^ ^"^^^coivF^^ 
 
 A FEW WORDS =!:!*^ 
 
 1882 
 
 flOBT FEmVfflJl DHilffi: 
 
 Let us not be unjust to the great Democratic party. For 
 half a century, with short intervals, it has ruled the country, 
 and it may legitimately boast of many illustrii)us names 
 among its leaders, whose patriotism will always be unques- 
 tioned, and whose public services command the gratitude 
 of the people. That the mass of the party has been and 
 still is composed of those who sincerely and earnestly 
 desire the public welfare, no one who believes in republican . 
 institutions can reasonably doubt. Yet the great Demo- 
 cratic party now occupies a position in which its success 
 threatens the gravest evils to the country at large, and to 
 the State of Pennsylvania in particular. 
 
 In the history of all political parties there are periods of 
 decadence when new issues cause disruptions, and tlie great 
 leaders withdraw, or are forced from their leadership. The 
 management of the f)arty then passes into the hands of 
 second or third class men, whose views are too contracted 
 to a[)preciate the results of the measures which they advo- 
 cate, or whose selfish recklessnees disregards the' ruin 
 which "they may bring about, if only they can succeed in 
 enjoying the advantages of power and place. Such men- 
 trust solely to their skill in inflaming the passions of the 
 multitude, and to the strength of the organization whose 
 fealty they chxira as their own property, and not to the in- 
 fjuence of reasun, or to the inirinsic merit of the policy 
 which they advocate. ^It is not the least of the misfortunes 
 of the country that the great Democratic party now occupies 
 this humiliating position, and is under the control, for good 
 or for evil, of such leaders. 
 
 The times of Jackson and of Benton are passed. When 
 the South madly rushed into rebellion, and all men felt that 
 old party lines and issues were obsolete in the new and 
 untried era bursting upon us, the Democracy of the North 
 underwent a silent revolution. Its chiefs of honor and 
 capacity felt that the demands of country were superior to 
 those of JDarty, and that the death-struggle for national 
 existence left no space for the ordinary contest for offioe. 
 The questions of public policy on which had been based 
 the diiferences of party during a time of peace and pros- 
 perity were no longer living issues, and these men would 
 not sacrifice their convictions of duty to the aspirations of 
 political ambition. Such men as Douglas, Dix, llolt, Cass, 
 Dickinson, Stanton and Butler, still believing themselves to 
 
 '//<SHm 
 
2 ■ .r42 
 
 be Democrats, and abandoning notbing of tbeir Democratic 
 f:iitb, rallied to tbe cause of their country, and in serving, 
 with sword and pen, that country through the administra- 
 tion to which its interests had been confided, tliey felt that 
 they were but obeying the behests of the noblest and purest 
 Democracy. So was it with the long list, too tedious to 
 enumerate, of patriotic men who had opposed the election 
 of Mr. Lincoln, and who yet rushed to the defence of bis 
 government as soon as it was threatened by the rebellion. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the long continufd neglect of 
 their political duties by the people had for years been 
 placing the management of parties in the hands of men less 
 and less reputable. Tiie Democracy was never more 
 thoroughly and efficiently organized, but its organization 
 was controlled by those who had made politics a trade, 
 wiiose livelihood was dependent on political success, and 
 who could not rise above the considerations of selfish ambi- 
 tion. Such men could not appreciate the motives which 
 led their fellow Democrats to abandon expediency for 
 patriotism, and to sacrifice their private interests for the 
 public good. Controlling the machinery of the party, they 
 therefore read out their former comrades and leaders, and 
 released from the trammels which the loyalty of the latter 
 would have imposed ; they have since then been using the 
 honest masses of the Democracy with the single purpose of 
 furthering their personal advancement, regardless of the ruin 
 which may be entailed upon the country by the gratifica- 
 tion of their unholy ambition. 
 
 As citizens of Pennsylvania, we shall in a few weeks be 
 called upon to decide upon which side our great common- 
 wealth is to stand. We are to choose a Governor who will 
 represent the second State in the Union during three years 
 which must prove the most momentous in the history of 
 the Republic. The voice of our State is too potential to be 
 lightly disregarded, and it behooves her people to weigh 
 well, how, and in what cause that voice is to be raised. It 
 may prove, in truth, that our coming election may decide 
 not only our own destinies, but those of the whole country ; 
 and every voter as he casts his ballot, must be prepared to 
 assume the dread responsibility, not of his own acts, but 
 those of the men whom he will thus assist in elevating to 
 power. It therefore becomes his first and highest duty to 
 learn the objects and purposes of those who solicit bis 
 sufirago. Let us then see what the leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party have published as their principles, and let us 
 deduce the results which may be expected from their success. 
 
