Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-07-24
REpUBLrcANIsM VS.. DEMOCRACY.
Address by the Union Republican Con'
oressionaI Committee.

TO the people of the United States, from
which the following excerpts are taken'
DEMOCRATIC DIPLOMACY;
II is thirteen years since the kepupllcuns
marty was first called to the administrator Ol
Inc National Government For more than
thirty years previously the Goyernment had
been almost uninterruptcdly under Demo
cratic control. OF that control there Is nara,
ly a memory left at which the nation shouiu
not blush Seemingly il was inspired by but
one ambition--the bad ambition TO make our
foreign policy as ignoble as our home pohcy
was shameless. Our intercourse with powers
weaker than ourselves was spirited enough '!i,,
we bullied Austria out Of Hungarian rclu.
gee. We despoilcd Mexico of portion OF
her territory. We demolished Greytown. We
iingled millions in the ears of Spain as lure
for Cuba, and the bribe was spurned,
In 1854 three Of our Ministers abroad as
sembled at Ostend, and issued manifesto
In which they declared: After we shall
have offered Spain price for Cuba far be-
yond its present value, and this shall nave
been refused, then II will be time TO con-
slider the question: Docs Cuba, IN the pos
session of Spain, seriously cndanger onr IN
terpal peace and the existence OF oar chef'Sho0
Unionp Should this question be answered in
the affirmative, then, by every, law, human
and divine, we shall be justified in wrestling
1t from Spain, If we possess the power"
It adds piuuancy to that extract to know
that two of the ambassadors who in 1851
: could think of no way OF saving our cher-
is6f<d>Iln Union" but to wrest Cuba from spain
were Pierre Snulc and John Y. Mason Inc
third was james BuChanan
But during all that time, aT5t~l splte 9l
all that gasconade, there was not sIngtt
naturalized citizen who could safely revisit
his birthplace, for there was not one whose
citizenship was not absolutely denied by the
sovereign under whose dominion he was
born .
No American, native or naturalized, could
send letter abroad except upon oncrous
conditions. We had then formed postal CON
yentions with but seven foreign countries
The lowest rate of postage stipulated in
those conventions was ten cents for letter
weighing not more than one-half ounce The
highest rate of postage on the same letter was
thirty cents.
We tamely relnquished to Great Britain a
portion of our territory in the Northeast;
another and larger portion in the Northwest.
We described the line agreed upon in the
Northwest so loosely that Great Britain imme-
diately laid claim to the large islands ON our
side of it. That insulting claim was neither
resisted nor admitted. 1t was compromised by
permitting the claimant to hold armed pos
session of one end of San Juan, the most val
liable of those islands, while we quietly
squatted on the other end And while by
successive concessions we were adding to the
area of the Canadas, we stupidity relinquished
to their products free access to our markets, as
the equivalent of being allowed to send sim
lar products from the Northwest, through
Canadian channels, to such precarious mar
kets as they could find on the other side of the
Atlantic.
Such were the achievements of our dplo
macy during those years of Democratic su
premacy.
DEMOCRATIC HOME RULE.
1t has been loudly vaunted that those wert
cheap administrations! Compared with tht
expenditures of these times, they were cheap
very cheap. Compared with their worth tC
the country, they were probably the mos
profigate the world ever saw. They cost th
people from S50OOOOOO to SI5,OOO,OOO per an
mum. Those millions maintained for us tn
empty pageant we called Government.
There was constant succession Of Congress
es, Presidents and courts. The courts o
course were useful in hearing and determin
ing private controversies. But what is Their
to show from the labors of the political de
partments? 1t seemed to be the sole end,
not the sole aim, of Government to collec
money enough yearly to pay itSe!t. 1t dit
not always succeed in doing that, as man,
loan bills enacted in times of profound peac'
still bear witness.
The address then examines the actor
of the Democratic party in relation t.
sundry works projected by its predeces
sors, notably the Cumberland Road anC
the Louisville Canal, showing how, un
der Democratic management, the Gov
ernment had been outrageously de
frauded:
That party did not overturn our land sys
ten, Notwithstanding it was very good one
During the year 1S41 the system was mucl
improved; that must be confessed. But tn
Democratic party was not in power that ycai
We ought also gratefully to remember tina
the grants of land made for educational puT
poses were not repealed. The fact furnishe
striking illustration of sparing mercy. Blu
the phenomenon is not difficult to explain
Such grants were made only to States il
which the lands were. Such lands were fOun,
for the most part only in new States. Tn
new States were very unanimously Democrati
in politics. The States receiving the grant
could alone administer them, and the part
seems to have felt confident that grants s.
administered would not promote the cause G
education more than grants of money ha,
promoted the cause of commerce. All VIII
are familiar with the early experiences of tn
school funds in the Southern and some of tn
Western States will need no other assuranc
that that confidence was not misplaced.
The capital was not transplanted. But whe
the Democratic party retired from control, i
1861, scarcely building belonging to tn
Government was finished. Perhaps, however
the party would have avoided that cause c
reproach if they had earlier formed the desig1
of transferring those buildings to the use {
another Government.
Armies were then maintained. Their rank
were thin, but they were sumptuously officere
-officered far too largely by those who ha
been educated in every soldierly grace say
that of allegiance.
navy was suffered to exist. But as ii wa
found little too loyal to desert its flag, and
kttle too gallant to surrender it when til
hour of national peril arrived, that navy wa
scattered in remote seas. TIL
presidents of the those half-forgotten year
were as diligent, by annual and special mes
sages, to explain why the Federal Government
could do nothing as the Congresses were
do nothing. Like the two brothers engage
in the temperance cause, one of whom lect
ured on the evils of intcmperance while til
other furnished a shocking example, s
Democratic Presidents were perennially elC
quent in eXpounding the impotenc
of the National Government, Will
Democratic Congresses were as persistent /
illustrating it. y That is the part
which, on the 18th of September, 1850, wrot
the Fugitive Slave act in the statute book B
that act the United States commanded til
Federal courts to multiply court commission
ers without limit. By that act the Unite
States offered such commissioners clea
bounty of five dollars each for certificates tina
residents Of Massachusetts or Of any OthC
State were fugitves from Texas or some othe
State; and when such a certificate was oil
tanned, pledged all its forces to remove sue
resident to the State wherein he was claimed
which made that certificate, so purchased {
such hucksters, conclusive evidence of tn
right to remove, and commanded every tribu
nal within the insulted State to be still, an
all its citizens to aid the outrage-a statut
the very first victim Of which was a free ma
from Pennsylvania, who, being declared fl
gitve by $5 commissioner, was transportc
to Virginia by the United States, and, fndin
no man there base enough to claim him, h
was allowed to get back at his own expense
DEMOCRATIC IMPoTENCY.
A Government which denied its right to al
commerce over the Des Moines Rapids, an
which advertised its mpotency to control il
own tilibusters, could hardly be expected
make a becoming figure when confronte
with war. When, therefore, in 1861 the stand
ard of rebellion was raised, and State afte
State wheeled defantly into the ranks of re
volt, il was perhaps not so very surprisin
that one-half the Democratic party joined tn
revolt while the other half exclaimed it cOul
not be resisted-not so very surprising tina
the 6 per cent bonds issued in February, 1861
were sold at discount Of per cent, and ne
so very surprising that Great Britain shoul