honestly performing his duties ever needed. He is the head and front of the spy system which pervades our country at an enormous expense, not authorized by the Constitution and laws, nor required by any interest or the good sense of the people. He and General Grant are linked together with hooks of steel, and engaged in the same raid upon the people's rights and the Treasury, as our public accounts will show. They are both the tools of the Republican party and used for the same purposes, and acted in quiet and perfect harmony when the latter was performing the duties of Secretary of War ad interim.

134. SLANDER AS POLITICAL CAPITAL.

Slander has formed a portion of the political capital of the enemies of the Democracy in all past time. It was resorted to for the purpose of driving Washington from the head of the army, and to keep Jefferson from being elected and reëlected President, and Madison from becoming his successor. The direct slanders upon Jefferson and Madison would fill several large volumes. In time, so many of these had been proved to be false, that people began to doubt and then to disbelieve what was put forth against the Democracy. It was not enough to slander General Jackson, but his revilers assailed his wife long after she was in her grave. Neither Mr. Van Buren nor Mr. Polk escaped the shafts of his political enemies. Nor did Mr. Pierce escape. It was left for Mr. Buchanan to receive more than a double share. New terms of slander were invented and applied. He was called " copperhead," rebel, traitor, secessionist, and disloyal. How far these epithets were believed by those using them is shown by the action of the Legislature of Massachusetts about the time of his going out of office as President, when they unanimously declared that they regarded with unmingled satisfaction the determination. evinced in his then recent special message to amply and faithfully discharge his constitutional duty of enforcing the laws and preserving the integrity of the Union. Nothing could be more explicit or true.

When the war commenced, the system of slander became enlarged and intensified, and reached not only leading Democratic

politicians, but the whole party as a body and all its members in detail. The Republicans erected a standard of comparison, composed exclusively of themselves, and required all mankind to conform to it, or be consigned to the ranks of "traitors," "rebels," and "disloyalists," "having no rights that Republicans were bound to respect." For the first time a political Administration was treated as the Government and the people were ignored; every one who did not approve of the acts of the Administration was denounced as disloyal and an enemy to the Union. Entering the army, fighting and losing limbs, or even life, could not remove the stain of disloyalty for questioning the wisdom, honesty, and prudence of the President, his advisers, and Congress. The Republicans assumed to sit in judgment upon every man they knew or heard of, and fixed his status before the world. He must not only agree with the Administration and Congress, but he must conform to the changes which almost daily occurred in their standard of faith and action. Even the insignificancy of a man did not insure him against a military prison. Spies were dogging the heels of every man. Sufficient "black-mail" made the contributor loyal, and the want of it usually sent him to prison as disloyal, a rebel, or a traitor.

No fidelity or vigilance could supply the place of the subserviency demanded. It was assumed that no Democrat performed his duty to the country or gave efficient aid in the war, and that whatever was actually done was by Republicans. If a riot occurred it was charged as the work of the Democrats, and that Democratic officials did not perform their duty in suppressing it. It was charged against Governor Seymour that he had been dilatory in sending New York troops to the field. But the records of the times show that he sent troops to Washington before any Republican State. His men were the first there. He complied with every requisition upon New York for men more promptly than any Republican State in the Union. He was never behind an hour. It was a deep mortification to the War Department that he ferreted out its wrong decisions, and especially in making distribution under different calls, and requiring at its hands suitable corrections. When the riot occurred in New York, it was

charged that, instead of performing his duty in suppressing it, he secretly encouraged it. This imputation, although denied and even disproved, was reiterated until after the election in 1864.

Now, when all motive for further perseverance in this slander has ceased, it is nearly universally conceded that he not only performed his whole duty, but did so with untiring zeal and unwavering perseverance, and with the most perfect success. In the con

vention at Albany, Mr. Opdyke, who was then mayor of the city of New York, publicly refuted the accusations that had been falsely made against Governor Seymour, and paid a warm tribute both to his motives and actions, showing them to be of the highest and most worthy character.

