The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-06-20
M;he'Gerdl M'atsyhia
ELKTON. JUNE 20, 1874.
mo thief e'er felt the halter draw
With good opinion of the law"


A reference to the great crime of the
nineteenth century, which was the handi-
work of that school of politicians who
always kept The Cecil Democrat chained to
its car of destruction, never fails to make
them squirm and paddle round like terra
pin with live coal on it's back. That class
still lament exceedingly the consequences
entailed upon the South by its four years
struggle to uphold slavery. But if the
honest truth could be got at, we doubt not
that the sorrow in nine cases out of ten of
this class is over the failure of that purely
Democrat war party to succeed in its OBJ
jects. And with a groan they invariably
take leave of the subject with an express
sion like this, which we copy from the last
issue of the lost Causes faithful champion
and persistent mourner of Elkton:
people, who, whatever their crimes
may have been, astounded the world by
their bravery, and accepted the loss of their
cause with a heroism without a counter
part in history
This is very sentimental, but the accepting
claimed here is entirely imaginary. They
accepted with the worst grace possible,
because there was no alternative, and under
Andy Johnson's treachery and apostacy,
the old hope of redeeming the "lost cause"
so revived as to alarm the North, which
had every reason to regard with apprehen-
sion the symptoms manifested, and to apply
measures to prevent second recurrence Of
a sanguinary war. 1t would have been
worse than weak and foolish not to have
done so. We are referred to the files of
The Democrat to disprove the imputation
that that organ "always approved the
policy and wisdom of Southern Statesmen,
including their confscation acts" The
files will prove nothing but one continuous
and undated sympathy with the rebellion,
without word of censure for single act,
no matter how atrocious, of its barbarous
career; and just as steady and unbroken a
series of complaints and abuse of every
act of the Government to maintain its
authority, and vindicate the cause of the
nation.
But this subject of the "lost cause" is
a tender subject on all occasions with The
Democrat. 1t is sure to "growl like bear
with sore head" when ever it is men-
toned. We suppose it is natural, and as
sore trial as to talk about rope to a
man whose father has been hanged. The
following from the St. Louis Repubi-
can the leading Democratic paper of Mis-
souri, tells some wholesome truths, and is
the most appropriate reply that it is posi-
bic to make to Tile Democrats grumbling.
1t says:
"The Democracy of to-day are wasting
their energies and destroying their prestige
in digging among the ruins of the war, and
devislng ways and means to neutralize re-
suits which are as inexorabe as the DEGREES
of fate. The vigilance which, if employed
in 1864, might have given us the olive
branch instead of the sword, is as worth
less in 1874 as the calculations of defunct
almanac. We have had our arbitrament
of arms, and must abide by it. If the
consequences are disagreeable and even
dangerous, it is folly to repine, and still
greater folly to rebel. To accept the inev-
liable gracefully is no less incumbent upon
parties than upon those who were once
proud to follow it's banners. Had the De-
mocracy Immediately after the collapse of
the Confederacy, stepped squarely up to
the line which that event marked, and
abandoning the past, grasped the resources
of the future, it would not now be SO help
less and hopeless"
Mark the wisdom of the sentence, chad
the Democracy Immediately after the COL
lapse of the rebellion stepped squarely up
to the line." That's it in nutshell. The
ruin which subsequently fell upon the
South, was the result of the Cecil Demo-
crat Statesmen dissuading the people from
"-stepping up" by keeping up the war on
paper when it became hopeless on the
field, and preaching Estates sovereignty"
which properly defined, meant the blessed
privilege enjoyed by the plantation aristoc-
racy to wallop their negroes undisturbed
and unrestrained.