 During the gloomy winter of 1860-01, while the Cotton 
 States one by one were following the lead of South Caro- 
 bna, and the Government, paralyzed and impotent, was 
 
3 
 
 drifting, no one knew whither, we can all remember how 
 the loyal men of all parties writhed under the inaction of 
 the present, and shuddered at the possibilities of the future. 
 It was durini^ this period of dread suspense tliat the party 
 leaders in Pennsylvania, partially relieved from restraint 
 by casting out their loyal comrades, adopted a line of policy 
 to which they have ever since adhered, and to which they 
 now propose to force the support of their loyal followers, 
 however they may disguise their purposes, and endeavor 
 to impose up»»Q the confidence whieh the honest masses of 
 the people may repose in them. The key-note of disaffec- 
 tion to the Union, and of affiliation with Southern rebels 
 was sounded at a meeting of the party on the 17th of Jan- 
 uary, 1861, where, among the resolutions adopted was the 
 following, the authorship of which has since been defiantly 
 avowed by Mr. William B. Reed. 
 
 "Resolved, That in the deliberate judgment of the Demo- 
 cracy of Philadelphia, and, so far as we know it, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, the dissolution of the Union by the separation of the 
 whole South — a result we shall most sincerely deplore, may 
 release this Cotnmon wealth from the bonds which now 
 connect' it with the confederacy, and would authorize and 
 require its citizens, through a convention to be assembled 
 for that purpose, to determine with whom their lot shall be 
 cast; whether with the North and East, whose fanaticism 
 has precipitated this misery upon us, or with our brethren 
 of the South, whose wrongs we feel as our own, or whether 
 Pennsylvania shall stand by herself, ready, when occasion 
 oflers, to bind together the broken Union, and to resume 
 her place of loyalty and devotion." 
 
 It is necessary to recall the miserable anxieties of the 
 dark months preceding. Sumter, when Slate after State was 
 being tbrced through the cruel mockery of secession, to 
 realize luUy the turpitude and treason of these pregnant 
 sentences. They held out sympathy and promises of succor 
 to the mad ambition of the Southern leaders who were 
 dragooning their fellow-citizens into rebellion, and who never 
 would have dared to plunge the country into strife but for 
 such assurances of aid from kindred spirits in the North. 
 They threatened the national government with the defec- 
 tion of our noble old Commonwealth, which they more than 
 insinuated would cast its decisive weight into the scale of 
 rebellion ; and they proclaimed the dangerous and disor- 
 ganizing dogma of" State-rights in terms which left nothing 
 to be added by the most extreme of the nullifying and 
 seceding school of politicasters. And for what was the 
 time-honored Democratic party of Pennsylvania to be thus 
 used as the efficient agent in destroying our institutions? 
 For the meanest and most despicable personal purposes — 
 
in order that the trading politicians might have another 
 chance at the loaves and fishes, by uniting with the " stern 
 statesman" whom Mr. Reed so much admired, in preventing 
 by force or fraud, mayhap by murder, the inauguration of 
 a" constitutionally elected president, trusting that in the 
 confusion, the peaceful North, averse to war, might submit 
 to the domination of Mr. Breckenridge, or Mr. Davis, when 
 the doughi'aced tools of treason would receive the rewards 
 so richly earned by their dirty work. 
 
 Very similar in character was a resolution which about 
 the same time the subsequent chairman of the Democratic 
 State Central Committee endeavored to force upon the con- 
 vention of the party at Harrisburg, Loyal men, as yet, 
 had, however, not been wholly excluded from places of 
 trust by the Democracy, and the author of the treasonable 
 attempt was obliged to pocket it under threat of being 
 thrown out of the window if he ventured to insult the 
 assemblage by parading his disloyal sentiments there. 
 
 Party management did not long suffer such dangerous 
 independence to interfere with it. The crucial test of the 
 bombardment of Sumter came to try the stuff of which men 
 were made. Avowedly undertaken to precipitate the 
 Cotton States into rebellion, it temporarily paralyzed the 
 Democratic party of the North, whose leaders shrank aghast 
 before the glorious outburst of pitriotic devotion which 
 filled the land. Democrats of all ranks, who felt that 
 country was above party, hastened to offer their services to 
 an administration whose election they had resisted ; and 
 whether in the field, the cabinet, or the civil offices of gov- 
 ernment, their various talents were placed in appropriate 
 spheres of action with a forgetfulness of partizanship of 
 which no Executive since the days of John Quincy Adams 
 had given an example. The nation has profited largely by 
 the eiibrts of these men, whose names will ever be hailed 
 with gratitude by the people, but it likewise lost. Thus 
 ridden of their loyal associates, the disloyal managers of the 
 Democracy gained complete ascendency over the party, 
 which they have since carefully confirmed and perpetuated 
 by sternly casting out from communion all who gave 
 evidence in any mnnner that they regarded the cause of 
 the country as superior to that of the party. 
 
 Thus Mr. Francis W. Hughes, who, in January, 1861, 
 was forced to repress his instincts by the salutary fear of a 
 broken neck, was able in July, 1862, as Chairman of the 
 State Committee, to ventilate his views and to render the 
 party responsible for them, in an address which carefully 
 kept within the letter of the law punishing treason, while 
 promulgating doctrines and sentiments which could only 
 result in crippling the eflbrts of the country to suppress the 
 
rebellion whose apparent triumph then threatened its 
 e:xistence. 
 