But slanders of another character were invented and applied to him, although equally destitute of all foundation. Under the law of New York, authorizing soldiers in actual service to vote at the election in the fall of 1864, it was charged that he had been engaged in obtaining fraudulent soldier-votes. The trial of Colonel North and others disproved this charge. It was then also proved that Governor Seymour proposed in writing to Depew, the Republican Secretary of State, to arrange agencies, consisting of one Democrat and one Republican, to visit the army together and receive the soldiers' votes in a public manner, so as to avoid all possibility of fraud, and that no notice was taken of Governor Seymour's letters. The inference that the Republicans preferred separate secret action, to aid in obtaining fraudulent votes, is clearly to be drawn from the recorded evidence on file in the War Department. The facilities for accomplishing such purposes were in proportion to the number of Republican commissioned officers. Although it is well known that two-thirds of the rank and file of the army were Democrats, the Republicans held three-fourths of all the commissions. In this lay the power of that party to control what should be returned as the soldier-vote. Governor Seymour's action on this occasion was honorable and just, and above suspicion. Not so of his adversaries.

In the approaching campaign a large political capital of slander will be used by the Republicans. No purity, capacity, or nobleness of character on the part of Democratic candidates can shield

them from the usual assaults and denunciations. Every vile epithet in the old vocabulary of abuse, as well as those newly invented, will be applied to them. The whole Republican press, and the army of Republican orators, will use the like epithets in every section of the Union. The old song will be sung to the same tune, lauding Republicans to the skies, and in denouncing the Democratic candidates as only fit for everlasting perdition. We have only to turn back to the precedents to find the whole already in print, and the answers and refutations fully recorded. Without a new special varnish, these Republican slanders will never be believed, not even by those who feel bound, as a sort of duty imposed upon them by the leaders, to repeat them. We neither ask their silence nor solicit their commendation, both of which would be the subjects of suspicion. By nature they are enemies of democratic principles, and distrust those who best represent them. As a matter of policy it is best for the Democ racy that they should continue to act out their natural instincts. Being warned and put upon their guard, the Democrats protect themselves from all such assailants.

135.-WHAT HAS THE COUNTRY GAINED BY REPUBLICAN RULE?

Such a question hardly need be asked, but there may be some profit in briefly answering it. In 1856 and 1860 we were told that the administrations of Pierce and Buchanan had been worse than failures-that they had been absolutely injurious to the peace, welfare, and interests of the country. The Kansas difficulties were pointed to as evidence establishing these assertions. If they had caused these difficulties, these charges would have been supported. But they were caused not by the Administration of Mr. Pierce nor of Mr. Buchanan, but by the abolitionists and Republicans, in spite of these gentlemen and the exertions of the Democratic party. They resorted to every possible means to increase and intensify these difficulties for political effect. But these were trifling compared with those brought upon the country by the same partisans under Mr. Lincoln. What did the Republican party do or propose in Congress to avert rebellion and civil war? What did Mr. Lincoln do or suggest to avoid these calamities? Nothing. He

neither did nor proposed to do one single thing to prevent or avert either. Congress spent a whole session without taking one step toward avoiding insurrection or war, and Mr. Lincoln made no recommendation in his inaugural address, although secession had swept away several States before it was delivered, and the temporary secession Confederacy had been formed. If Mr. Pierce and Mr. Buchanan are in any way the least responsible for the Kansas controversy, then Mr. Lincoln and the Republican party are far more responsible for the civil war in the South. But the Kansas war was a struggle for control, by resort to the ballot-box, over which no President could exercise any control. Neither Mr. Pierce nor Mr. Buchanan made the laws, nor could they control the voting or frauds charged in that respect. They were both non-interventionists. But the Republicans in Congress, before Mr. Lincoln was sworn in, could have passed appropriate laws, or at all events could have proposed them. But they did nothing, although called upon by Mr. Buchanan to act. Neither in his travelling speeches coming to the capital, nor in his inaugural address, or otherwise, did Mr. Lincoln do or say one thing to avert civil war. Instead of doing so, he drew about him the very men whose advice and acts were calculated to precipitate it—to render it inevitable. He put forth and adhered to a policy which all knew must plunge the country into a long and bloody war. This came upon us and lasted four years, when all fighting by contending armies ceased, and the war in fact ended. But the Republican party were not satisfied with the return of peace and the restoration of the Union. They wanted something more. It was feared that, if these States resumed their former relations in the Union, they might range themselves with the Democracy, and thereby render the defeat of the Republicans entirely certain. The policy of worrying, annoying, and irritating them was adopted. Instead of treating them as erring, repentant, and returning sisters, they were spurned and told they were conquered provinces; and instead of restoration, reconstruction through the negro vote was resorted to, and they are still kept out. Ten whole States at the South are this day in a far worse condition than Kansas ever was, and no steps calculated to relieve them are taken. Are