Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-10-07
FROM WASHINGTON.

Let every true lover Of his country
consider we'll the objects the Southern
Confederate Democracy are anxious
to accomplish by the ascendency of
the Democratic party in all branches
of the Government, through the aid
of solid South. Judging by their
speeches there can be but one conclu-
sion drawn, which is, that through
the caucus system, as inaugurated by
the present Democratic Congress, at
which caucus there will be at least
two Confederate Democrats to one
Union Democrat, they may again con
troll the legislation of the nation as
they did before the rebellion. Is
there any doubt but what that control
would be used to repay themselves the
great loss they have sustained in try
ing to destroy the Union and to ad-
vance the interest they fought for but
lost on the battlefield?
There is a bill before Congress now,
looking to the referring the claims
against the Government or a large
portion Of them to the Court of Claims
which will be fully carried out in case
the Southern Confederates elect their
candidate for President They will at
once revise the Court Of Claims and
give said Court the right to adjust all
claims growing out of the destruction
of Southern property to maintain the
Union Will Gen. Hancock, if elect
ed President. veto this revision of the
Court of Claims? VIII he oppose
the action of the Democratic party as
decided upon in Democratic caucus +?
There is but one response to these
questions. He will most assuredly
act with and not against his party.
Under this state Of facts his letter
promising to veto rebel claims amounts
to nothing as they will be ordered paid
by the Court of Claims.
That the Southern Confederates
have not given up the cause for which
they fought and were defeated is evil
dent by the numerous appeals of the
Southern speakers to the devotion of
their brethren to said cause. Gen.
Fitzhugh Lee, nephew of Gen. Rob-
ert Z. Lee, in an address to his fellow
Democrats at Portsmouth, Va. a short
time since, said, pointing 20 Confed-
crate monument in the cemetery near
by If yOu desire that those heroes
buried yonder shall not hare died an
rain, cote the Democratic ticket"
The Albany Journal comments on this
as follows:
1t is evident that Mr.. Lee has an
accurate conception of the true in
wardness Of this campaign. He real
ICES that it is not the Democratic party
that has changed since Gettysburg,
but only Hancock. He realizes that
1.-THE Superb hasn't swallowed the
party, but the party the Superb"
He realizes that the opposing politi-
cal forces which have tried ''conclu-
sions ever since 1860" are again
matched against each other and tina:
each is the same in character and
tendency now as when Lincoln ran
against Breckenridge and Douglas.
He realizes that the triumph Of Han
cock would be the triumph of the
principles for which ''those heroes
buried yonder died" since he is we'll
aware that a national triumph for the
Democratic party would be the especi-
al triumph of the solid South. which
is now, as it always has been, the
dominent element in the party.
The patriotic American people ad-
mlre Fitzhugh Lees frankness, but
they abhor his sentiments since they
are at war with love for the Union
The heroes on one side or the other
"died in vain in the clash of arms
for the suppression of the rebellion.
al loyal men declare that the boys in
blae did not thus die. and they will
show by their votes that they did not
die in vain. Fitzhugh Lee, on tie
other hand, summons the South to
vote so as to demonstrate that the boys
in blue did die in vain and that the
boys in gray, and they alone. died to
some purpose. There can be no doubt
how the men who would conserve the
best interests Of the country will vote
on the issue as thus made up