Litchfield enquirer., 1868-08-13
THE RECORD OF DEMOCRACY,

What vista of infamy, what chronicle ef shame. what black prophecy of dis grace, this title suggests! What 1s haS done" It declared war against Mexico, for the purpose of extend ing the vilest system of oppression that lnooefn times have known. It first pallia- tea' then defended, then eulogised, then 'rleu to perpetuate forever, the slavery of an unottend1ng race. It made laws to 1 force every Northern citizen to bnnt +be fugitive from cruel taskmasters and TO. morseless hbertines. It threw open the national treasury to pay commissioners to return the slaves; and sought to bribe them Go do the Infamous deed by offering them higher pay than they would receive if the victim were set free. It silenced the free
 pulpit, manacled the free press. crushed out liberty Of speech, and debauched the
 pubic conscience of fifteen states. It sought to ostracise every man and every woman who, in the Free States, had the courage to declare that oppression was sln against God and the neighbor and fla grant violation of our avowed national creed: It first made the Missouri Com pfomlse, to gain position from which to lnperll freedom; and then remorselessly repealed it, when it's object had been gained Ill order to advance to other unholy tri- umphs. It waged war of assassins against the peaceful settlers of Kansas, and strew- ed the virgin prairies with the corpses of Northern men, whose only crime crime Was that they preferred freedom to oond'sge It threw printing presses into the river; it desocrated the ballot-box; it recognized a legislature elected by a law
 on Woman a cqpa@tedd a @eaakteed fBrrr22 Ing villages, and gave hundreds of humble homes to the torch of the marauder. It massacred Northern men by the hundred Ill the Southern States, because they were suspected ot being true to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. 1t rem dered the residence of Northern men of Northern principles in more than half of the territory impossible. It established a rel9n ot terror wherever it had the power It threatened to reopen the African slave trade Batfied in its last effort to elect president "Democracy" flew to arms and dehed the majesty of the nation. F.r dis patching our navy to distant stations aud scattering our army, it seized our forts and custom-houses wherever it could overpower the national forces, and then unfurled the bloody standard of rebellion. It carried on CnaJ War with an atrocity of cruelty Whlch no civilized nation of modern times ever rlvaled. It starved our heroic soldiers lhto ldlocy and the grave, it shot them down Tn cold blood on the faintest pretexts 1t made ornaments of their bones for the necks ot Southern women. A million of men lie In untimely graves to-day-the ghastly testimonies of what Democracy has done. This was the work of Democracy unCfammeled. In the Northern States where It was checked and subordinate, it opposed every effort to suppress rebel non; It rloted; 1t burned down orphan homes; 1t slaughtered the police; it defam- ed every conspicuous soldier of the nation: It sanctioned and applauded every attempt to undermine and destroy our credit; and crownlng lnfamy of all, after it was put under loot and disarmed, it lodged an as- sasslns bullet in the brain of Abraham Lin coin; This IS faint and shadowy outline of what ''Democracy has done.
 " Vhm H IS doing." It is endeavoring to create public opinion which shall insist on the repudiation of the public debt: which shall annul the benefits derived from the war; which shall put the national wards ln the power of their enemies; which shall again reinstate the rebels against the na- tlonal authority in the highest offices; which shall revoke the laws and proclama- tons which have made our banner illustri- ous; which shall take down the statues of Lincoln and Grant from the American Pan theon, and replace them with those of John son and Davis.
 "What 1 aoiH do." It will falsify our rec- ord. islander our champions, threaten to renew the rebellion, and on the fourth of March next it will adopt the old advice of Andrew Johnson, it's present patron un- saint, and take a back seat in the work of reconstruction.
 This, briefly stated, is what Democracy has done, is doing. and will do.''