Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1868-04-04
From the San Francisco Times
The Two Parties.

If Uhypocrisy is the tribute which vice pays
to virtue" what tribute do The Democratic
writer's and speakers of the present time pay to
the principles of the party which they hate with
such deadly and undying hate. Should one,
knowing nothing of our politics save that
there had been a great war, in which one
set of men had tried by every means In their
power to destroy the Union, and another set of
men had succeeded in preserving 1t, land upon
our shores, and con6ne his reading to Demo-
cratic papers, be would infallibly conclude that
the party for which they spoke was the one
which had carried on the war to maintain the
integrity of the nation and that those whom
they stigmatzed as Radicals were the men who
had been foiled in their intent to destroy it.
Such prating of constitutional liberty, such pro-
fessons of love for &C the Union of our fathers,
such generation for the fundamental law, could
not. he would surely think, proceed from men
who attempted to found Government upon the
cornerstone of human slavery, who deluged a
continent in blood in the effort to destroy the
Union, and who spit upon the flag and trampled
the constitution under foot, until they were COM
pelled by sheer force of bullets and bayonets to
respect the one and obey the other. And, in
truth, one who remembers the history of the
country for the last eight years, is forced to rub
his ewes when Fernando Wood addresses the
House in defense of the Constitution and We'll
Ter harangues the rebels of New Orleans upon
the loneliness of the Union of our fathers and
the Examiner shreks that liberty is being stifed
by a Radical Congress. Truly, times have
changed wonderfully, that the Union and the
Constitution and republican liberty find such de-
tenders as these.
But. in fact, there have been no conversions,
save of a few of the men who, after battling
bravely for what they honestly believed to be
their rights, have laid down their arms in good
faith, and are willing to accept the decision of
the war The devil has merely taken on the
garb of an angel of light, the better to effect his
purposes the men who now pirate OF the Consti-
tuition the Union, and civil liberty, are still-if
they have lost the hope of destroying all three
animated by the desire and purpose of wrestling
the first two to the destruction of the third.
They have been beaten in their attempt to de-
stroy the Union, and now their purpose is to
control the Union.
If any one is in danger of being misled by the
representations of these Democratic demagogues,
let him test their professions by their actions.
Is there anything which is calculated to restore
the supremacy of men who hate the Union and
punish those who love it, which the Democratic
party does not support? Is there anything nee
essary to secure the victory which loyal men
won in the field which the Democratic party
does not oppose? In the coming campaign the
lines will be drawn as clearly and distinctly as
they were before Richmond, or when our armies
faced each other in the West. On the Demo-
cratic side will be found every man who, in the
North or in the South, by force or by fraud, aid
ed or abetted the attempt to rend the Union and
establish the Confederacy; while in the Union
ranks will be found no man whose heart did not
beat true to his country from the time its flag
was first fred upon until it waved in triumph over
the last rebel fortress. If there is loyal man
who thinks he will find more congenial company
among these latser-day defenders of the Consti-
tuition and Union, who in their hearts hate both,
let him go. He will find in the Democratic party
the jailors of Andersonville and Belle Ise the
Thugs of New Orleans, the orphan asylum burn
ers of New York, the raiders and pirates, incen-
diaries and assassins-every one who hated the
Union and struggled openly or covertly for its
overthrow. If he can take his loyalty into such
company this, it is not, and never has been,
worth much.