National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1879-06-24

mocracy in adopting one of the time-hon
ored planks of the Republican party in good
faith. We would hail the nomination of
Generals EWING aud RICE as in some meas |
urc an Offering Of atOnement-a latter-doy |
sort of repentance for the many insults
heaped by Democracy upon the Union SOL
dicr. But we cannot-alas we cannot
lay such flattoring JUNCTION to our souls.
We would fan believe in the solidity of this
new-placed plank in the Democratic plat
form, stolen though IL has been from us !
but we fear it will soon become affected
with the dry-rot of Copperhead Democracy,
like all the other planks stolen from us, to
wit: The plank of the indestructablity of
the Union the plank of the equality of all
men before the law without respect to race,
color, or previous condition the plank of
equal political suffrage the plank of repu
diaton of rebel debts and claims, and hon
est payment of the national debt and of
loyal claims. But why enumerate when
the fact is patent that in the
great issues of the day Democracy
has stolen every prominent plank, one after
another, from the Republican party's saw
mill and invited the country TO stand upon
its patchwork platform until at last it has run
in two little soldier scantlings between the
dry-rot planks of the recent Ohio structure ?
But they will not support tottering cause.
THURMAN and TtLDEy and PENDLEToN
and VALLAYDIGuAM and SEYMOUR and
the other great guns of Democracy could
not stand upon such a platform moment.
The crushing weight of their past hostility
to the Union cause and its supporters in
the field and in the factory would grind the
stolen dry-rotted loyal timbers and scant-
lings into splinters. How could these gen.
tlemen advocate the nomination of Union
soldier for o standard-bearer in a political
campaign! They did not do it. The big
guns were charged to the muzzle in favor of
a candidate who never wore the blue. A
successful loyal soldier is not to their taste.
The only thing that reconciles them to
MCCLELLAN was his failures and supposed
strength with the army. EWING was nomi-
mated in spite of the great guns of
Democracy, and now they pretend to
great admiration Of the Union soldier;
but will they follow the practice Of
nominating loyal Union soldier for the
Presidency, as pursued by the Republican
party since the war? Oh, no! When the
Republican party elects soldier to its
highest Office the country is gravely warned
of the danger of allowing the Republic to
be swayed by men accustomed to WELD the
baton of military command, and that Caesar
! ism and Imperialism will be the inevitable
result. This late day Democratic profess
sion of regard for the Union soldier comes
upon the country too soon after the abuse
heaped upon our GRANTS and our SHER-
MANS, and our SHERIDANs and their gal
liant armies to be accepted as genuine. The
Union soldiers of Ohio know that the polit-
icnl associates of THURMAN, and PENDLE-
TON, and VALLANDIGHAM, and the other
prominent Democratic leaders of that State
pronounced the war for the Union an un-
righteous cause. They did all that they
could to render it unsuccessful, and branded
our armies as being engaged in criminal
invasion of State Rights. The Union SOL
ders of 1s6l-'65 know that the Democracy
of that period was reasonable political
organization, and that it was in open SYM
pathy with the rebellion when it dared to
be open, and that it was in secret SYM
pathy with the rebel leaders and their
cause at all times-always ready to COM
municate secret intelligence to the enemy
by which the best laid plans of campaigns
for our armies were often contemplated,
whereby the war was prolonged and hun
dreds of thousands of lives of our best SOL
diers were sacrificed and hundreds of mil
lions of dollars were added to the public
debt. The Union soldiers of Ohio know
that the only elements of loyalty and re-
spectability that can be found in the Ohio
Democracy are those which the Union SOL
diers, who have gone into that party
brought with them. erecognize the right
of the Union soldier TO vote as seems best Ia
; him. The cause he fought for was pre-emi-
nently that OF freedom in all things, civil
political and religious and the soldier Ii
= pre-eminently entitled to the greatest free
dom. 1t is his rthright-doubly right
; to him who defended liberty OH the battle
field But the Ohio soldiers should remem-
! Der that the black brigades who charged
t the enemy at Port Hudson, and Vicksburg,
and Charleston, and Petersburg, and who
shed their blood on the battle-felds OF tho
Union alongside the Ohio regmental lines
are denied the right to vote by the
rebel States, denied an equal pro
lection of the State laws, denied the
right to live as citizens Of the Union, fol-
which they, too, fought; denied the right t
live in any condition above seridom, and that
Q the aiders and abettor5 Of these denials are
the men who comprised and lead the De-
mOcracy Of Ohio in ls6l-'G5. The true
+ Union soldier does not sacrifice his princi
pies for an office, and, unlike the Copper
r head Democrat and rebel Brigadier, he il
, not chronic oflice.seeker. When the men
! who run 20 ,yentiOns overlook the claims
the Just claims, for recognition which he i
+. too modest to assert, he does not desert Iii
, party colors. This neglect Of just claims il
too often the fate of modest worth and po
litical combinations; but admitting this, i
, does not become the right of Democracy to in
atruct a nartv which has re peatedly eleCte,