The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1869-07-16
0uestIons for DeTnOorats.


In bis speech at Columbus on the
evening after the Republican State
Convention, Gen, Garfield put the fol-
loving plain Ana pointed questions to
the Democrats present, which are just
as pertinent to al other members of
that party;
If there be Democrat in this great
crowd tonight l want to ask you a
question as an honest citizen of Ohio.
1t may be a question that you think
little impertinent, but I will venture 10
ask it, and ask it in good faith as one
citizen to another.
ask you, my Democratic friends, if
down in your heart tonight you are not
glad that your party has failed during
the past eight yesrs9a Laughter. =
Are you glad or are you sorry that
your party did not succeed in its doc
trines of 1901 You know, my fellow
citizens, that if you had succeeded the
Union would have been broken TO
atoms before now. Are you sorry or
are you glad of thatG Are you glad
we put down the rebellion, or are you
sorry9 In your soul, my fellow citi-
zens Democrats though you are, be-
heve you are glad tonight that your
party was beaten on that issue.
Take step further. When you re-
sisted the draft, do you wish you had |
been successful in breaking it downG |
Are you not, on the contrary, glad |
that the Republican party outvoted you |
on all these questionsG
Come down a step further. When
we proposed to pass the Constitutional
Amendment and abolish slavery thro'-
out the Republic, every man in your
party, as now organized, opposed it to
the bitter end. Are you glad or sor-
~ that you did not succeed? Are you
sorry that slavery is dead9 Down in
your soul l believe you are glad, and
therefore glad that your party was
beaten at the polls.
Take step further. When we pro-
posed to reconstruct the south on the
basis of liberty, you opposed us at
every step. Are you now glad that
you were not successful, or are you
sorry? Ebeliev0o on that subject, too,
you will rejoice by and by, if you do
not to-day rejoice with us, that you
were beaten and beaten by us.
Fellow-citizens, the Republican party
has had the proud distinction Of doing
q good work for its political enemies as 1
well as for ITSELF In all these years our I
triumphs have been your triumphs, my '
Democratic friend. Our successes have r
blessed you; your successes would have
cursed both you and US Do you know C
Of any other political party of whom '
his can be said? Consider this fact e
or moment; was there ever such a r
war as we fought? While the war b
was in progress, and l affirm it to-day, c
avery man that fought for the Union g
vas actually fighting for the South as b
veil as for the North, and l believe d
he time will come when these men of il
he South will thank God that their e.
athers were beaten in battle, and the D
light and the Union triumphed. It al
vas the only war in history where the b
uccess of one side was the Joy and N
,lOry Of all, and where the success of e.
he other side would have been the al
uin of both. se
Fellow citizens, this made our war, st
nd this makes our party a war and al
arty of high, moral issues, of issues n,
hat rise above the mere common, Al
very day strife of party politics and Of
fits it up into the clear atmosphere of tb
Ugh and noble and patriotic endeavor OF
and here to night, gathered in this SC
uiet place, under this beautiful sky, ar
nd beside this noble old structure that Al
e all love, let us rejoice together, and of
It us ask our Democratic neighbors to ~,
,joice with US over our victory which Of
i'll, by and by, be theirs. For they ov
iumph, in fact, by their defeat. Ap- vs.
Iause. y saa Is,# So