Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-12-04
The Democratic Party.

now disposed to answer ii in the affirma
tive should first consider what the dis
tinctive characteristics of the Demo
cratic party were when it went out OF
office in 1861. We have but to recall the
opening scenes of the rebelion--a COW.
ardly, cringing Democratic President, O
treacherous, reasonable Democratic Cab.
met, defiant, threatening Democratic
rebels in the Senate and House of Con.
gress uttering maledictions against the
North and shaking off the dust of their
ieet against the Union as they haughtily
staiked away to join the insurgent ar
mics or to accept civil Office under
the Confederate States Government
wretched Democratic leaders skulkinp
behind constitutional technicalities thai
the Constitution, the laws, liberty itself.
might the more easily be stricken down,
This, in brief, was the situation-the ma.
ton playing with gigantic rebellion for
the stake of its life, and the Democratic
party betting on the rebellion.
| hostility toward the Republican party
which, foot to foot with the foe, waged u
doubtful struggle for the preservation of
the Union? History has made its record,
and it points to no instance where the
Democratic party rose above bitter and
unrelenting partisanship to the dignity
of consideration of the superior claims
of the Constitution and of the country.
| Witness, as the eliminating act of a uni
form course of carping criticism and
open opposition, the resolution Of the
Democratic National Convention of 1854
| When the rebellion was trembling on the
verge of helpless collapse, that conven-
ton, representing the principles and the
personnel of the Democratic party, sol
| at,, ,lxy foil 1nr ND Inn,
pudently demanded that terms of peace,
fatal to the unity of the nation, be of
fered to the chiefs of the Confe leracy.
| How much better is the Democratic
record since the war? Which of the
amendments, now part of the Constitu-
ton, did it support? Which of them did
| it not oppose with every weapon of
political warfare? What act of recon
struction did the Democratic party not
| oppose with the most heated denuncia-
tion no less than the last resource of en-
treaty and argument? But the amend
ments we're adopted, and the measures
of reconstruction were supported by a
vast majority of the people as essential
to the future peace of the country no less
| than as acts of common justice in atone
ment tor crimes done against uesptseu
race in the abused name of liberty. Do
the American people regret that they
crushed out the rebellion, freed the
negro, made him q citizen, and conferred
upon him the right of suffrage? Do they
regret that they pursued the rebels
"from Atlanta to the sea-" and finally
brought them to bay at Appomattox
| Court House? Do they regret that they
raised the flag from the dust where
it was trailed by James Buchanan
and the Democratic party in order
that rebels might trample and spit upon
| it? If they do they are in accord with
the Democratic party as it was and as it
| is; for no single act of the Democratic
party can be pointed TO as evidence that,
as a political organization, it has not
been pervaded by the spirit of treason
during every day and hour from 1861 to
1874. Anu what We mean by treason, as
applied to tie Democratic party, is a
state of violent and unyielding protest
against every fundamental act of the
Republlcan party from the time of the
arming 10 resist rebellion down to the
adoption of the last statute growing
legitimately out of the constitutional
amendments. And we unhesitatingly
declare that there is no evidence in the
recent course of the Democratic party
that 1t has not been and still is hostile to
the Constitution as it is and ineXorably
tuition as it was. We are aware
that few will believe it possible to
circumvent the Constitution or ignore
the letter or nullify the spirit of
the amendments Few will believe the
Democratic party capable of baseness
so great as the withdrawal from the col
ored race of all the protection afforded
by the Reconstruction laws, standing be-
tween them and their former owners and
their would-be Te-enslavers We are
aware that in these times, when great
events succeed each other in rapid, al
most bewildering succession, the record
of even recent history makes but small
impression on the busy, preoccupied
mind. But we should not overlook the
fact that only dozen years ago third
OF the entire population of the country
subsisted almost solely off the enforced
toll of some millions of negroes; that
these poor wretches were bought and
sold like cattle; that they were whipped
numerically at the will of the owner;
that they were not unfrequently killed to
crafty malice; that the black woman
had no protection against the lust of the
white man-in word, that they were
slaves, borne down beneath all the cru
city, oppression and suffering which that
horrid condition, human slavery, implies.
1t will not be disputed, we think, that
the great mass of the white people of the
South are of the opinion still that state
of slavery is the proper condition of the |
negro. jeff. Davis says so; all Southern |
Democratic leaders say so whenever
there is not in view an immediate object |
to be promoted by concealment of real |
opinions. The Georgia labor laws, the |
attempt to pass peOnage bill in Texas,
n m q IN ntf fnRfRN
kansas, show plainly enough that the |
settled purpose of the white people of |
the South is practically to re-enslave the
blacks. But there are many people at |
the North who are ready to say: "Away |
with the Southern question; let the South |
do as II pleases with the negroes; we |
have freed them and conferred upon
them the right of suffrage; let them
work out their own salvation" To such
we reply: 1t is more perilous to abandon
the negro than to defend him; he
cannot be got out of American
politics until he is fully recognized as
an integral part of American politics,
with rights which all white men are
bound to respect, Holding the right of
suffrage, but forbidden to exercise it, the
negro becomes an unwilling ally of the
Democratic party, forced to contribute
w Aeo SuSSOoSSo MlllC IL
duces him to virtual slavery. 1t was
through the negro, in slapery, that the
Democratic party retained power the last
dozen years of its ante-war life; it is
through the negro, deprived of the exer-
else of the right of suffrage, that the DEM
ocratic party expects to regain control of
national affairs. ltfollows logically that
The Democratic party Is, by the very
force of circumstances, the foe of equal
political rights. 1t hopes to mount to
place and power through the prac
teal denial of the right of suf
frage to the negro; once in place,
il will continue to disfranchise him as
the guaranty of its retention of power
To those who decline to interest them
selves in the question of morals and hu-
manity as entering into political science
and political practice we desire to put
Ihe question; How long is the country
likely to remain at peace with the Dem
party raised to mower through n