Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-07-30

Imperial Republic;1 which in the judg
ment of the wisest and best statesmen
of America, from the beginning, car
here be but another name for a military
despotism. 70 secure this object they
began by denying and usurping the just
Constitutional reserved rights of the
States. Next they assumed absolute
power to exist in time of war in the
President, whom they designated "the
Goyernment;'' and when afterwards they
quarreled with the Executive they strip
ped him of every accustomed and even
OF very many of his clearly Constitu-
tlonal perogatiyes; and fnall y sought, by
gross abuse of the power of impeach.
ment, to remove him from an Office to
which little remained except the title
and emolument. And when the SUI
Preme Court stood in their way they be-
gan, by hostile. Legislation, to circum-
scribe and cripple its rightful rjurisdic-
tion, and to bring, it. into contempt with
the people by bitter and venomous de.
nunciatien of its, Chief Justice, -
Upon the other hand, the Democratic
party insists, in the language of 7Jeffer-
/ son, on Ythe support of the State Gov
ern%ments % in all their rights as the most
competent administrations of our domes.
tic concerns and the sLrest bulwarks
against anti-Republican tendencies; and
the preservation of the General Govern.
ment in its whole Constitutional yigor
as the sheet-anchor of our peace at home
and safety abroad" 81. 81 ---.,sT 49,.
q As to policies or ideas, the two parties
differ fundamentally in this: the basis Of
the present Republican organization is
bigotry, hate and revenge. 1t tolerates
no differences of opinion. 1t twould for.
ever fan and keep alive the flames OF
that civil war which for four long and
weary years scorched the hearts and
desolated the homes of one-third of the
people of the United States. 1t would
cherish forever the hot passions and the
bitterness, and the feuds, and discords
which in our own midst arrayed neigh
Dor against neighbor, and wrought dis
sension and strife among those of the
same household. Itrefuses to forget the
vile epithets which found no apology,
even amid the fury of bloody conflict,
hnd glibly spits forth from its envenom-
ed lips, "rebel sympathizer, 'butternut,
copperhead and traitor" Protesting a
religion which is founded on eternal
Eove, it yet builds itself up on immortal
hate. Invoking mercy and forgiveness
from the God of heaven, it denies all
pardon or grace to fellow-men on earth
But do these, our enemies, realize that
they themselves are the very children Of
political wrath? Have they forgotten
the accumulated wrongs and outrages
which they heaped upon our heads-the
denunciations, the calumnies, the espoin-
age, the mobbings, the arrests, the i'm.
prisonments, the exile and the murder
and assassination which we, their fel
low-citizens, suffered at their hands2 II
is we, too, who have wrongs to forgive
or to avenge. 1t is we who might Shut
the gates of mercy upon them and de-
mand a fiery and consuming retribution
Animated by their own relentless spirit
I, too, might well exclaim: -
"a plague upon theml Wherefore should / ours.
Would curses kill. as doth the mandrake's groan,
! would invent as bitteE-sesEching terms. =,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
Ny tongue should stumble in mine earnest words;
Nine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
My hair be fixed on end like one distract: sryV
Ay. every joint should seem to curse and bau."
But, gentlemen, if such is to be the
spirit of our political controversies for.
ever; if there is to be no truce to oul
passions; if the past is never to- be for.
gotten nor forgiven; if the dead carcass
of civil war, with all its engendered
griefs and wrongs and hates, is not some.
time to be buried out of sight, ther
welcome the fierce waters of the deluge
in which perished the ante-diluvian
world; thrice welcome, the fire from
heaven which smote and consumed Sod
ON and Gormorrah, SO that in Gods
Providence a new and a wiser and q
better race, worthier of their noble her
itage, may repopulate this North Ameri
can continent. --- s-........
.a1 THE WAY TO PEACE. r7H-
Depend upon it, gentlemen, no party
whose only cementing elements is a
sympathy of hatred, can ever be per-
manent in power, or even in existence.
With large multitudes of men, this
spirit of hate was the controlling motive
throughout the late civil war, and has
continued to govern them at every step
in their efforts at reconstruction. But
with smaller, yet far more dangerous
class of politicians, the sole aim for the
last three years has been the perpetua.
tion of Republican rule, through the ne.
groes of the South. To this basest OF
motives and purposes. the public good
and the pacifcation of the country have
been steadily sacrificed; and, worse vet
all constitutional limitation altogether
disregarded. Signally defeated in theil
efforts to establish negro suffrage and
equality in the North and West, they
have now impudently in their platform
proclaimed that here each State shall
regulate suffrage for itself, while at the
South the elective franchise shall be de-
termined by the Congress of the United
States. Acting upon the double motive
of hate and the desire to maintain par
tisan supremacy, they have disfranchis-
ed a large majority of the white popula-
ton of the Southern States, and confer
red upon the enegroes, by act of Congress,
the right to vote; and then at the point
of the bayonet, have proceeded to estab-
lishseve State Governments, controlled
by negroes or white adventurers mean
er than they-mere sojourners, birds OF
passage, and very foul birds at that; and
have gone through the farce of admit
ting them into the Union and to the right
of representation in the Senate and the
House, and full vote in the Electoral
College for President, In this manner,
gentlemen, they expect to control the
legislation and the elections Of the