 Then, in the darkest hour of our trouble, Mr. William B. 
 Reed could once more crawl forth from the prudent ob- 
 scurity to which the indignant loyalty of his countrymen bad 
 condemned him, and could again, with the unctuous in- 
 sinuation for which he is notorious, endeavor to render 
 popular the dangerous doctrines of State Rights and Seces- 
 sion, aitfully concealing the fearful abyss to which they 
 would lend, by appeals to the most debasing motions of 
 short-sighted self-interest. Disorganization and an'irchy 
 were thus cunningly preached by the apostle of northern 
 secessionism — assuming, with hardly a decent veil of regret, 
 that the restoration of the Union was impossible, nor indeed, 
 under existing possibilities, even desirable. 
 
 " Maryland and Kentucky, after all, each for herself, will 
 have to determine where her lot shall be cast, and what her 
 pecuniary liability must be, whether for a'share of the 
 Federal or of the Confederate debt, or whether to be ex- 
 empt from both. What Maryland and Kentucky do, 
 Pennsylvania and Ohio have a right to do. This settles 
 the question of boundaries and nothing else will; and if the 
 decision involves the abandonment of Wasliington and 
 leaving it a monument of what was once the Capitol of a 
 great Republic, be it so. . . . Hence it is that, even in 
 this hour of gloom, I yet cling to the faith embodied in the 
 Philadelphia resolutions of January, 1861; that possibly 
 the independent or concurrent action of the Great Middle 
 States, swayed by a sentiment of local fidelity, especially 
 the action of Pennsylvania, may be invoked to save us, not 
 from present disunion, for that cannot be averted, but from 
 the anarchy which is at hand — closer than we imagine — or 
 from some new form of consolidated government alien to 
 our habits and education, which is sure to be conjured out 
 of the seething cauldron of civil war. . . . Proud then 
 may be the position, solemn the responsibility of . . . 
 citizens of the great central sovereignties, New Jersey, 
 (bravest and truest of them all) and Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 Indiana and Illinois — if resisting the blandishments and 
 threats of Executive authority, they shall assert by their 
 votes loyalty to the Constitution in its strictest sense and 
 closest obligation, and their determination to arrest the 
 raging course of fanaticism, and a resolution that the tide 
 of aggression now shall sweep over them no longer. The 
 
 Middle States may save themselves if they will 
 
 It may be the destiny of these great Middle States to speak, 
 and, if need me, to act in self-defence and in maintenance 
 of all that is left of Constitutional liberty in the frag- 
 mentary and shattered Union which survives. They may 
 
6 
 
 act together or thej may act separately. Within each of 
 them is the perfect machinery of government ; and all that is 
 v^antetl is an animating and practical spirit of local loyalty." 
 (Wm. B. Reed's "Vindication," August ]4th, November 
 5th, 1862.) 
 
 Is it possible that a party which once was proud of the 
 leadership of Andrew Jackson can fail to see under the 
 glazing words of this seductive Belial the utterances of the 
 same spirit which carried South Carolina and Mississippi 
 into armed rebellion? The object is the same, and the 
 damnable iteration which repeats the one idea in so many 
 varying and courtly phrases shows how earnestly that 
 object was obtained as the policy to be carried out by the 
 party. Artful suggestions as to the facility of repudiation, 
 inflammatory appeals to the "local loyalty" which has 
 converted the South into an aceldama of remorse and 
 despair, and cunning hints as to the ease with which Penn- 
 sylvania could be wheeled into an attitude of armed resist- 
 ance to the national authority, if only the Democratic party 
 should obtain control of the State, leave no room for the 
 reflection that such action could only result in plunging us 
 into a state of desolation worse than that which now blasts 
 like a simoon the fairest regions of the South. Worse 
 indeed, for there, with insignificant exceptions, the people 
 were at once crushed into acquiescence with the "local 
 loyalty" of their leaders before the Government could sus- 
 tain them in resistance, and they have had to endure only 
 the horrors of invasion and the marauding of their own 
 guerillas; while here any such attempt would be sternly 
 resisted by one-half the population, backed up by the 
 national forces, and we should at once be abandoned to all 
 the horrors of anarchy and neighborhood war. 
 
 You may say that these are but the opinions of an indi- 
 vidual, holding no official position in the party and unable 
 to commit the party to, his views. It is true, that confiding 
 in the power of his practised rhetoric, Mr. Eeed may 
 have ventured more openly than others to promulgate ideas 
 requiring to be decently veiled lest their naked deformity 
 might shock the honest masses of those whom he desired to 
 use as his tools; yet how and where have the party leaders 
 or organs ever disclaimed the responsibility or repudiated 
 the odious dogmas which he thus enunciated with all 
 the plausibility at his command? The organization which 
 promptly ejected from its bosom all those who manifested 
 by any overt act the slightest disposition to think for them- 
 selves on the great questions of the day in opposition to the 
 strictest party behests, — that organization still retains Mr. 
 Eeed in full communion as one of its most trusted coun- 
 sellors, and is eager to enjoy the advantages of his in- 
 
triguing skill, gained in both camps during the political 
 contests of a quarter of a century. 
 
