The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1870-09-22
Democracy wants Power.

the part of the people to comply
with the wishes of that party, the
only safe and reliable criterion 10 be
governed By, is, what has been the
character aud the record oftts. u.
ty in the years past. five are about
to cn,rust any important duty in the
hands of any one individual, or asso.
citation Of individuals. we rely upon
the previous character and life of the
man or men TO whom we are to com.
NIT tho charge. Now, what is the
record Of the Democratic party for
the few years past2 1t is hardly
necessary to refer to Buchanan's ad.
mmis tration, which was the last elo,.
ted by the democracy. It is a part
of our disgraceful history, as a ma.
ton, that he promulgated the idea
that the General Government had
no power, under the Constitution, to
co cree State, and, consequently, no
power to subdue a rebellion, and act
ing upon this theory he suffered bis
democratic, reasonable cabinet, to
disroil the nation of it's credit, it's
money, it's arms, and its navy, and SO
bind it hand and foot at the feet of
the slave power. After the inglori,
GUS retiracy of this administration,
and the Inauguration of Mr.. Lincoln.
the democratic party continued to
advocate and act upon the principle
that coercion was not only unconsti.
tutional, but was moreover impossi-
BILE, that Mr.. Lincoin's Administration
had no authority to raise armies, to
borrow money, to levy taxes, to issue
bills of credit, nor, indeed, to march
his armies upon the soil of any State
which choose to sever its connection
with the Union. To this end, demo-
Gratis not only held the power of the
government nulity, but they acted
upon it: they refused to aid the gov
ernmcnt by taking it's bonds they
discouraged the enlistment Of sold
iers; they denounced the boys in
blue as Lincoln hireliugs, using such
language towards them as our revolt
utionary fathers were accustomed to
| use toward the hired Hessian sold
iery in '76. They, by force, attempt
ed in various places to defeat the fill
ing up of our depleted army by draft,
and took up and reiterated the do.
nunciations of President Lincoln by
rebels; styling him monster, a ty-
rant, whose neck deserved the halter,
and 40 continued to the end of the
war, and until they innoculated the
maddened brain of the assassin Booth,
with the idea of murder, which, as a
tragical finale to the already unpar-
alleled sanguinary struggle, ho accom-.
| plished in the death of one of the
purcst, best and ablest meu, The world
ever saw.
l
/ After the close of the war, actuated
by the same feeling, which prompted
this party to oppose the rebellion
they then attacked the credit OF ths
natl n, by advocating the Reputation
of its debt. 10 fact, the great shib
boleth of the party, from that day
to the present, has, in one form OF
another, been reputation, hoping
that by means of hard times, which
they expected to follow the war, and
the necessary taxation, to carry the
elections and ruin the nation by
running its credit. Happily they did
not succeed, and this triumph of the
republican party is no less glorions
and important than was the triumph
of our arms upon the battle fields OF
the war. If the nation was to 20
down at all, far better that it sink
CALAMITY defending its life amid the
roar Of cannon and muskotry, than
| by q sneakipg, base betrayal of its
plighted faith, for the former would
have left behind the hope of recovery;
while the latter would have forever
sunk us into oblivion.
With reputation, they linked, as
a cardinal principle of the party
opposition to the Thirteenth, -Four
tecnth and Fifteenth Amendments to
tho Constitution. Southern rebels
when they went out Of the union.
were good democrats, and when they
were whipped back, the democratic
party at once clamored for the un
conditional reconstruction of the
rebel States, and the speedy and i'm
mediate return, untramelled. with all
their former rights, of their rebel
democratic brethren. The country
pronounced against them, and now
our constitution is in harmony with
that immortal bill OF rights. which
proclaims the inalienable rights Of
! man, and that governments derive