surrender
Lee and johnson, to feed the starving masse
of the Southern people, and that much maligne
Institution, the Freedmens Bureau, has cor
sistently dispensed its bounty without regard [
the loyalty Of the recipients. We have alWay
rejoiced in these facts, and il is our pride I
think that in all the movements TO relieve tn
wants of the South, without distinction of race
nnlitipnI Onin1On- since close