 But it is not only by implic ation that these views have 
 been adopted and endorsed by t'lose who speak for and in 
 the name of the Democracy. Whenever there has been an 
 occasion for promulgating the most exaggerated doctrines 
 of the Calhoun school on the subject of State-rights, it has 
 been done, and if an opening existed for the attempt to 
 array the State in hostility to the General Government, it 
 has been eagerly seized and made the most of. 
 
 Scarcely anything could bo more autlioritative than the 
 declarations mode at the formal inauguration of the "Demo- 
 cratic Central Club," of Philadelphia, on the 8th of January, 
 1863. Mr. Charles IngersoU was the spokesman put for- 
 ward to give due weight to that solemnity, and though 
 unlike Mr. Reed, the object held out in his address was the 
 preservation of the Union, and not the arrangement of its 
 permanent division, he strangely enough found the same 
 means adequate to so diverse an end. 
 
 "There is but one way of arriving at a solution of the 
 question as to whether we are to have a speedy peace and 
 union, and that is by conventions of the people. To effect 
 this is not easy of accomplishment, because, throughout the 
 North'there are many States in possession of the Republi- 
 cans, and there is hardly any State in which the Democrats 
 are wholly in power. In this State the Democrats have the 
 Governor and the Senate against them with the House in 
 their favor. Under these circumstances we should do what 
 has frequently been resorted to in England; we should re- 
 fuse the supplies. The speaker advocated this measure at 
 some length as a means of instituting a State Convention. 
 This would be followed by conventions throughout the 
 Northern States. We should then be in a position to offer 
 our terms and settle with the South this great question. 
 Mr. IngersoU concluded amid prolonged applause." 
 
 With what avidity the opportunity was seized to convert 
 these doctrines of ultra State sovereignty into facts, and to 
 precipitate a fatal conflict between the loc^il and National 
 government, is amply exemplified by the proceedings con- 
 sequent upon the arrest of Albert D. Boileau, publisher of 
 the Evening Journal, for printing an editorial article, under- 
 stood to be the production of Mr. Reed, which held up the 
 character of Jefferson Davis for public admiration, and 
 studiously endeavoured to make Mr. Lincoln an object of 
 contempt in comparison. The arrest took place on the 28th 
 of January, and at the meeting of councils next day, the 
 Common branch passed, by a strickly party vote of 25 to 
 18, the following, among other resolutions . 
 
 " Resolved, Tuat in view of the facts, our Representatives 
 
8 
 
 in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, are respectfully re- 
 quested to take immediate action and adopt such measure^-, 
 as in their judgment, will secure the indefeasible rights of 
 our people, and prevent the kidnapping of our citizens and 
 the illegal interference with and destruction of their pro- 
 perty ; and also thnt they will use all honorable means to 
 procure the passnge of resolutions calling upon the Execu- 
 tive of this State to demand from the Federal Government 
 a due respect for our sovereign rights, and to take such 
 measures as will secure the immediate release of Albert D. 
 Boileau from military confinement, and handing him over, 
 if cause be shown, to the civil authorities of his own State 
 and vicinity, to answer to any charge that may legally be 
 prepared against him." 
 
 Tlie Democratic branch of the State Assembly lost no 
 time in responding to this appeal, and determined to make 
 the most of the grievance which had so opportunely been 
 afforded to the party. Among the resolutions adopted by 
 it on tlie 30th of January, was the following: 
 
 '^Resolved, That the House of Representatives of the 
 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, do call upon the Governor, 
 as the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth, bearing in 
 his person the majesty of this State, to immediately repair 
 to Washington, and demand of the General Government, 
 the release of the said Albert D. Boileau, and that he be, 
 returned to the State of which he is a citizen, to answer 
 any charges to be made against him." 
 
 Greatly to the disgust of those who were thus indus- 
 triously turning this incident to their advantage, Mr. Boileau 
 had no disposition to be made a martyr for their benefit, 
 and a manly letter of explanation elfected his prompt release 
 after two or three days detention. Still the marrowless 
 bone was not abandoned by the hungry dogs. More than 
 a month afterwards, the Central Club commenced a series 
 of Saturday night addresses for the dissemination of Demo- 
 cratic doctrine, and again, Mr. IngersoU was put forward to 
 inaugurate the movement. True to the inspiration emana- 
 ting from Mr. Reed, he selected for his subject the exhaust- 
 less subject of "State Rights." What honest member of 
 the party is there, who would not shudder at the bare idea 
 of the fearful anarchy that would inevitably result from 
 putting into practice such teachings as these ? 
 
 "You ask me what State Rights would do for us? Sup- 
 pose we had this State of Pennsylvania, had a Democrat 
 for Governor, and Democratic majorities in the two Houses. 
 Do you suppose we would permit the arrest of the editor 
 of the Journal? the seizure of his newspaper ? If he could 
 do nothing else, I suppose the Governor would seize as a 
 hostage the Collector of the Port, or the Postmaster, or the 
 
9 
 
 great Provost-Marslial himself, and liokl him until the 
 citizen and his property were released. I don't mean to 
 say that would he carrying out the Constitution of the 
 United Slates, but I do say, that if a mere outrage is per- 
 petrated, and Chief Justice Lowrie had just decided that 
 the President had no more right to seize the JeHersonian 
 than 3^ou or I, I see no other remedy than if the President 
 were here to take him, or, if absent, to take him in the 
 person of his representative." 
 
