The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1876-08-24

teach us that the body wags the tail and
not the tail the body, and we have seen
this winter that Northern Democracy are
as subservient to the South as they were
at any time before the war. The inter-
ests and the passions of the South will in
the future, as in the long and bloody past,
control the action of the Democratic par
ty. Among the Democratic members of
the House there are sixry-four persons
who were officers and soldiers in the Con-
federacy Overthrow by the North and
defeated, they are soured and desperately
in earnest, and with whom the Northern
sympathlsers and dough-faces will be as
clay in the hands of the potter. If you ask
mewhat WILDE the Democratic party in the
future, answer whatever the South
demands, whatever her interests, hatreds,
and passions dictate.
DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.
The Democratic platform at st. Louis
may be described as an elaborate and ex-
tended falsehood, divided into sections
We may safely defy the most ingenious
to find in it an honest and truthful state
ment. In the first section we have this
declaration:
'For the Democracy of the whole coun-
| try we do here reaffirm our faith in the
permanency of the Federal Union, our de-
votion to the Constitution of the United
States, with its amendments universally
| accepted as final settlement of the con-
troversies that engendercd civil war, and
do here record our steadfast confidence in
the perpetuity of Republican self-govern-
ment."
When we reflect that nearly one-half
of the authors of this declaration had
been engaged in armed rebellion to de-
stroy the Union, in which they had the
sympathy of the other half, we know
what they mean by reaffirming their "faith
in the permanency of the Federal Union,
and when for more than four years nearly
the one-half, with the sympathy of the
other half, had waged bloody war for
the overthrow of the Constitution, we
know what they mean by devotion to
the Constitutions" that they love the
Union and Constitution as we'll now as
they have ever done, we can all readily
believe. Such declarations by the Con
vention, in view of the personal history of
the great mass of its members, are but
hideous mockeries, and intended only for
deception. A little further on we come
to the following extraordinary declara,
| ton:
Reform is necessary to rebuild and es-
tablish in the hearts of the whole people
that Union which, eleven years ago, hap
| PLY rescued from the danger of a secession
of States, but now to be saved from a cor
rupt Capitalization, after inf1icting upon
ten States the rapacity OF carpet-b tyran-
nies, has honeycombed the offices of the
Federal Government itself with incapacity,
waste, and fraud, infected States and
municipalities with the contagion of mis-
rule, and locked fast the prosperity of an
Industrious people in the paralysis of hard
| times"
When you consider that many of the
men making this declaration are the ident-
ical persons who, eleven years ago, attempt
ed to destroy the Union by secession of
States, and who brought upon the nation
all the horrors and sacrifices of a civil
war, you will be ableI to comprehend the
audacity and insolence of the falsehood.
The authors of the War, the creators
of the national debt, the makers of dis
turbance and revolution in every State
and directly responsible for every evil and
misfortune that has followed the great
conflict, they boldly charge their own
crimes upon the Republican party.
LAND GRANTS.
Again the platform says:
Reform is necessary to put stop to the
profligate waste of public lands and their
| diversion from actual settlers by the party
| in power, which has squandered 200, 900,
600 acres upon railroads alone, and out OF
more than thrice that aggregate has dis
posed of less than sixth directly to tillers
of the soil.
The merit Of this resolution will be ap
preciated when refer to the fact that
the candidate for Vice President, Gov
Hendricks, was in the Senate six years
and during the period when most of the
public lands were granted to the railroads
and was distinguished for the genera
hearty support he gave to such grants
and particularly for his earnest and re
peated advocacy and the large share hi
had in the grant Of about 100000
acres to the Northern Pacific
railroad, the most stupendous gift evel
made to corporation. But it may b.
said in extenuation of this that if Gov
Hendricks has had so much to do with
giving public property to railroad corpora
tions, that Gov. Tilden has shown great
ability in relieving such corporations Of
their property, and that taking both to
gether they make safe pair on the rail
road question. AS further commcnta
ry upon this resolution, | may add thu
single remark that it was the Republican
party that granted the homesteads to act
ual settlers upon the public lands,-a boor
which has been haughtily denied through
every Democratic Administration
COMPOSITION OF THE ST. LOUIS CONvEN
TION.
Let us consider briefly the composition
of the ST. Louis Convention, that passed
this remarkable platform and placed il
nomination those distinguished roformers
Tilden and Hendricks.
There was the old stakeholder, with
heart full of bitter memories, believing
that emancipation was robbery, and hi
only hope of indemnity in the Democrat,
party.
There was the old agitator and seces
sionist, who had hurried States into rebel
lion and drafted ordinances of secession
There were the officers and soldiers wh'
had borne the Confederate flag upol
many bloody field, and who proud.
pointed to their rebel record as their it'll
deed to Office and glory.
There were the members of the rebe
Congress at Richmond, who had debated
with closed doors the question of tn,
black flag.
There were the architects and defend
ers of Belle Isle, Libby, Andersonyille
and Salisbury, scenes of horror of whicl
the Modocs in their lava fortress had nev
er dreamed.
There were the Northern sympathizer
and doughfaces, who had waited ant
watched over the border whose hearts ant
hopes were in the South while their bodie
were in the North.
| There were few Union soldiers wht
had carried their scanty laurels to Con
federate market, where decoy signals wer,
scarce and in large demand.
There was the sore headed Republican
whose neglected claims for Office ha,
shaken his faith in civilization aud con
vinced him of the necessity for reform.
In short, there We're assembled th,
mourners for slavery, the organizers of re
beliion, the KuKlux and WhiteLiner, tn,
Northern sympathizer and doughface, tn,
advocate OF State sovereignty, and tn,
representatives of every element that hat
torn the country with civil war, drenchec