Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-07-18
For the Eye Of the Union Soldier.

Durlng the 1Our years oI peril LHouSH
which the country passed, from 1861 to 1865,
when the principles of popular government
"a government by the people, OF the people,
and for the people"-was on the very verge
of destruction, no class of men in the land
did more to save and perpetuate it than the
citizen soldiers. Voluntarily, and from pa
triotic motives, they took up arms and offered
their lives in defense of the most valuable OF
all the blessings of life, civil and religious
freedom. Having rendered to their country
such noble service, it is but reasonable to be-
lieve that they would ever after remain true
to the principles which then impelled them to
action, and would never, as long as life and
reason left them, be found repudiating those
principles or yielding the issues for which
they then SO gloriously contended.
Nevertheless, very many of these patriots,
guided by various motives, and losing sight
of the noble objects which actuated them in
that period of great national peril, have been
casting their ballots, within the past few
years, with the political party that is respon-
sible for plunging the country into anarchy
and rebellion; and have been voting for the
very men who conducted that rebellion, or
for those who sympathized with and aided
them in their efforts to destroy the vital ele-
ment which animates free Republican govern
ment.
Some Of these veterans have been induced
to desert the principles once so dear to them,
through dissatisfaction with a few of the
leaders of the Republican party. They act
ed on the dangerous plea that change was
necessary. In this they forgot that to ad-
minister the best of governments for long
series of years, without occasionally suffering
from the selection of selfish or corrupt Off
cial or demagogue, is among human impos-
sibilities. By fidelity to those principles best
calculated to lead to national prosperity, how
ever, and by pursuing a wise and cautious
policy in selecting men to carry them into ex-
ecution, we can, without fail, so control the
helm that the ship of State shall move stead
lily forward to the brightest realization of oul
hopes for the perfection Of freedom and the
attainment of national power and happiness.
Admitting, for the sake of argument, that
some Republican officers have not preserved
unsullied their integrity of character, and
that others have acted unwisely or from sell
fish motives, is it to be supposed that the
Democracy will be free from these defects
The pages of history show that every Demo
cratic administration this country has known,
was honey-combed with frauds and corrup-
tions, infested with shameless hypocrites, and
replete with INSCRIPTIONS rogues. If it is
supposed that the Democratic party has re.
formed, and will be more honest and patriotic
in the future than it has been in the past, We
have only to note the fact that in their very
first lease of power they have been compelled
to remove several office holders in the House
of Representatives for dishonesty. This, too
when they fully realized that, to secure en-
tire possession of the Government, it was alb
solutely requisite they should show to the
country their official purity and disinterested
patriotism.
Should the knowledge of this fact still leave
our minds in doubt, that uncertainty should
be removed by the indisputable evidence fur
nIshed in the action of the Congress just
closed, that the leaders of the Democracy art
practicing upon the country the very baldes
deception. They have raved necessarily
about economy and Republican extravaganza
and have crippled the machinery of the Gov
ernment, to the injury of citizens whose in
terests were therein pending, and they have
then passed deficiency bills after the elections
acre OOer. This course they adopted to make
it appear that they were reducing expenses
and exposing Republican dishonesty, while
in fact, the aggregate of tLeir expenses large
ly exceeds that authorized by any Republican
House of Representatives, owing to the i'm
mense sums wasted in prosecuting investiga
tions for the purpose of making party capital
and the large amounts of money voted to pay
Southern losses incr ed through rebellion
In short, the Demo ats, while they are boast
!, ing of their economy, are simply using th'