The Hartford herald., 1875-03-17
TO THE DEMOCRACY OF KEN
TUCKY.

. W. NOohC W phCoChb ACW tilOuSuIS |
based upon recent deplorable and dis
graceful occurrences, for your careful
and patriotic consideration. In writing
as we do, we are actuated by the purest
of motives, and moved by our exceed
ing devotion to the principles of, and
jealous consideration for the fair fame
of, our party. For the past twenty |
years we have advocated with pen and
voice the adoption of those principles
by the American people. We have
in that time seen Kentucky, our below.
ed native State, redeemed from captiv-
ity, and its statue set in the Valhalla
of Democracy. We have sufficient van
ity to believe that we contributed, in
some small degree, to that desirable re-
suit. 1t is true enough, that once or
twice, when extraneous issues were in
jected into the party, we were compelled
to differ with portion of our political
brethren; but these differences passed
away with the occasions that produced
them, (and they were never antago-
nisms of principle), and left us all in
full accord as before their intrusion.
With the late warts causes or its
merits-we of to-day have nothing to
do. That is all dead and buried, and
ought to be forgotten, matter. The
sword was appealed to, and by its decis-
ion we must abide. No good can be
accomplished by raking through the
ashes of the late fratricidal strife, and
dragging into view the charred skeleton
of a quarrel that is dead. We fully
and freely accord to those who occupied
Opposing sides credit for honesty in SEN
timent and patriotism in action. We
mourn those who offered up their lives
ON either side as our common dead, as
brothers who laid the extreme offering
of devotion to what they deemed the
sacred cause of liberty on the altar Of
their country. Their going forth to
battle and sudden death we accept as
the strongest evidence of their faith in
the justice of their respective causes
Standing by their graves, we ask not
the color of the uniforms they wore, mol
demand to know which flag they hal
lowed by their blood. We only know
that they sleep in common earth, thai
an impartial sky bends over them all
, and that the green grass and the beau
tiful flowers avoid not the graves of the
one, nor concentrate their wealth oflove
illness and adornment upon those of the
other. We only know, and only cart
to know, that, enemies no longer, they
repose,
| Under the vlOlets the blue,
: Under the lilies the gray:
/, Under the lilies the blue,
> Under the violets the gray.
Discarding, then, the late war as {
legitimate subject of discussion, anC
E looking only to the perils that environ
,, and threaten our Iberties-perils great
er and more imminent even than wher
1 we stood arrayed against each other ii
hostile lines of battle-it becomes us tt
employ all of our judgment, to summon
all of our wisdom, to survey the critica
r situation with the coolest and keenes
scrutiny we can command; and then
thrusting to one side all merely partisan
+ and personal considerations, act as on'
: man, fully realizing the gravity of th'
: occasion and the extraordinary respon
: sibility that rests upon each one indi
; vidually, and so act that our State anC
: our whole country shall be beneftteC
and preserved by our action.
E We cannot afford to create and fostel
dissensions in our ranks. There live
no man, we care not whom he may be
that has that claim upon us as party
! which demands that we should sacrific'
t the harmony, perhaps the very exist
ence of the party, to advance his per
e sonal interests. When any candidate
e we care not who he is, stoops to tn
E lowest and vilest arts of the demagogu'
q to accomplish his own selfish ends, pro
. ducing ruptures at county convention
e and creating arrangements betweel
: Democrats, spreadingschism and heart
burnings wherever he goes, he shoul'
8 be looked upon as the public enemy o
the party and treated accordingly. Tn
Democratic party of Kentucky to-da..
f presents the anomalous spectacle Of
h besieged Troy, against which dema
}. goguery is waging fierce and unrelent
ing Punic war. The Greek horse Q