Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1879 — Facts for Northern Men. [ARTICLE]

Facts for Northern Men.

The Democratic party have control of the legislative branch of this Government, with all its enormous powers and privileges. What is the Democratic party, and what are its aims? In the first place, it is controlled by, and largely composed of, persons lately in arms against the Government. These persons are not “reconstructed” and honorable men who accept the results of the war, but scheming, plotting, dangerous persons, who proclaim their continued adhesion to State Sovereignty, defy the amendments to the Constitution, and boldly trample upon the laws. The proportion which the so-called Union Democratic sentiment of the North bears to this Mexican element will be seen by the relative strength of the two classes in Congress. The Senate has forty Democratic members, twelve of whom are from the North and twenty-eight from the South. The House has one hundred and fiftyfive Democratic members, fifty-five from the North and Qne hundred from the South. In both houses the ex-Con-federates control «very important com-mittee,-and the whole legislative machinery of the country is therefore in the hands of those not only disloyal to the Union, but full of hatred of the North and her institutions. We call particular attention to a few interesting facts regarding this dangerous predominance of the unrefined, unprogressive and semi-barbaric element of the South in our politics. In the States having a majority of Democratic members in Congress there are 8,722,388 persons who eannot read; in the States having a Republican majority there are, of this class, but 697,238. In the Democratic States abovenamed the wealth, according to the last census, was $9,114,681,561; in the Republican this counts Ohio as Democratic, which, of course, is unjust, as at the last election she cast 10,000 more Republican than Democratic votes. , These Democratic States paid to iflie Government in customs revenue mst year $7,487,094; the Republican States paid $116,212,819. From 1866 to 1878 the Government was compelled to collect from the peo{ile over two thousand millions of dolars as internal revenue. Of this amount the late rebel States paid a trifle over two hundred millions, while the rest of the country paid over eighteen hundred millions. The single State of Illinois paid $lO,000,000 more than the whole Confederacy combined, while New York paid nearly twice as much. The Inter-Ocean calls attention to these facts now to show the supreme folly of intrusting to the impecunious and unprincipled banditti of tne South the vast interests of this great section, rich in wealth, intelligence, arts, manufactures, and all that goes to make a people grand, prosperous and powerful. We have wealth, but the men with shot-guns control it. We have industrious artisans, brilliant inventors, gallant soldiers, eminent literateurs, out the disciples of the bowie-knife estimate the value of their services and determine the extent to which they shall be encouraged. They exercise this control not through superior bravery, not as the prerogative of valor, not because they are conquerors in battle, but seemingly because they are themselves the conquered and the vanquished, and because Northern men are prone to trifle with danger until it confronts them as an immediate peril which threatens their very existence. If these people were one with us; if they accepted the war as final; if they were ready to leave the fight behind them and take hold honorably for the upbuilding of the whole countiy, there would be no complaint. But they do none of these. They tear down what we have built at so much cost, deny the dearest privileges of citizenship to those upon whom the Constitution eonfers such privileges, and seek in all possible ways to destroy and neutralize a victory which the North dearly bought and which it has a right to enjoy. This being the case can, thoughtful men longer refrain from putting tne stamp of their disapproval on the party which fosters Mid encourages such a spirit? They must do that, or a more serious duty will soon confront them. There is no escaping the responsibility. The truth of the declaration made by the InterOcean weeks ago grows plainer every day: “The Democratic party must be voted down or whipped down.”—Chicago Inter-Ocean.