 Then leaving this revolutionary device, he proceeded to 
 develop the favorite scheme, equally revolutionary in its 
 tendencies, of erecting the banner of revolt against the 
 United States by means of State conventions. 
 
 "It must be through the States if the Union is to be 
 restored, and it is my firm belief, that if the large State of 
 Pennsylvania was to-day as democratically equipped as the 
 small State of New Jersey is, this Union would be in the 
 "way of being restored in less than a month. I mean, that 
 steps would be taken toward that end. Yet we do not sup- 
 port the Government in what they call their war for the 
 Union, but oppose it, and if they should not succeed in 
 what appears to be their determined purpose, of breaking 
 everything to pieces before the Democratic party can re- 
 cover power, we shall, by means of conventions of the 
 States, restore i\\e Union, and by the same operation esta- 
 blish on a firm basis the rights of the States forever." 
 
 So again, Mr. Reed, selected as another of the series of 
 orators, delivered an address on the 28th of March, in which 
 he dwelt upon the same idea. 
 
 " If I have to choose between Union v/ithout States and 
 States without Union, I have no difficulty in saying that I 
 cling to my State. The instincts of the people know this 
 already. The path which I desire to pursue to take me 
 out of the miseries and oppressions upon us, is one which 
 the Constitution prescribes — a popular convention — Na- 
 tional, if it can be, and if not National, a State Convention. 
 But I look to a convention as an end, not as a means ; for 
 as a means, it is too slow. We shall bleed to death before 
 a convention can be initiated. Still, it is a good ultimate 
 result. In Pennsylvania, the Democratic House of Represen- 
 tatives can demand, and in New York the Democratic Gover- 
 nor can suggest and urge it; and I should like to see the party 
 which will dare to reject it, and then venture to meet the 
 test of popular suffrage; the alternative being the continu- 
 ance of fruitless war, with anarchy and revolution following 
 in its hideous train. Such conventions, emanating from and 
 directly representing the people, would have adequate 
 power. Tliey would be as the convention that made the 
 Constitution. They would change, modify, abrogate ; and 
 
10 
 
 if the institutions under which we live are to be changed or 
 altered, in God's name, let it be done by voluntary consent, 
 not by the bloody processes of war, rnnde by us or against 
 ns; or, what is still worse, by the subtle influence of legis- 
 lative or executive usurpation. Had the GToverninent never 
 gone beyond the limits of consent; had it rejected, as did 
 its founders, the heresy of coercion, as applied to any State 
 or combination of States, it would have been far stronger 
 in the elements of republican power, than it is now in all 
 the panoply and parade of war." 
 
 Mr. Wall, the late Democratic Senator of New Jersey, 
 "bravest and truest of them all," was another of the orators 
 selected to enlighten you as to the principles of your party. 
 Listen to the doctrines of your political faith as expounded 
 by him. May 9th, 1863. 
 
 " The plan suggested some years ago by Mr. Yallandig- 
 ham bears the stamp of his clear sagacity and statesmanlike 
 forecast, — dividing the country into four large sections or 
 masses, and requiring a majority of the representation from 
 each to consent to a measure before it should become a law. 
 Mr. Calhoun, notwithstanding the undeserved obloquy now 
 attaching to his name, was to my mind the most honest 
 and comprehensive statesman who grappled with national 
 problems, and I make bold here to say that no wiser, purer 
 patriotic statesman ever lived. It mny be that the South 
 might be willing to return upon the adoption of some such 
 system of reconstruction as this. If this plan of reconciliation 
 and reconstruction fails, then a separation must be the finality." 
 
 And this is the modern Gospel of the Jackson Democracy ! 
 You who hold Jackson as the sternest, truest patriot since 
 the Revolutionary fathers, are coolly asked to declare for a 
 State Convention which shall "change, modify and abro- 
 gate" the relations of Pennsylvania to the National Govern- 
 ment. It was for less than this that Jackson to his dying 
 day regretted that he had not hanged the arch -traitor Cal- 
 houn, — and you insult his memory still further by quietly 
 listening to a demagogue who proclaims Calhoun to have 
 been the most honest, comprehensive, patriotic, wisest, 
 purest statesman that our country, fruitful of great men, 
 has produced. Whither are you tending when ypur defeat 
 in a presidential election can thus induce you to abandon 
 all the landmarks of the past? 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Wall and Iris fellows may show us the 
 direction of your progress when they, with more or less 
 openness, carry out the teachings of Calhoun and Jefferson 
 Davis, and stimulate you to armed resistance "to the Govern- 
 ment, inflaming your passions by complaints of oppression, 
 the falsity of which is best demonstrated by the freedom 
 
11 
 
 with which tliey are allowed to spout their incendiary har- 
 rangues. Thus Mr. Wall proceeds, — 
 
