Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1877 — THE CIVILIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. [ARTICLE]

THE CIVILIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Th«* asutew of Use Louisiana returning Ward have been summoned not esnvtotsd Mon*. To imprison thsta men Is unjust. And In this Hls no more and 9° >«**• than the hateful malignant spite of a dofloated presidential aspimot. moving ttmnigikabody of corrupt, eonseieneeleas zralot*, to nqntsh with tho ealloqa cnieity of a tyrant those who are "tending hetspeen him and *he fruition of h>« passion uts ambition.— Jirnmelmr Union. WtwhT the editor of the Union have pa believe that he is ignorant or tho flirt that witnesses before committee* of congrass, who refuse to testify, have at ail times in the past history of tha country, been considered guilty of contempt, and therefore liable to lmprjsoumeut? The only fault we find with the committee is that they did not kick him [Mr. Wells], out of their presence when be insulted them by #ucn insolence as lias never before been tolerated by a congressional committee. -ityapmlA Democrat. I*|. No claim is laid to familiaritf with tb» hjjiprica! treatment of witneaaet by committees of congreat; bat it Is found upon reading the Washington letters published by the daily presa of our ovrp time that a marked difference exists between tha treatment accorded to thoac who have been aummoned before the oommitleca of the houae of repreaeqtatives and thoae summoned before the committees of the senate this wiutcr, which does not reflect favorably for the justice, humanity or civilisation of that branch of congress wherein"there is a large democratic majority. A single illustration establishes this statement, Mr. Wells and other republicans of Louisiana were summoned before Mr. J. Proctor Knott's house committee, and upon the exceedingly vague accusation of aootumacy were thrust into a loathsome dungeon. Mr. Jourdan, cashier of lhe ( New York bank where Mr- Tilden kept his deposits and through which checks were drawn for the money tp pay the corrupted Oregon conspirators, waa summoned before a senate committee to testify to the facts in that case whifh necessarily were known to him in hia capacity of a bank officer. Mr. Jourdan also proved contumacious; but instead of being incarcerated in prison, as a common felon, he was permitted to occupy rooms in the hotel of his own choice, and granted the liberty of the city of Washington without guy other bond than bis simple parole to appear before the compiittpp whenever notified to do so. Nor Waa this all. The officer into Who** custody he was consigned placed »t jUp. Jourdan’* disposal his own private carriage to convey him back and forth between the committee room apd his hotel. The positions of Mr. Wells and Mr, Jourdan, relatiye to the- committing before whom they had been aummoned, were identical in character. Bqth gentlemen wore merely witnesses, and both became coqtumacions under examination; that is to say, both declined'to answer pertain questions that were propounded to them by the interlocutors of the respective committees pf congress before whotu they had been summoned for examination. And neither one had been convicted ot any crime, or was ever regularly presented for the commission of an offense against the jaw. The treatment of Mr. Wells and h’t« associates from Louisiana, by tb# committee of Mr. Tilden’s aealotg, waa an outrage—a blot Upon American civilization, for ffcieb no satisfactory excuse or jugtiflpation pan he framed* *d. f The only ffivlt tee find with the eemmittee if that they std nqt kkt Aim oaf of their pretence. 1 ' This sentiment la essentially and peculiarly democratic. It faithfully reflects pnd truly represents the sentiment pf a large number of people who p*l] themself j# democrats. It |s the openly avowed advocacy of vioindividuals, of contempt of j constimtional law which guarantee# to every man the right of trial jjary before an unprejudiced eojgrf, pad of the arbitrary infliction of degrading corporal punishment wot known to the statutes of eivUtzed peoples,. This seu : liment harmonizes with the ineffaceable record of the demneratie party for the past fifty years, as ynay be proven by indiapatable hisJ, disregard foe the forms of law

