The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-03
Democratic Responsibility.

To the Editor Of the indianapolis Journal:
It is well, perhaps. that the vanity and senility
of jeff DAVIS have been the occasion of bringing
to the surface the lill-concealed sentiments and
purposes Of the men late in arms against the
government. It may have come in time to les
sen, il not wholly avert, the calamities to which
we are rapidly drifting. That the virus of con-
federalism remains deeply Embedded in the po-
litical sentiments OF the Southern people was no
secret to those who had kept an eye upon the DO
litical movements of the day, but these bold ut
terances open the secret to the world, 80 that
henceforth no man need aid them, unless he is
in hearty sympathy with them. And for this
the Democratic party is responsible. There
never would have been any armed rebellion
but for the promise of aid and com
fort from the Democratic party. What Horace
Heffren said with so much emphasis in the Indi-
ana House in 1861, was the sentiment of every
recognized Democratic leader in America at that
time: IF the government attempts to march
upon the sovereign States of the South to coerce
them it must march over my dead body" Except
for assurance of such help Fort Sumter would
never have been fired upon, and not one drop of
loyal blood would have been shed. The Demo
cratic party was responsible for the beginning
of the war. and no less for its continuance 1t
would not have lasted ninety days had the Dem
ocratic party taken the loyal stand that Stephen
A. Douglas and John A. Logan, of Illinois and
Joseph A. Wright and A. G. Hovey, of indiana,
ocrats did everywhere From the day that Fort
Sumter was fred upon until Lee surrendered at
Appomattox, there was not township, or coun-
ty, or State, or national Democratic convention
that did not strengthen the hands of the
rebels in arms by some adverse criticisms of the
methods of the administration, if not by as
strong words of sympathy for the rebels as they
dared to utter in the face of aroused loyalty, SO
that the Confederacy counted on the moral and
material support of the party, as such, every
where. The Knights of the Golden Circle was
only another name for the bone and sinew of TIE
Democratic party-a special organization of the
truest and best OF the party for a specific pur-
pose-to take care Of Governor Morton" to
assassipate hip, and to release the rebel prison
ers at Camp Morton, and sack Indianapolis, and
similar deeds in other loyal States.
There would not have been another gun fired
after Vicksburg and Gettysburg but for the hope
that at the election of 1864 the Democrats would
come into power and concede what the rebels de-
manded. All along the sympathy of the party as
an organization was known to be with the
rebels, though tens OF thousands of the best Of
Democrats, on every other issue, were in the
ranks of the Union army, doing the best Of
service for their country. Again, to-day, the
Democratic party is responsible for this out.
burst Of secession sentiment which has so
alarmed the Nation. The silly rebels have as
sumed that the accidental plurality of Loaf in
New York In 1884, in an aggregate vote of
/, l67. 1877, and absolute minority OF 40 855 In
that State and by which they were pat in pos