The Union flag. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1865-187?, 1868-08-14
@The SItuanOn.y

Int pItuduOus
The history Of our country fails to furnish
a precedent, even within tie long period of
nipey-twO years, in which the great issues
presented to the &merieaRpeople have been
Of such a nomentous character, asihose now
agitating she public mind and to be decided
in November next.
The struggle is one foT a prime Of no less
character and Importance that the natiOn it,
self. The issues springiug out Of the late
rebellion, are such as were never presented to
any people before. The country is divided
into two great political parties; the Republi-
can and Democratic ~(so-caIled) In the one
are to be found those who aided aud assisted
in putting down rebellion, and crushing out
treason those whose patriotism prompted
them to be ever ready and willing tog 20 where
duty called, and the good of the nation re-
quired them and Of such were the three
hundred thousand, who to-day sleep in the
cold and silent grave Of death, who gave
themselves as a sacrifice upon the altar oftheir
country, for its preservation. Long may their
deeds and their noble death be treasured in
the memory Of a grateful people,
On the other hand, we find a party comPosd
of the odds and ends of all parties, a motley
crew, a conglomerated mass consisting Of
the bloody-banded traitor, whose deeds of
damnable infamy and treason will stamp him
in all future history as one deserving to suf-
fer the extreme penalty of a violated law,
but through the l%eniency of a Republican
government, was suffered to escape.
Then comes what is familiarity called the
Northern Copperhead, a man whose conduct
was characterized during the late rebellion,
by opposition to the government, resisting
the draft, refusing to take the government
bonds, or loan it money, applying the cpl
tibet " unconstitutional" in its great effort to
the rebellion. These men constituted
. the enemy in the rear" Then we find
class known as Conservatives men
who were once Union men, but are now will
.ng to compromise principles for position,
or Office, Cor peace and power, These meR
ire new lights, the late issue they were as
litter and uncompromising as any were to
,e found, at the close of the war, they were
Oud in their derunciations against Rebels
now the scene is changed, they take them
o their bosom, make them confidential
both socially and politically. This
lass, as a general thing, consist of men who
I'D no fighting, was never in front, but on
he contrary. occupied a respectable distance
the rear, now they are the fuss
nd feathers of their party. But to recapit-
late the material Of which the Democratic
arty is composed; the Seymour and Blair
arty, ii. is only necessary to say that the
generally in the Southern States, ev-
ry CopPerhead in the Northern States, every
ouuty-jumper, every %rioter, all the murder
RS in Memphis and New Orleans connected
'i:h the late riots in those cities, ninety-nine
ut of every hundred Of the officers and pri-
ates in the la.e rebel army, MS well as the
lidnigbt assassins, who roam over the coun-
y from place to place, dragging poor inof-
,nsiye negroes from their beds and whipping
nd otherwise naltreating them, This class
eight in calling themselves members of the
IA Klux Khan, the very name of which is in-
of a eordrd, assassin, and murderer.
he one, the Democratic, is the rule or ruin
aSty the party that inaugurated the late
eb%ellion, simply because it could not rule
he country. The other is the party that
Aved the county from anarchy, ruin and de-
; that carried it safely through the
reat fiery ordeal Of death.
General Grant, the candidate of the Repub-
can party for President, is the great repre-
e~neative Of the American patriotism,
man in whom is ceutered al the glorious
eeOllectiOns Of a mighty past aud whose
anne will follow the stream Of time, down to
he remote generations, which shall live upon
be earth a name entwined with that Of
Washington the Father Of his country, and
him 10 be inseparably connected until
shall be wound up in the great ocean OF
Let every Republican voter remem-
Ter that ttese great issues are with him to
isoide. Il is tOr bin to say whether the nA-
ion shall live il It's former glory and gran
Ieur, or shall die at the hands Of its t~uaison's
oeA