Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-08-31
Is the Democratic Party Relia'
nhIap

To the honest voter this is an impor
tant political question. 1t has much Il
do with intelligent, patriotic and con
scienscious duty. 1t is the central po
. liticdi question Of the day. 1t is a
much SO as it was in 1864, when tn
life Of The Natien hung upon it. Th
party that would then have yielded t
compromise with rebellion, woul,
yield now to IFS demands. The Ma
ton answered to the question in 1864
NO! If right then, 30 now should tn
Nation with a patriotic shout ssy-NO
Because
FErst-DemOcratic errors, like cor
rupt seed, naturally and logically pro
duced fearful secession, rebellion ant
war, as its fruits. The doctrine of Cal
houn, of Buchanan, Jefferson Davis
rilden, Hendricks, and every rebe
leader in 1860 YVES, 1.-The right of Sc
cession or of revolution, and that the
Nation had no right to repress rebel
lion. and by force bring the "errine
sisters back" Thus held the Demo
cratic party in its palmy days. Thu:
holds the Democratic party, true to it:
record, to-day. Thus holds their Re
form leader, Tilden, true to the Tilden
Kent letter.
The distinctive doctrine of the Dem.
ocratic party is absurd. The Prodigal
Son had as good a right to secede from
his fathers house, on complaint of op.
preston, as had the South, with whose
cause the Democratic party sympa.
thized. The Prodigal got his divide,
but in the end to his cost. Famine
forced him back to the paternal roof.
But he repented; he returned in good
faith, true penitent. Then, in good
faith he was received with joy and
the fatted calf. How perfectly unlike
our defiant, and unrepentant rebels!
They violently seized what they claim
ed of right, and made violent attempt
to carry away by force of arms; and
though foiled they would still assert
the right to feed on husks if any man
would give. Had there been no such
errors there would have been no such
sece sion and bloody war. Nor can
there ever be ia this united Republic
any such rebellion and carnage, but as
the legitimate fruit of this distinctive
Democratic error. Because
Second-Democratic synlpathies, be-
fore the rebellion, were with slavery
with slaveholding aristocracy, with
caste and sectional alienation, the out
growth of false principle-the princi-
pie of State sovereignty-fostered re-
bellion and war. Had there been no
such Democratic sympathy, there would
have been no war-rebellion making
bloody shirts
The Democratic party sympathized
in the rendition of fugitive slaves, and
stood as pillars in sustaining infamous
fugitive slave laws, making their re-
peal impossible. They sympathized
with the fugitive pIay-hunt on free
soil, making the whole North the play
ground of the human bloodhound.
They sympathized with the demand
IF their masters for the extension of
the area of slavery over every State
and Territory Of the Union. They
fought for the rebels in the Kansas and
Nebraska and Wilmot Proviso strug.
yles. They sympathiZed with Bull
Run defeats; with desertions from the
army; with invasiOns of the rebel ar
ny, as Lees raid upon Gettysburgh.
They resolved in Democratic Conven-
ions against the suppression of the re-
oellion, as at Chicago in 1864. They
ent friendly greetings again and again
o the rebels in arms for the destruc-
ion of the Union. They sympathized
With slavery, the cause of rebellion,
md bitterly opposed every step toward
These and thousand
,ther kindred sympathies they have
herished, and cherish still. They hate
till what they hated in Buchanan's
lines. They love what they loved du-
ing the rebellion, and would, being led
" the same sympathies still, play the
anne cowardly cringing game they
'layed in the day of their country's
rial. They delighted to honor ene-
MES of the Union by setting up as can.
lates for high offices, rebels aud rebel
as Vallandigham, who,
o please the South, favored the absurd
Ian of dividing the Union into four
ARTS, giving the South the lions
hare. All this out of sympathy for
lavery and rebellion. Hundreds of
Democrats have named their children
or prominent rebels and traitors and
loody aSsassins, as Booth, Vallandig-
lam and Lee, while in their families ,
ot name for one of the men who !.
sved the Union. Are such men,
riends of traitors and enemies of their
overnment, to be honored and trust
d now, still cherishing their old rebel
Not safely. Because i
Ihrd-The steady course of the DEM 9
cratic party, fre,n the incipiency of :
he rebellion, through the whole strug-
lie till its suppression; then during the |
of its disorders, and the re- f
obstruction of :he revolted States, was a
ostile throughout to the interests of |
National Union. The course of the
administration under Bu-
hanan, prompted by Democratic prin- :,
lples and sympathies- in regard to
tate rights, has an indelible record on Z
he blood-staiped page of American r
istury. Rebel snecrs about the 9
bloody shirt will fail to erase from the =
istoric page, and divert from the !.
1emory of survivors of dear ones laid !;
4 bloody graves, and shrouded in .
loody shirts. II
A Democratic administration turned
billions of money, and millions worth
f war material over to the rebels Il
'hile they were preparing for the war b
secession. The army and navy were !
rippled and scattered to the winds in !.
he South. The last Democratic Con-