The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-06-29
The Dying swan.

pendence is the cornerstone of the Re
publican party and of negro suffrage
and equality. Having violated, mutt
lated and corrupted every feature ofthe
Federal Constitution, they seem now
anxious to corrupt and destroy the last
remnant of what is left us that is good
and memorable in our history as Re
public. Listen to the impudence or ig-
norance or hypocrisy of SWAN: "ln
"l776, speaking from a monarchial
stand, our forefathers enunciated to
theworld this first great axiom of the
Republican party, that all men are
created equal. (Applause.) If you
think the Republican party was born
with the war, you, | must say, are
blind TO her history. She first stood
forth as champion of human rights
in l776, and when she came forth from
81 the dark trials of storm and battle,
&c she wore upon her forehead all men
are created equalp
Now, unless SWAN is a fool instead
of a knave he knows very well that the
Republican party of the present day
never had name or an existence I'M
til 1856, that it never came into pow
er until 1861, that it never advocated
negro emancipation until Lincoln's pro-
clamation of 1863, that it never advo-
Gated suffrage until 1866, and that it
never announced negro equality until
the adoption Of the Fifteenth Amend
ment The bald assertions of SWAN,
therefore, are such tissue Of false
hoods that no candid reader can fail to
feel unmitigated contempt for a man
who has attempted to conceal his
treachery to friends under such n trans
parent disguise.
1t is true that the Declaration of In
dependence does enunciate the doc
trine that "all men are created equal,
but every one who is not an idiot knows
very well that that declaration had not
the most remote reference to the negro
race who at that time had no connection,
directly or indirectly, with any govern
ment in the world. 1t was declara-
ton of the white people Of America
that they were equal to the white people
of England and all other countries, and
upon that issue they fought for and won
their independence. But did they wor-
ship the negro, or incorporate him as
n freeman into the Constitution, or
establish negro suffrage, or put him into
the halls of legislation and the jury
box, or proclaim his universal equality
with the white and ruling races? They
committed no such monstrous absurdity,
nor did any party ever advocate or
dream of such monstrous revolution
in the whole frame work of our institu-
lions and in the wisdom of the world,
but the Republican party in the zenith
Of its power, corruption and rascality.
But, if there were any truth or honest
belief in this brazen declaration of
SWAN and his new allies, is it not won
derfully strange that they should never
have made the discovery until the pres
ent time? The Declaration of Indie.
pendence was nearly as old in 1861 as
in 1870, and Of the same import and
meaning, and yet in 1861 this new
fedged Republican entered the rebel
army with sash and spurs on TO fight
for the right of the master to the slave
and for white mans government as
embodied in the Declaration of hide
pendence and the Constitution of our
fathers Indeed, SWAN did more
Though not much of that, for we re-
member that few months before the
war closed he became so enthusiastic in
the Confederate cause that he made a
flaming speech to the soldiers at the
Narrows in Giles county, in which he
denounced the Yankees as the scum
of the universe and urged and circu-
lated a petition to the Legislature of
Virginia asking that the negroes should
be put in the army in order to save the
effusion Of white blood and to help save
the liberties and independence of the
Southern people! Wonder if SWAN
had ever read the Declaration of indie
pendence up to that period Of his life ?
Or, does he read it now with green Cog
giles on?
The truth is this dying SWAN is not a
Republican because of any lesson he
has learned from the Declaration Of In
dependence, or because Of any admira-
ton ne has for the principles OF the
Republican party, but solely upon the
selfish and ambitious principle of get
ting some office under the wing of the
ruling party. He happened to marry
the forty,seventh cousin to GRANT IAN
excellent lady and family and acting
under the hallucination that he would be
entitled to receive an equal portion of the
national inheritance of the DENr fam
lily, SWAN turned Republican, and on his
way to Washington year or so ago to
make the first advance, he drank this
toast to his cousin: 1.-THE greatest Gen
eral the world ever saw" SWAN, how