Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-06-01
Five and Ten Years.

" piiO h~it Viz
Republican newspaper of the country,
"will not be forgotten by the people
in the next Presidential campaign"
| That newspaper intends to follow the
programme of Morton, and Butler, and
the other demagogues who now have
the Republican party in leading strings.
1t intends to resurrect dead issues, and
| revive the partisan hatred which stirred
| the souls of men when fierce and pro-
tracted civil war devastated the land,
and swept our citizens by hundreds of
| thousands to death on desperately con-
| tested battlefield. 1t borrows the brains
! of Butler, and the trickery and char
| latanism of Morton, to instruct the peo-
pie concerning their duties and interests
| in contest which will determine
whether the United States government
shall stand or fall.
We apprehend the people care less
| about the conduct OF the Democratic
party during the war, than what has
| been done by the Republican party
since the war. In its opposition to the
negro policies and unconstitutional and
| tyrannous measures of the party in
| power, from 1861 up to the time of the
surrender of Lee, the Democratic party
| brought upon itself defeat. That is
understood. Have parties battling for
right never been defeated? 1t is not
necessary here to inquire whether the
Democracy were right or wrong. They
were honest, and any Republican in the
| country to-day, of ordinary intelligence,
and possessing any knowledge of the
history of political parties here, who
says he has ever doubted the fidelity of
| the Democratic party TO the Union,
and the political system established un-
der the federal constitution, is man
i
to be accepted by a competent jury.
@.There can be found an abundance of
honest and intelligent Republicans who
will aver that they do not believe the
present administration, and the majority
in Congress, are true to the Constitution
and the Union.
1t seems probable that the next
| Presidential campaign will be one in
| which the respective parties will be
| found battling for and against the same
| issues. If the Grant party choose to
| talk about what the Democratic party
did during the war, it will find no oppo-
sition. We will let the graves of Demo-
cratic officers and soldiers reply to such
| speech. Our national cemeteries ought
| to be, and doubtless will be, as eloquent
| as the venom and slander of demago-
CUES who seek to defame the memories
Vi GIlo 1n0H WHO gave 1ItSS 1OI INC
nation.
The democracy will have much to say
| of the conduct of the Republican party
since the restoration OF peace. The
people are more interested in the pres
| ent and future than in recalling party
.souds. The victories won by the Union
| soldiers were worthless if the govern
ment they fought to save, and for which
| countless hosts of them died, is to be
overthrown by the treason of those who
have been placed in power.
Every act which strikes down the
rights of States reserved by them in
| the Constitution, is an act of treason.
| Every act which denies to our citizens
| the protection guaranteed to them by
| constitutional safeguards, is an act of
| treason. Every usurpation of power by
| Congress, is an act of treason. The at
tempt to invest a President with the
powers of q dictator, and place him
above the law, was an act of treason as
infamous as any which ever was enter
tanned by Confederate in the Southern
| States.
Go to the soldiers who survived the
conflict with the Confederacy, and as :
them if they braved the perils and
hardships of the war to establish the
| despotism and corruption which now
prevail in our Government. Did they
suppose that personal government was
to result from Gettysburg2 Did they
suppose that the slaughter of our armies
in the battles of the Wilderness would
establish a party in power which would
trample upon the Constitution for pur-
poses of the basest partisanship? Did
| they stand "like q stone walF' around
the intrenchments of Richmond to in
vest thieves and political prostitutes
with authority? Did they march " ith
Sherman from Atlanta to the sea to
place the nation in the hands of such
tricksters as Chandler, and Morton, and
Butler? Did the men who stood by
Thomas at Chickamauga and Nashville
fight for the degradation of their own
race and countrymen, and to make pos
sible the infamies perpetrated by State
| Governments under the control Of ne
groes and carpet-baggers Did they
march to battle to sustain policies by
which political rings, and monopolists,
and privileged classes have made serfs
of the workingmen of the country, and
divided our national Legislature into
gangs of bribe-takers
The Democratic party will demand
plain and honest answers to these cues
tions. The Grant party may 90 back
ten years. Five will answer our pur-
pose.- Chicago Times.