The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-03-04
For Douglas Denscrats.


In 1860 there were in the States of
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Min
nesota, Ohio and Wisconsin six hum
dred and sixty Thousand men who voted
for Stephen A. Douglas for President.
Whatever may be said of the supporters
of Douglas in other States, it is certain
that the Douglas men in the States
named believed in their leader and rev.
erenced his name. They had in that
campaign forcible illustration of the
rule-or-ruin policy of the Southern
Democrats, and even if the war had not
followed they would have had good
reason to distrust and dislike the lead
ers of the State-rights or secession
party. The war increased this distrust
and dislike. and SO it happened that
many Douglas Democrats became
identified with the Republican party,
some of them at the very beginning of
the war, others after years of expe-
rience had taught them that there was
no hope for reform in the Democratic
ranks.
Among those who most revered the
name of Douglas, and who were most
attached to the principles advocated by
that Democratic leader, was a young
man who was born a Democrat; who
classed General jackson with St. Peter
and st. Paul. and who believed in the
total depravity of the Republican party.
This young man went through school
and college in this spirit, went South
an ardent Democrat. determined to see
the Southern people at their best, re-
manned among them ten years, and be-
came "a stalwart Republican. This
young man was Stephen A. Douglas,
son Of the Democratic leader of 1860.
Mr.. Douglas, in recent lecture on
the political and social condition of the
South, explains how he was transformed
from, Democrat to a Republican, and,
as he was born in the South, educated
a Democrat, and went to North Caro-
lima with no prejudices against the
South or its people, his testimony is of
peculiar interest. He shows that the
Southern Democrats began early to
plot against Senator Douglas, and that in
1858 Buchanan's s Administration, under
the influence of Southern leaders,
strained every nerve to defeat him for
Senator. Douglas interfered with
Southern supremacy, and the Demo
cratic leaders from that section deter
mined to work his ruin. Faced by the
Douglas Democrats who would not do
their bidding, and by the Republicans
rallying round the standard of national
ity, the Southern leaders concluded to
secede. They went out flying the flag
of State supremacy, but turned in few
months to repudiate the doctrine and
assert the power and infallibility of the
Confederate government.
Mr.. Douglas, in tracing the history OF
reconstruction, calls attention to the
fact that at the close of the war the
people of the South were utterly and
completely whipped. They were pre-
pared then to accept any terms offered
them, and there was no loud talk of the
tyranny of the North in not giving
them their political rights. But when
the old leaders came again to the front,
all propositions coming from the Gen
era1 Government were rejected-not
because they were not just, but simply
because they came from the North. In
1865 the South asked nothing; in 1868
it wanted to control the Government it
had sought to destroy, and since that
date it has labored to restore the SUI
premacy of the ante-bellum days.
Describing some of the methods re-
sorted to by the Democrats to regain
control in the South, Mr.. Douglas con-
fines himself to the operations of the
Kuklux that came under his own OBJ
servation in North Carolina, and to the
system of intimidation and fraud that
gave the State to the Democrats. In
this connection he states that Governor
Holden, who firstinaugurated measures
to suppress the Kuklux Klan, is the
only man in North Carolina under 3
political disability to hold State Office.
The Democratic Legislature that passed
q bill giving general and complete
amnesty and pardon to the Kuklux, re-
fused to pass q bill extending the same
amnesty to Holden.
The story of how the Republican ma
jorities in North Carolina and other
Southern States were destroyed has
been told again and again. Mr.. Doug
las gives it more picturesqueness of de-
tail, and leaves on the mind more
vivid impression. After telling the
story, he says: a
L put it strongly because feel it strongly.
Southern Republican. I lived through and
among the scenes have described. have
the the
turning, I have seen the smile Of contemptu.
GUS incredulity upon the faces Of the people of
was elected, l confess q savage joy stole over
me, though had fought for Hayes upon many
a heated stump; for I felt now God is dealing
out to the North q portion Of what the North
has permitted to be dealt out to US.
Mr.. Douglas believes that the Democ-
racy have but one end in view, and that
is to rule. They do not look to the
moral aspect of a question; they only
ask, will it bring successP They will
dare do anything to bring success.
There is but one thing left Tor them to
take-the Presidency, and with it the
entire control of the Government"
These are the utterances of man
who was born in the South, who was
educated Democrat, and who has
studied the situation from a Southern
What effect will they have
on the Douglas Democrats, who, during
the war, acted with the Union Republi-
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