Year: 1861

hI hOl OoED WALL Il lON.


The republicans have made PROPOSE
tions to the democrats to unite with them
and form new party. The Chicago
Times, edited by Wilbur f. Storey, lats
editor Of the Detroit Free Press, says:


There is now, as ever, deep gulf be-
tween parties-a gulf not of feeling, but
of principle, which can only be spanned
by constitutional legislation, Of which we
at present discover little prospect. -
Democrats can cheerfully fight for the
government. That they must do, firstly,
because it is their government, and,
secondly, because it is their duty to see
to it that this shall not be mere partisan
war; but they cannot hold political Office
under the administration of party who
cling to personal liberty bills--who have
virtually placed the hundreds of millions
devoted to the war at the mercy Of the
banks, and who have so far managed hos
tilities with neither vigor nor success.


How could John A. Dix or Joseph
Holt as conscientious men, carry out q
policy inimical to the Sub-Treasury ?
How can they enter into political fellow
ship with leaders who sustain the nulli-
fication by the States of the fugitive slave
law, and the infamous enactments by
which Crittenden, Andrew johnson,
Etherdge, and even Holt himself, might
be sent to the penitentiary for bringing
a negro body servant with them when
they come to the North to speak and act
in behalf of the constitution and the
Union


We would be delighted to behold
thoro' union in political sentiment at the
present period, but there can be no union
SO long as the personal liberty bills are
unrepealed or an anti-slavsry sentiment
guides the policy of the dominant party.
No doubt democrats would tomorrow, if
they had power, repeal every one of those
bills, and the first condition to political
aid TO the administration must be the
abandonment of all unconstitutional leg
islation on tho subject of slavery. In
the meantime, democrats ask no coalition.
They intend to force this war to fruition
by all the means in their power. Stand
ing between the secessionists and anti
slavery men, they have no political rela-
tions or sympathies with either. They
deem them now, as they did in the past,
alike guilty of all the preliminary agi-
tatioRs by which the present condition of
affairs has been attained, and if they do
not continue to say who is responsible, il
is not because they have forgotten who,
but because these are not proper times
for ordinary political wranglings. The
salvation of the country occupies all of
their energies, and leaves no time, at
present, to investigate and denounce the
causes Of the peril. They will, therefore,
do their whole duty. The last to go in
to the war, they will be the last to 60
out of it. They would have avoided, if
they could, the dread necessities Of the
hour; but, while they think that wise
policy might have preserved peace, they
will not allow the government to be de-
fled by armed men with impunity, and
will insist that the war shall be conduct
ed for the honor of the constitution.
They, however, hold the dominant party
responsible for all measures, whether Of
legislation or of war, which have been,
or may be, adopted. This is their posi-
tion, and they do not recognize in the
present confusion of public events an op-
portunity to abandon their principles and
slip into the fat places of the government.
They can be patriots without office.--tho
uncompromising foes of rebellion, with
out supporting tho party political policy
Of the administration.