 " I do not hesitate to declare in the ears of the Administra- 
 tion, and of the Loyal Leagues its allies, that if their war 
 upon the personal liberty of the subject, in defiance of the 
 guarantees of the Constitution, goes on, the time may come 
 ■when 'forbearance ceases to be a virtue' and ' resistancid 
 to tyrants becomes obedience to God.' Let our cry be, in 
 the fearful contest which is approaching, ' We will' ask for 
 nothing but what is right; we will submit to nothing that 
 is wrong,' — and then, if our cry is unheeded, let us pray 
 that some Maccabeus shall arise, who will assert the honor 
 of the ancient faith, and defend the temple of his forefathers, 
 with as ardent and determined a spirit as that which ac- 
 tuated these innovators to destroy the monuments of the 
 piety, patriotism and glory of our fathers." 
 
 Mr. George Northrop, another of the men who are en- 
 deavoring to rise from obscurity into prominence by luring 
 you to destruction, declared at the Vallandighara meeting, 
 June 1st, 1S63. 
 
 "You have got to carry the lessons v/hich you have thus 
 recently learned, quietly perhaps, but earnestly, into your 
 hearts; but you must be prepared at all times to assert 
 your constitutional rights. It is for this that the world has 
 striven through long ages. It is the old struggle on the 
 .part of the people against the tyranny of tliose in authority." 
 
 How you are to assert the "constituti->nal rights" which 
 these men assume to have been infringed, and how you are 
 to carry on the struggle against tyranny may be gathered 
 from a speech delivered before the Central Club by Mr. 
 Edward Ingersoll, so late as June 13th, when Lee was 
 knocking at the gates of Pennsylvania, and all true patriots 
 were consulting how they could best support our nationality, 
 then apparently threatened with destruction. Applauding 
 and defending the rebellion of the South, Mr. Ingersoll 
 plainly urges you to follow in the same path : 
 
 " Until the spirit of disunion and hatred, which is Aboli- 
 tionism, is put down in our midst, government, which rdone 
 can give us peace, is impossible. Don't trouble yourselves 
 about the disunion spirit in the South, don't trouble your- 
 selves about the Southern Confederacy, take the beam out 
 of your own eye; we will find political occupation enough 
 at home for some time to come. When the F'ederal Ad- 
 ministration ceases to be a Government and represents 
 nothing but the instinct of hatred and destruction against 
 one section of our country, that se'btion wisely and naturally 
 concentrates the whole vigor of its nature in resistance. 
 Government gone mad can accomplish nothing but ruin. 
 Can the Democratic people of America protect and defend 
 
12 
 
 the institutions of their country against the revolutionary 
 assaults of Abolitionism? Aye, sirs, and whether the ap- 
 peal be to the ballot-box or the hideous but not less popu- 
 lar appeal to the cartridge box be forced upon the people, I 
 have not a particle of doubt of the result. We claim, fellow- 
 citizens, to be conservative, not revolutionary. But does 
 conservatism consist in yielding your" precious popular 
 rights, one by one, to revolutionary assault, or in standing 
 bv and defending them? Maintain your laws, peaceably 
 if you can, forcibly if you must. Your Constitution pro- 
 vides that 'tlie rights of tlje people to keep and bear arms 
 shall not be infringed.' That clause has full meaning, and 
 was not provided for you without anxious thought for the 
 future, founded on a knowledge of the past!'' 
 
 These, Democrats of Pennsylvania, are the sentiments, 
 this is the jjolicy proclaimed by those in whose hands you 
 are, and your vote in October will be your verdict of ap- 
 proval or disapproval of both sentiments and policy. Place 
 these men in power and they will be bound to carry out 
 these views to their legitimate consequences, for has not 
 Mr. Reed assumed in his speech of March 28th, that you are 
 even more eager than your leaders for the struggle which 
 they propose to inaugurate? "And in where is this senti- 
 ment stronger or surer than here amid this great con- 
 stituency — the Democracy of Pennsylvania. That constit- 
 uency is far, very far, ahead of its leaders, its , orators, its 
 reputed organs." 
 
 It were useless to multiply, as could easily be done, the 
 proofs of the treasonable and disorganizing nature of that 
 "local loyalty" to which alone your leaders are willing to 
 render allegiance. But it is not only in Pennsylvania that 
 the Democratic party has thus arrayed itself in the cast-off 
 clothing of the South, and has pledged itself to carry out the 
 doctrines of States Rights to their necessary conclusions of 
 armed resistance to the National authority and consequent 
 anarchy and endless confusion. To what such doctrines 
 lead in the hands of these reckless demagogues is amply 
 attested by the recent fearfid riots in New York, and while 
 the prisons are filling with the " noble hearted friends" of 
 Governor Seymour, the wretches who speculated upon the 
 blind passions of the multitudes are safely surveying the 
 ruin they have wrought and are plotting new disturbances. 
 The " New York States Rights Association" openly declares, 
 in language better fitted for the ears of South Carolinians 
 than for those of loyal citizens, that — 
 
 " Whenever the sovereignty of the State is invaded, and 
 the rights essential to its existence are usurped, it is the 
 duty of the Governor to take official, prompt and public 
 notice of the wrong and danger, and forthwith pre2)are to 
 
13 
 
 maintain its sovereighty, if need be, with all the power of 
 the State." 
 
