The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1876-09-28
TRUTHS OF HISTORY,

1
large meeting at Brookvillc, Ind. re-
Gently, and in a plain aud siwple state
ment of the truths of history held his
audience for two hours. His opening
remarks were i'm substance "a follows {:
FELLOW CITIZENS: We are met al
the threshold with q serious charge,
which is intended to close all minds
against any fair reasoning in favor Of
The charge is that the Democratic par
ty brought on the civil war; war
which cost half million lives, the
lives of the bravest and best. and
which cost, in waste of labor, money,
materials and credits,> ten thousand
millions of dollars (SlO O0OO0O,OOO) !;
and therefore the Democratic party has
no right 10 come into power. 1t has
no right even to be heard.
Ny best answer TO this often repeat
ed charge is, that the Democratic par
ty South, as well as North as it was
reorganized in 1872. when it nominat-
ed Horace Greeley for President and
b. Gratz Brown fer Vice President !;
and again ia 1876, at ST. Louis, when il
nominated Samuel j. Tilden for Pres
ident, and Thomas A. Hendricks for
Vice President (applause,) is, in prin-
| ciple. in all respects as free from any
doctrine or sentiment tending 10 slave
ry, or to secession, or to civil war,as the
| Republican party is, or ever has been.
! Every body knows this who has read
the platforms of 1872, and 1876. This
charge of Chandler, Norton, and 9TH
er leaders OF the Republican party is
unfounded in logic and truth, The
| truth is, the Democratic party of 1876
| is reorganized upon the basis of the
Liberal Democracy and Liberal Re-
| publicanism OF 1876 The Democratic
party is in substance now like the old
Dem ocratic- Republican party of Mad
! ison and of Jackson. 1t is not true
That. like. the old Bourbons, it neither
learns nor forgets anything, 1t has
| learned much from the terrible lessons
of the civil war.
The Democracy of the North have
learned to cherish with all the intIn-
sity Of feeling which their great lead
er, General Jackson always manifest
ell against secession and notification,
when he put down the first incipient
rebellion of South Carolina, in 1882
The Democracy of the South have
learned, at the most terrible of ell sac
rifices. the danger and destruction
which followed the two heresis of
Calhoun and McDuliie, uttered more
than forty years ago and which, as we
shall see, were the primal causes of all
our calamities. These heresies are
now abandoned forever at the South
as well as at the North.
The reunited, regenerate ed DemOc-
racy of the North and os the South
unanimously declare in their platform
their devotion TO the Federal Union.
and ITO the Constitution of the United
States. with its amendments, uuiver-
sally accepted, as tinal settlement OF
the controversies that engcndered civ
il war; They know and feel i'm every
fiber of their being that those two fa-
tai hercsies, viz: that slavery is a
blessing, and that each State has right
10 seeede from the Union at its pleas
ure, brought death into our Republic,
and all our woe." To-day the peo-
pie of the North, are opposed-to slave
curse, and not a blessing. The people
of the South, as well as of the North,
are opposedlto disunion, for all their
interest, hope, aspiration and ambition
are bound up in rebuilding their shat
tered States and fortunes under the
flag of the Union. 4-,a4
Gentlemen, it was no more a Dem
ocratic war than it was a Wing war,
or al Abolition war, or Methodist
war, or a Baptist war, or Prcsbyte-
rian war. The truth is, it was acc
tional var; a war of arms growing out
Of a war of ideas-upon slavery, and
the right of State secession-a war be-
tween the North and the South
brought on by the mistakes, follies and
passions of men, and not by the Prov
idence of God. l have no patience
with those who charge this war upon
Him, and who tell mo that in the true
spirit of Christian ain TO look upon
4 t,r FL l.: -
robbed me of my eldest son, and laid
him in a premature gravc-which
brought the same desolaiion TO hun
dreds of thousands Of households as
came to mine. No, fellow citizens; if
this war did not come upfrom hell, of
one thing L am sure, it did not come
down from heaven. sa
The preamble of the Republican
economy of Providence 10 purge this
land of human slavery and TO allow
the Republican party TO demonstrate
the strength of the Govern met of the
people by the people and for the peo-
ple." The war was a curse, and not a
blessing; nor was il necessary in or
der to purge the land from slavery
There was no reason why Delaware
Virginia and Kentucky could not have
! abolished slavery as peacefully as did
| New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut
and New Jersey and that, too, with
out shedding one drop of human
blood, and to the joy of the master as
well as the States OF the extreme South
could not, step by step. without she'd
ding one drop of blood, have unbound
the chaius one by one from their slaves,
| and raised them gradually to freedom,
without rending and destroying every
/ thing in blood and fire. They could