•ggfaft* , 'fj ..I. - » ’ - f. . > ( t ■ and of the rights of weaker men incited the democratic party to make war upon the leas powerful ■fetor state of Mexico in order to extend the area of slavery—an institution or crime than which tliere t« none morn degradiug to humanity or more heinous in the sight of God—a crime which has been fittingly termed the sum of aH vil Whies, which was the especial darling ot the democratic party who loved it with the frenzy of insanity—the god which they worshipped with a fervor more intense and fanaticism more furious than that of savage devotees at the shrines of Eastern paganism. It was this characteristic disregard for established law that impelled them to break the Missouri Compromise, a compact as sacred as the oaths of men could make. In the Soqth, for years and years before the rebellion lbroke out with allitsbloodshed and prisonpen horrors, the prevalence of this disposition rendered life precarious in that region lor any man or wo* pian who entered a protest against the barbarities of human slavery as sanctioned, practiced and protected by the democratic party under the false claim of its divine origin.* During the early days of the settlement of the state of Kansas the lawless and uncivilized instincts of the democratic party were more openly displayed than at any period subsequent to the rebellion until the recent presidential campaign. Men and women and their innocent children were brutally murdered for no other offense than the profession of tree-state principles. The democratic party resorted to every trick and every cunning scheme of fraud in legislation, *n total disregard of every principle ot honor known among men, to establish their supremacy over that territory. The perjury ot those days was limited only by the capacity of the men who attempted to justify the democratic party before the people of this nation. In 1860-1 ih* barbarous disposition of democrats culminated in civil war. They determined to rule the government or to destroy it. A million of human lives were sacrificed to their fierce ambition; one*third of our national territory was made desolate by their disobedience to law, and disregard of compacts and of the rights of other men; a burden of indebtedness, sorrow and grievious evils almost incalculable, was entailed upon the nation as the legacy of a peculiar demo* cratio civilization. But at no time in the history of American democracy has this characteristic spirit of contempt for the equal rights of all men, with its concomitant train of fraud, violence and dishonor, been more marked than during the presidential campaign of last summer, and the subsequent hours of uncertainty concern irg the result of it down to the day this article is placed in type. From the inception of the presidential eontest until tjoiy every baser passion of man has been conscripted into the service of the democratic party. Strongly suspicions circumstances, almost amounting to the dignity of direct, positive evidence, go to show that Mr. Tildett’s nomination was the fruit borne of cupidity. Unfounded detraction, unstinted viliificalion, and unwarranted assaults upon the characters of private citizens, of candidates for publio office, and of gentlemen who occopied.official positions, who asserted their preference for Mr. Haves, were among the least vicious measures adopted by the democratic party in their system of campaign tactics. In Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, and perhaps other of the northern atate*, the unlawful colonisation of Voters, repeating, and every species (t}f illegal voting, were practiced by them. In all ot the southern states where there resided large bodies ot colored voters, the democratic parly hid recourse to systematic intimida'Jon, and licensed the horrid crimes of arson, rape, murder and a|sassin#tjoo to accomplish their purpose#. On the Pacific Slope bribery and the arbitrary usurpation of authority were their : potent allies. Si nee congress at-j tumbled and commenced to count the electoral votes, there liss been 90 e#d to the violent, illegal, dishonorable —and revolutionary

schemes suggested by democratic ! members of congress, democratic judges, democratic legislatures, democratic newspapers, and democrats in the private walks of life, to evade the provisions ot the constitution respecting presidential elections, to override the laws of j states, and, finally, to prevent the I operations of a law which a large majority of the democratic members of congress united to frame and perfect. Those democratic newspapers that command any considerable influence which, since the election was held, have not, either openly or ooverlly, advocated measures of lawlessness, in some form or other, are the exceptional few and not a majority. The Chicago Timet, Cincinnati Enquirer, Washington Capital and Indianapolis Sentinel are individuals of a large olass representing a prevailing sentiment, and are only named because more or less well-known to the readers of The Union. So utterly reckless and so persistent are these democratic newspapers in their advocacy of the disregard of law, and of the assassination of public men, that it is only a matter of less wonderment that assaults like that which was made upon Governor Packard at New Orleans last week are not more frequent, than that so many well disposed people and otherwise good citizens, should longer remain members of a political party so Ipw in the scale of civilization, *o lacking in boner, and so wanting in the principle ”?rjusuce, as to give countenance and support to teachings which are calculated to sap the foundations ot society, debase mankind, and establish violence, crime and anarchy in the land.