 And not only does the Association thus proclaim the 
 sacred right of private revolution, but it proceeds at once 
 to decide as to the invasion of the rights thus declared. 
 What Government is possible, if irresponsible bodies or 
 Governors can thus erect the banner of revolt whenever 
 they may choose to assert that the sovereignty of a State 
 has been infringed ? 
 
 "The act commonly called the 'Conscript Act,' does 
 invade the sovereignty of jurisdiction of this State and 
 usurp rights essential to its existence. We therefore call 
 upon the Governor to mnintain and defend the sovereignty 
 and jurisdiction of the State, and to protect the people in 
 their rights and liberties from this most odious and intoler- 
 able oppression." 
 
 If space permitted, it would be easy, from the utterances 
 of the party in Maine, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 and other States, to multiply proofs of the widely-extended 
 degeneracy of the Democracy, and to show that it is pledged 
 to resort to any extremity in resisting the constituted autho- 
 rities of th-e -nation. Yet your leaders endeavor to persuade 
 you that you are the victims of'a despotism in a land where, 
 amid the throes of civil war, these doctrines can be thus 
 openly and safely preached ! 
 
 Some of your leaders, indeed, profess to be War Demo- 
 crats, but it is not observable that they hesitate to co-ope- 
 rate with their peace brethren, who openly proclaim coercion 
 to be a heresy, and who plead for armistice, peace and sepa- 
 ration. In their blind eagerness to climb into ^ower over 
 the ruins of the Government, all minor differences as to 
 peace and war sink into insignificance, and the real result 
 of your success under their guidance is well understood in 
 the Confederacy. It is the hope alone that you will be able 
 to employ the Government at home, that now stimulates the 
 South in a desperate eflbrt to repair its broken fortunes; 
 and the prolongation of the war is directly dependent upon 
 the victory which you anticijiate at the polls. Not a fort- 
 night since, the Richmond Whig distinctly admitted that 
 apart from delusive anticipations of victories, their hope of 
 speedy success in achieving independence could be realized 
 in only two ways: by a French protectorate, or by the suc- 
 cess of the Democratic party of the North. If the legal 
 definition of treason be rendering aid and comfort to the 
 enemy, how can you, if you support these men at the polls, 
 escape the charge of treason — treason to your country, to 
 your State, and to yourselves — when the last hope of the 
 rebellion is based upon your fidelity to " local loyalty ?" 
 Can a man who calls himself a " War Democrat" read, with- 
 
14 
 
 out crimsoning with shame, that, amid its fearful military 
 reverses, the South esteems its prospect of independence 
 brighter than ever, because the Democratic party of the 
 North is gathering strength and threatens to deprive the 
 administration of power? Listen to one of the most intel- 
 ligent of the renegades, Lieutenant Maury, when, under 
 date of August 17tii, he argues, in the London Times^ that, 
 " so far from the prospects of the South looking ' blue,' they 
 never were more bright;" assuming, like Mt. Reed, that 
 restoration of the Union is impossible, and that the war 
 cannot be decided by the sword. He proceeds : 
 
 " Other agents have to be called into play. What are 
 they ? Let us inquire. They are divisions in the camp of 
 tlie enemy, dissensions among the people of the North. 
 There is already a peace party there. All the embarrass- 
 ments with which that party can surround Mr. Lincoln, and 
 all the difficulties that it can throw in the way of the war 
 party in the North, operate directly as so much aid and 
 comfort to the South. 
 
 "As an offset, then, against the tide of military reverses 
 which in the first weeks of July ran so strong against the 
 South, and from which our friends in England seem not to 
 have recovered, let us look to those agencies which are to 
 end the war, and inquire what progress has been made on 
 the road to peace, and consequently in our favor, notwith- 
 standing the military reverses. 
 
 "Notwithstanding these, the war is becoming more and 
 more unpopular in the North. In pr.oof of fhis, T point to 
 the conduct of Pennsylvanians during Lee's invasion of 
 that State, t» the riots in New York, to the organized resist- 
 ance to the war in Ohio, and to other circumstances with 
 which the English public has been made acquainted by the 
 newspaper press. 
 
 " New York is threatening armed resistance to the Fed- 
 eral Government. New York is hecoming the champion of 
 States-rights in the North, and to that extent is talcing Soutliern 
 ground. Mr. Lincoln has not only judged it expedient to 
 unmuzzle the press in New York, and deemed it prudent 
 to give vent to free speech there, but he is evidently afraid 
 to enforce the conscription in the Empire State. 
 
 " Vallandigham waits and watches over the border, 
 pledged, if elected Governor of the State of Ohio, to array 
 it against Lincoln and the war, and to go for peace. What 
 the result of the election there will be, I cannot tell; but 
 the canvass is going on, and we know that opposition to 
 Lincoln and his war party is growing more and more pop- 
 ular every day, and throughout the entire North. 
 
