Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1871 — A Little History. [ARTICLE]

A Little History.

The action of the Ohio Democratic Convention ends, for that State, a chapter of political history in this country which every man who wishes to vote wisely should carefully study. In the year 1860 the Democratic party" dominant in the Union. Its great policy was the denial of the fundamental American doctrine of equal human rights, and, under the plea of State sovereignty, the confirmation and perpetuity of human slavery. The rise of the Republican party was the protest of the national conscience against this monstrous policy. The protest became so commanding that the most logical and resolute of the Democratic chiefs, toreseeing the ultimate catastrophe of their course, brought on the war of the rebellion. The mass of the Northern Democrats denounced the Republicans as morally responsible for the war by their unconstitutional hostility to the extension or slavery, while some individuals, like Butler, Dickinson, and others, cordially supported coercion. But diving the whole war the steady opposition to every necessary measure of war proceeded from the Democratic party. It called the war wicked, fratricidal, and unnecessary. It derided the President with every epithet of contempt. It nominated notorious Copperheads for office in the various States. In Connecticut its candidate for Governor wis the well known Mr. Seymour of thit State. In Ohio it nominated Mr. Vallandigham, who had so openly espoused the cause of the rebellion that he was sent beyond the Union lines. In New York it elected Horetio Seymour, who incited the July riots of 1863. Everywhere and always it paralysed action and demoralized opinion,' until in 1864 it solemnly declared the war a failure, and demanded surrender to the rebellion. Meanwhile the faithful and patriotic citizens of the Union stood fast and united against the cannon of the rebels, and the moral support of those cannon offered by the Democratic party, and unconditionally subdued the rebellion. Then came Mr. Johnson ana his treachery. He denounced Republican legislation, and the Democrats supported him, declaring the whole Republican reconstruction, as they had declared the Republican conduct of the war, to be unconstitu tional, revolutionary, and void. Emboldened! by tfc* possibility of their ascenden- j ej, the smothered feelings in the Southern States showed itself in the massacres at New Orleans and Memphis, and the loyal people of the country, seeing these [things, and hearing Democratic speeches and reaolntions, closed their ranks and elacteAGipKal Grant Atkat, faroatvtng that the people of

the United States have repudiated the traditions, the opinions, the policy, the can didatee, the spirit, of the Democratic party, some of its leaders are trying to do the same, In the hope that when every thing distinctively Democratic hat disappeared, the people may not be unwilling to trust a party which retains only the name. The Ohio Democratic Convention, therefore, under the presidency of e gentleman who was in favor of seces•ion, has nominated for Goveruor a soldier of the fratricidal and unconstitutional war; and at the lnetancq pf another gen tlcman, who wished to surrender to the rebellion in 1864, and who declared Republican reconstruction revolutionary and void in 1808, resolves that Republican re construction Is valid and must be enforced. Yet, even this action was by no means unanimous. After a stormy struggle, a vote was 865 yeas against 129 nays. This history shows that the Democratic leaders, despising the conscience and underrating the intelligence of the Amcri can people, fell from power. Their policy was inhuman, their appeals were odious, their methods were corrupt. The Democratic party became s national curse. It struggled to perpetuate slavery, and, in order to succeed, It debauched and degrad ed the public mind. Yet it continually claimed to be peculiarly a constitutional party; and in the name of the Constitution connived at the rebellion to overthrow it. It now proposes, in Ohio, to ask for the popular confidence on the ground"that it has never deserted it. It accepts as much ofthe Republican policy as it can not hope to defeat, and now calls the rest of it, as it formerly called the whole, unconstitutional. And what to-day it brands as unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void, it will to-morrow commend as valid, if it is necessary to obtain power. Meanwhile is the Union surer with those who have fought and suffered for it, or with those who practically connived at secession? Is freedom safer with those who have been its friends always, or with those who were yesterday its fiercest foes? Is honest administration more probable with intelligence and conscience, or with ignorance and contempt of “ moral ideas? ’ Are popular institutions more stable with the unswerving friends of the public school system, or with those who are allied with ecclesiastical enemies ? Is respect for the Constitution more probable with those who amendod it, as itself provides, to enlarge the securities of equal rights, or with those who are willing to acquiesce in ‘•usurpation” under it, and to declare what.they call its most flagrant violations valid? The action of the Democratic Ohio Convention is the most signal vindication of the Republican ascendency in the gov. rninent, and the frankest confes sion that the general conduct of that party is approved by the good sense of the country. — Harper's Weekly.