The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1876-10-26
A]a,EGfautLa
: TILDEN AND REFORM
FIGHTING JOE HOOKER TO HIS
COMRADES I'M ARMS.
stirring Appeal to the Boys in Blue
From distinguished Soldiers
Reform the only Hope Of the
rgu Country. au


their former political affinities, have ser
iously deprecated and earnestly denounc
ed the persistent and dictatorial spirit il
which the Radical leaders havelong beer
and still are attempting to rekindle th'
old war feeling and animosity, and Il
make use of semi-military organization
for mere partisan ends; these efforts
tending to force upon the country tn
false impression the Republicans alon,
fought the battles of the Union cause
that none of the soldiers of that arm!
can now be expected to vote auy othe
than the Radical ticket; that every Un
ion soldier must still array himselfagains
a section of our country, and continue Il
denounce the people he helped to over
come in civil war; people who laiC
down their arms, and surrendered to
superior power, and returned to theil
duty and their allegiance more than elev
en- years ago; while no occasion has beer
lost, since the war, in which Grand Ma
tional Soldiers and Sailors Conventions
and Reunions, swelled by parades of the
"boyyin blue" the G. A. r., and othel
military politico-associations and leagues
that they have not been made to sub
serve the purposes of engendering sec
tional strife, and perpetuating Radica
Republican misrule.
Longer forbearance of this policy has
now ceased to be virtue. II has beer
firmly determined that duty and honol
alike demand that we call for general
enrolment of all our old comrades who
are sincerely desirous of the public good
and who, untrammeled by party dlcta'
ton, are opposed to the artful revival Of
the old war cries without occasion, and
who see the necessity for the overthrow
of the corrupt party in power, and the
preservation of constitutional govern
ment by the election and triumph of Til
den and Reform.
At the close of the war, in 1864, the
Radical party had reached the summit
of its political power, with no check to
its intolerance, save the scruples of the
President, and this was insufficient to re-
strain its vindiCtiveness. The Congress
offered to the people the 18th, l4th and
10Th Amendments to the Constitution as
the basis of Reconstruction. These amend
ments were accepted and ratified by the
Legislatures of three-fourths Of the States
The Congressional enactments passed to
enforce these conditions were submitted
to and acquiesced in in good faith. The
Southern people were thus restored to
all their civil rights by all the forms of
law: and it is now but a mOckery and
replIdiation of the terms of their con.
tract, at every returning election, to
threaten them again with the grim trade
of death, and to liftstill higher the bleed
ing testament of war. Bloody instruc-
tions indeed, which will return but to
plague the inventor.
We appeal to you to take up this work
with us, and assist in carrying it forward
to q successful issue in every State which
sent a regiment Of Union soldiers to the
war. We wish to see the enrolment of
every friend of our cause who served in
the Union army, and we urgently recon-
mend the perfection, at the same time,
of such local, Congressional, State asso-
Citations, as shall organize, complete and
bring forth to the election the soldiers
and Sailors vote in solid column, along
the whole line,and throughout the coun-
try. Let us show now to those in power
our firm convictions of the necessity of a
return to an honest and constitutional
administration of the government by our
independent exercise of suffrage. For
this we fought in the battles of the Un-
ion was duty paramount to all others,
but the untrammeled exercise of the cit
izen's right of suffrage is not secondary
to it. We should not permit any con-
sideration of political advantage or par
tisan associations to mislead US from the
duty which we owe to the present ext
gency, as well as to the future welfare of
the whole country. Let us show by our
voices and votes that we are still 100000
strong and after all our losses in support
of the Constitution we defended, and for
return to honest government in the in
terests of the whole people.
The most encouraging sign OF Reform
is to be found in the recent change and
overthrow of portion of that combina-
ton of officeholders at Washington,
whose hold upon power has seemed to
defy all attempt at resistance or opposi-'
ton. At least four departments have
been upturned, the most serious irregu.
larities discovered by the public demand
for reform, and their derelict secretaries
driven forth
The successful investigations by the
Democratic Committees of Congress, to
which the Administration was forced to
succumb at last, indicates with certainty
the commencement of moral revolution
in politics that is to be confined to no
section and to no State.
Will you not join heartily in that i'm
perative demand for honest government
that is being re-echoed from all parts of
the land2 u
Each soldier must have observed with
what parade and flourish has been ad.
vertised from year to year by the Radical
Congress, an avowed determination to
pass an act to equalize the bounties of
the government to the Union soldiers
and sailors of the late war. Such bills
were presented in plentiful numbers, but
not to be passed. 1t remained for the |
Democratic party and the Democratic |
majority of the Military Committee of
the p esent House of Representatives to
report and pass just, equitable and eff
cient bill to accomplish that end. The
committee declared that "the govern
ment in respect to these bounties is a
debtor; and while she may fairly inquire
into the justice of parti ular cases, yet
duty and good faith require her to pay
them. The government is better able to
pay these just demands, than those en-
titled thereto are to lie out of them"
This bill provided the equal bounty of
1888 per month to every soldier of the
Union army for the whole time he serv-
ed in the war. Itwas passed by the Dem
Gratis of the House after due considera-
tion; was transmitted to the Senate, and
was for three months before that Repnb-
liean body to be neglected, denied con-
sideration, and to all intents and purpo-
ses of the Senate, was defeated in the
House OF its pretended triend8i This is
a specimen leaf flom the record of the
session Of Congress just closed; and as
further evidence of the insinCerity ofthe
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