Year: 1866




are largely entrusted with its manage
ment, have heretofore occupied Offices of
great trust and responsibility, in which
they proved to be recreant and corrupt


They are the men who, in the Legisla-
ture of Indiana, bitterly opposed and de-
nounced every effort to confer the right
of suffrage upon soldiers in the field who
could not come home to vote


They are the men who wrote letters to
soldiers IN the army, urging them to de-
sert, and assuring them Of support aud
protection If they did.


They are the men who labored with
devilish zeal to destroy the ability of the
government to carry on the war, by de-
preciating its financial credit. They as
sured the people 'greenbacks' would die
on their hands, and warned them solemn
ly against government bonds, as a wicked
device to rob them Of their money.


They are the men who refused to con
tribute to the Sanitary Commission for
the relief of sick and wounded soldiers,
upon the lying and hypocritical pretense
that the contributions were consumed by
the officers of the army.


They are the men who excused them
selves from contributing to the relief of
soldiers families at home by the infa-
nous slander that they were living better
than they had ever done and by foul i'm
putatlOns on the chastity of soldiers
wives.


They are the men who declared in
speeches, resolutions, and by their votes
in Congress, that not another man nor
another dollar should be voted to carry
on cruel war against their Southern
brethren.


They are the men who, in the midst of
the last great campaign of 1864, at the
time when Sherman was fighting his way,
step by step, from Chattanooga to At
lanta, and Grant was forcing Lee back into
the defenscs of Richmond, in desperate
and bloody battles from day to day; when
the fate of the nation hung In the bal
ance, and the world watched with breath
less interest the gigantic struggle which
was to settle the question of republican
government, assembled in Chicago and
resolved that the war was failure, that
our cause was unjust, and that we ought
to lay down our arms and sue for peace.
1t was throwing mountain into the con-
federate scale to make the Union kick
the beam. 1t was a bold and desperate
interference in behalf of the rebellion, at
the very crisis of the fight It was an insult
to the loyal armies of the nation, SO vast,
malignant and deadly, that language can
convey no adequate idea of its wicked
ness. And In future times the historian
will record the fact with astonishment
that the Government, at the most critical
moment Of its life, when a few hours, or
a few days at the furthest, must deter
mine whether it should live or die, could
permit a large body Of its enemies to
meet upon its soilin peace and security,
and publish fagrant manifesto in behalf
of the rebellion.


Now, I do not mean to say that all the
Democratic leaders have done all these
things, but what [ do say is this, that the
men who have done these things are COM
bined together, and constitute the real
leaders Of the Democratic party. The
few moderate men of the party have been
stripped Of all power and influence, and
are carried along with it merely for num-
bers and policy, while the living and ag-
gressive element which controls it are the
Sons of Liberty, and those who acted
In sympathy and concert with them


They are the men who have perverted
the word Democracy, from its once honor
able meaning, to be a shield and cover for
rebellion, and for every crime that at
taches to a causeless and atrocious civil
war.


WHO CALLED THEMSELVES DEMOCRATS.


Every unregenerate rebel, lately in
arms against his Government, calls him



every deserter, every sneak" who ran
away from the draft, calls himself a Dem
Ocrat. BOwles, MIlligan, Walker, DOdd,
HOrsey and humphreys, call themselves
Democrats. Every Son cf Liberty" who
conspired to murder, burn, rob arsenals
and release rebel prisoners, calls himself
a Democrat. John Morgan, Sue Mundy,
Champ Ferguson, Wirz, Paine and Booth,
proclaimed themselves Democrats. Eve
II, l,L Al IL
the field, who murdered Union prisoners
by cruelty and starvation, who conspired
TO bring about civil war in the loyal
States, who invented dangerous com
pounds to burn steamboats, and Northern
cities, who contrived hellish schemes to
introduce into Northern cities the vast
ing pestilence of yellow fever, calls him
self Democrat. Every dishonest con-
tractor who has been convicted of de-
frauding the Government, every dishon-
est paymaster or disbursing officer who
has been convicted Of squandering our
public money at the gaming table or in
gold gambling speculatiOns. every officer
in the army who was dismissed for cow
ardice or disloyalty, calls himself a Dem
Ocrat. Every wolf in sleeps clothing
who pretends to preach the Gospel, but
proclaims the righteousness Of man selling
and slavery; every one who shoots down
negroes in the streets, burns negro school
houses and meeting houses, and murders
women and children By the light of their
own flaming dwellings, calls himself a
Democrat. Every New York rioter in
1868, who burned up little children IN
colored asylums-who robbed, ravished
and murdered unfortunately in the
midst of a blazing city for three days and
nights, called himself a Democrat. In
short the Democratic party may be de-
scribed as a common sewer and loath-
some receptacle, into which IS emptied
every element of treason North and
South, and every element of inhumanity
and barbarism which has dishouored the
age.


And this party, composed of the men
and elements have described, in defiance
of truth and decency, asserts itself as the
special champion of the Constitution and
the Union, which but short sixteen
months ago it was In arms to destroy
and proclaims to an astonished world that
the only effect of vanquishing armed reb-
els in the field, Is to return them to seats
in Congress, and to restore them to po
litical power Having failed to destroy
the Constitution by force, they seek to do
it by construction, and assume to have
made the remarkable discovery that the
rebels who fought to destroy the Consti-
tuition were its true friends, and that the
men who shed their blood and gave their
substance to preserve 1t Wereits only enc
mics.


There is between Probst and Coovert,
the perpetrators respectively of the Deer
ing Tragedy and the Deerfield Horror,