The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-08-21
Peter Cooper on the Democracy.

PETER COOPER, Esq, lifelong Democrat and
for half century one of the leaders of that
party in the city of New York, has written
letter to Mr.. Horatio Seymour, which we pub
lished in THE EVENING TELEGRAPH of Wednes-
day, and which is we'll calculated to attract the
attention Of all of the thinking members of
that party. 1t is the declaration of an old
man who has been one of them, and in it he
takes bold grounds in his attacks on the party
with which he was wont to work. He accuses
the leaders of the falsely called Democratic
party of being anxious to establish an aris-
tocracy, and of being real enemies at heart to
the republican institutions of the United States.
He says
When l became convinced that the Demo.
cratic party, with which l hau been SO long
connected, was lending It's power anu influence
TO sustain men aud M assures that had 50 far
perverted the ConstIl u ion of our country as to
deny the rights of m an hund To 4 900 UCO of human
beings-and when saw hat was acting with
party which was lending its influence TO men
and measures hat were siug up in our coun-
Try the vitst form of an arIstucracy-an aris-
tocracy that claimed II as a right that property
should own labor" and C. aimed the right To
mix their blood with he black race, and tnen
sell their children TO be enslaved with all their
pOsteriiy, then L considered IL my duty to my
country to oabanoon party that had abandoned
the great principles of uurh and Justice.
MIR. Cooper does not content himself with
the mere assertion, that the tendency of the
Democracy is towards aristocraoy, but quotes
copiously from writers of renown, and from
the declarations of their own cherished leaders,
to show that they are all of them, in their
capacity of leaders of the party, seeking to
establish degenerate privileged class.
Having convicted them Of this attempt, and
mis- chac md
designs, Mr.. Cooper goes on to show how in
consistent the leader of the Democracy, Mr..
Johnson, has been in all his career. He
quotes his own words. In a compact form, he
gives us the utterances of Andrew Johnson
before he was friend and defender of traitors,
and by his own words he convcts him.
After grinding Mr.. Johnson to powder the
old gentleman turns his attention to Mr.. Sey-
meur's speeches and in very few sentences
shows how utterly fimsy are the arguments
10 which he resorted. He shows the unblush-
ing contradiction into which Mr.. Seymour wan
dered, and retutes the charges he made that
$500, 600, 900 had been expended "to uphold
a despotic military authority to crush out the
l,fe of the States" To the charge of invasion
of the rights of the South, Mr.. Cooper re-
plies:-
1t Is certain that our Government could
never stand In the presence OF such laws pre-
vailed throughout the Southern States before
the Rebellion; laws that made 1t q crime to
'upbind the neavy burden, and let the captive
go iree;" laws that MADE IL a crime to teach a
poor helpless slave to read and write, fearing
that a knowledge of the Declaration OF Inde-
pendence, that declares the inalienable right of
every man to his life, his liberty, and the pur-
| suit of happiness would make him unwilling
| longer to remain slave. To talk OF such a
| system and such laws as have prevailed at the
| South being democratic, ia TO talk of q living
| body without an animating spirit.
Mr.. Cooper, by his letter, has done good to
the cause. He knows of what he writes, and
the experience of nearly eighty years quail
fes him to speak and be listened to with atten-
ton and respect.