 " Why, but for this growing hostility to Lincoln and the 
 war, pat Kentucky under martial law at this late date at 
 
15 
 
 all? Simply because of the growing activity ami increas- 
 ing energy of those influences which are at work. in the 
 cause of peace, and therefore on the side of the sword of 
 the South. These influences are doing more toward bring- 
 ing the war to an end than all the battles that have been 
 fought since the war began have done. 
 
 " Never were the chances of the South brighter. All that 
 we have to do is to maintain the defensive, watch our 
 chances and strike whenever tiiere is an opportunity for a 
 good stroke with the sword or with the pen." 
 
 And thus your promised successes are made the basis 
 of bolstering up the cotton bonds in England, and enabling 
 the Confederacy to buy of British ship-builders the Iron- 
 clads with which they hope to destroy our commerce and 
 lay waste our sea ports. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, pause and weigh what is meant by your 
 leader's utterances, for your children's children will have 
 cause to rue your action if you now permit yourselves to be 
 misled by these Machiavellian sophistries. Ponder well 
 the purport of these "State Conventions," this "seizing the 
 President or his representative," this "appeal to the cart- 
 ridge box," which roll so glibly from your leader's lips and 
 which they so cheerl\illy announce as their object so soon 
 as you shall have phaced them in power over you. Ask 
 yourselves what is to be effected by the State Convention 
 which they proclaim as the panacea for all our woes, and as 
 an end, if too late to be a means. It is simply armed revo- 
 lution in a simple guise. Your first allegiance under the 
 Constitution. is due to the National authority. The laws of 
 Congress are " the supreme law of the land ; and the Judges 
 in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the 
 Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwith- 
 standing;" and the President, in his oath of office, is sworn 
 to maintain them. When the leaders of the South under- 
 took to precipitate these States into rebellion. State Con- 
 ventions were the facile instruments to which they resorted, 
 and their success seems to encourage imitation. By peace- 
 ble and loyal means no State Convention can eliect any 
 thing in opposition to the general Government, or can alter 
 the relations of Pennsylvania to the Union or to her neigh- 
 bors. It is essentially, for such a purpose, a revolutionary 
 expedient, and can mean nothing but an appeal to arms. 
 Your leaders plainly tell you that they intend by its means 
 to over-ride the National authority. Can you imagine that 
 a nation which, through two long years of dreary war, has 
 made such sacrifices to vindicate its nationality, has now, in 
 the hour of expectant triumph, sunk so low as to basely 
 surrender all that for which it has struggled at the bidding 
 of a few disappointed politicians? Ask yourselves what is 
 
16 liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 
 
 012 029 012 
 
 to be the result if every citizen of Pennsylvania is called, 
 upon to elect between the allegiance which he owes to the 
 United States and that which is due to his State, when 
 your leaders shall have succeeded in placing them in a 
 position of implacable hostility. Even without the over- 
 mastering force of the nation, are there not enough Penn- 
 sylvaniaiis rising superior to " local loyalty" to accept the 
 guage which you will have thrown down and to make our 
 streets and valleys red with blood ? Be warned, we beseech 
 vou, in time. Honest men and true you are; let not these 
 political tricksters, with their shallow devices, lure you 
 unsuspectingly into the path which has made Virginia 
 and Mississippi an abomination of desolation. 
 
 We would not so wrong the Democratic party which 
 erewhile put to shame Calhoun and his nullifying con- 
 spirators, as to suppose that had it been in power when an 
 equally causeless rebellion, whether at the North or South, 
 clutched at the nation's throat,it would not havesternly wield- 
 ed the Avbole power of the nation to crush out treason at any 
 cost. The history of the country does not show that the 
 Democracy has been accustomed to deal tenderly with 
 traitors, or to t^hrink from whatever means were necessary 
 to save the Republic. The highest maxim of statesman- 
 ship, which was engraved upon the Twelve Tables of Rome 
 — Salus populi supPvEMA lex — was understood and acted 
 upon by Jefi'erson and Madison and Jackson. Even in 
 these degenerate days, your party, entrusted with the ad- 
 ministration of the Union, would not have tamely stood by 
 and seen it torn shred from shred, while there was a kernel 
 of powder or an ounce of lead to strike a rebel down. Can, 
 then, the lust of power and the thirst for public plunder 
 be so strong that j^our leaders oppose every measure for 
 the suppression of the rebellion, and lose no opportunity 
 to embarrass a Government staggering under a task un- 
 paralleled in history, merely because a few hundred . 
 aspirants have been defeated in a struggle for office? To 
 this it resolves itself at last. The cautse in which we are 
 engaged is yours as much as ours. To all of us in common 
 belong the advantages of triumph, to all of us the disasters 
 of defeat. You have no part in the selfish aims and petty 
 ambitions of the disappointed demagogues who are en- 
 deavoring to allure you to ruin. Cast them behind you 
 with an honest and a manly fervor. Leave them to enjoy 
 their "local loyalty" and their dark and sinuous intrigues, 
 while 3'ou step forward on the broad and solid platform of 
 a common country, stretching in peace from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacilic, and respected among the nations as the 
 irresistible exponent of true Democracy.