Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1870-10-15

was also n Democrat. Neither Robert
f.. Lee. Jubal Early, StoncwaIl Jackson
or J f.. Il. Stewart. ever voted Demo
cratic ticket in his life All ofthc,c men
a> we'll as nearly al the leading men Of the
South who drew their >wurlS 10 defend
their own soil aud right Of sell. government,
simply coopcra.cl with the Democratic
party for the man;anance of the peace of
the Union, while all the leading Rcpubii-
cans. nclul;ng Mr.. Coliax, were a. zeal
ou>y laborng to revolutonizc the Govern
meat, declaring for the . irrcrrcssiblc con
hict between freedom and slavery and
against any compromise by which the Tn
ion could be preserved aud the horrors of
civil war avcrtcd.
As to the laid and comfort TO the re-
bellion" by Northern Democrats, but for
the Democrats not blow would have been
struck for the maintenance of Federal au-
.hority over the seeded States. 1t is no
exaygcration to say that Of the 275,o00
volunteers first in the field, not one,tifth
had voted for the election of MIR. Lincoln,
and of the field officers then in command,
not one in ten was Republican. Subse-
quently the Democratic Governors of New
York and New Jersey promptly responded
to every call for troops, while the Repub-
lican Governors were holding secret meet
ing in Altoona, Pennsylvania, for the pur-
pose Of determining to withdraw further
aid to the war. unless it was conducted in
the interest of the Republican party, and
succeeded in forcing Mr.. Lincoln to divert
the war from its declared purposes into a
war for conquest and subjugation, as the
only condition on which they would aid in
its further prosecution.
elf there had been no party in exist
ence but the Republican, there would have
been no war, no bloodshcd and no debt,
while if there had been no party in power
in the North or in Congress but the Dem
ocratic, there would have been no coercion,
no resistance of force by force, and consc-
quently, no nation to-day What a group.
ing together of sophistical reasoning and
false logic is here! The fact no intclli-
gent man will deny that had there been no
Republican party there would have been
no cause for the war, and had the Demo-
cratic party been in power there would
have been no call for resistance of force by
force, for there would have been no force
to resist and no disturbance to suppress.
The Republican party was the first to de-
nouncc the Union; the first to resist
the Constitution; the first to declare
for dissolution as preferable to recogni-
ton of the conditions upon which the IN
ion was formed, and the first to organize a
sectional party based upon sectional hostil-
ity. What audacity it is then for them to
claim that they are entitled to all the credit
of saving what they alone imperiled. 1t
is only paralleled by the Irishman, who in
passing through the woods followed by a
companion, drew forward the limb of a
tree, which sprang back and Knocked his
friend down. "Jabers, Pat" he cx-
claimed, "what lick you would have got
if hadn't held the bush!"
"No nation to-day" Can Mr.. Colfax,
or any of his kind, explain to us how the
nation could be destroyed by the loss of
less territory than has been annexed
to the original States since the Govern
ment was formed? This idea that our
Government, our liberties, or our national
ity were assaulted by the secession of less
than one third of the States, is the veriest
claptrap and hunbug that was ever at
tempted to be palmed upon an intelligent
community for truth. The Government
existed and prospered with thirteen States,
numbering less than five millions Of inhab-
itants, and embracing less than one third
of the Territory now belonging to it, and
it is absurd to suppose that it could not sus.
tain itself with thirty millions of inhabi-
tants and more than double the amount Of
Territory it originally possessed, after
losing onc.third Of its inhabitants and an
equal proportion Of territory.
It shows the decline of craftsmanship
and the political dcgencracy of the times
when the second officer of the Government
is not ashamed to expose his ignorance O.
dishonesty by putting forth such trash a
this, ascribed to Mr.. Colfax, for the pur
pose of perpetuating party prejudice ant
sectional hatred. We will not Withhold,
from the Republican party any crcdi
which belongs to it, nor seek to avoid an