The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1870-06-23
Radical Misrule.

ADVOCATE against the Administration,
In its issue of the 9th instant. The
Sentiaei labors, through an entire col
umn, to disprove our deductions from
Sen. Banks premises, which premises
he acknowledges to be true, but insists
that they do not prove our conclusions.
Well, there is one point of agreement,
ct least, between us--the truth OF Gen.
Banks utterances. Let US reproduce
these utterances to refresh the readers
memory. Gen. Banks, leading Re.
publican member of Congress, recently
made speech upon the decline Of
american commerce, in which he said /:
g Our debt is large, our taxes are heavy,
aud the system Of import duties is necessa.
rily burdensome upon trade; business is
depressed, confidence is impaired and our
relations with other countries not as pleas
ant as We could WISH
As the Sentinel agrees with us as to
the premises, but disputes our conclu,
sions, let us try the issue with it upon
these. 1t says:
" Our neighbor has only made the slight
mistake of shifting the responsibility of all
our national calamities to the wrong shoul.
ders. The party of which he is the expo.
nent has occasioned all the ruin and disas-
ter which have fallen uponthe country, and
but for the Republican or Radical party
we would to-day have no country at all. -
IL is well known that the enormous burden
of national debt which to day paralyzes the
commerce and industry of the nation, was
incurred in the successful effort made BY
the Republican party to enforce the laws
~ielaaed By rebellious Democrats and to pre-.
serve the unity of the land which those
Democrats attempted to destroy. Are not
these things So? They cannot be denied,
and the cutlery which is made against the
Republican party on account OF the large
and bufdensone debt which rests like an
incubus upon the land, comes with i'll
grace from those who fostered and cherish
ed the foul spirit Of rebellion and disunion,
which deluged the land with the best blood
'of her sons aud now almost brushes her be-
/. meath the monetary obligations incurred in
subduing the mad and wicked attempt to
destroy the nation.
The Sentinel, in the outset, assumed
to deal only in 'stern, memorable facts"
but has treated us to simple assertions"
only, which are contradicted in the
main, BY the truth of history The war
was war between sections, not, strictly
speaking, war between parties. 1t
was awar against slavery, and slavery
was confined to one section of the couu.
try. In the northern half of the coun.
try, where slavery did not exist, Demo
Gratis participated in the war as well as
Republicans. In the South where all
were shareholders, all rushed to the
tented field, without distinction of party,
with very few exceptions. So much
for the lSsatiners unauthorized assertion
that the war was war Of the Demo-
cratic party. AZ to its origin,-it was
forced upon the South BY the demon Of
fanaticism which ruled the North, and
BY that malignant spirit which would
not be appeased, except by .blood let
ting" Tho overt act was the fault Of
the South; the provocation was the fault
Of the North, and that proyocation in.
volved q disregard of constitutional OBJ
legations and an open violation Of the
solemn acts Of Congress. Faith was
not kept with the South, her interests
were openly violated, and her remon
strances were despised aud contemned
The North did not want peace, it wanted
the abolition of slavery and the blood
Of tho South. Had it wanted peace, it
might have had it, through the Critten.
den resolutions. It might have had il,
through the peace convention at Wash
ington. But, that Southern Hotspur,
South Carolina, struck the first blow.
committed the overt act, aud that was
the welcome opportunity, so long covet-
ed BY the fanatics and disunionists of
the North, who would rather have seen
the Union of these States shivered to
atoms than to have missed it. Thus
the war was brought about--the onus
Of the provoeatioa resting upon the
North, the onus Of the opert act resting
upon the South. It was not Demo.
cratic war, as the Sentinel has wrong
fully asserted, bet war forced upon
the country by spirit of hnaticism,
/ which had famed the fame of sectional
discord for more than a generation be
fore its elimination 10 actual hostilities.
To say that the Democratic party "fos-
tered and cherished the foul spirit Of
rebellion and disunion," is an assertion
which history itself stamps as false,
Leading Democratic warriors, states.
men, and journals, denounced the re-
bellion as fatal to the constitutional
principles for which they had commended,
and opposed il in the interests Of peace
and Of constitutional Union. The
senior editor Of this paper denounced
i, publicly and emphatically, in his
Journal, the Cecil Democrat, in Febru-
|arv. 1861 as The files Of that paner will