/ ^v THE DEMOCRATIC^}^^ (^ CHAPTER I. .^' A Dishonorable Peace with Rebellion! The Dissolution of the Union ! Perpetual War, ending in Anarchy or Military- Despotism ! ♦ A Military System which will put every man into the Army for years! Martial Law rendered permanent throughout the Land ! Destruction of the Public Credit, requiring Taxation which will consume the substance of poor and rich! State armed against State! Yearly Invasions, destroying property and paralyzing industry! Foreign Intervention— Standing Armies! Ruin of our Liberties ! Destruction of our Prosperity ! Fellow-Citizens ! such is the prospect held out to you by the prin- ciples of the Democratic Party, as expressed iu the Chicago Platform- Such are the results of the policy proposed by the leaders of the Demo- cratic Party ! CHAPTER II. . 'JU^ The Democratic party says, that the war is a failure and must be stopped. Stopping the war means dissokition of the Unionj for the men who control the South have told us a hundred times that they will have no peace unless we re- cognize their indej^endence. Dissolution of the Union means perpetual war, to be commenced as soon as the South shall have strengthened and renewed her armies. The Democratic party seeks to disgust the people with the war. It talks of draft and slaughter, expenditure and taxation, extravagance and high prices. Sordid and mean itself, it thinks that the people are sordid and mean, and that they will abandon the Union and the priceless blessings of freedom because beef and calico cost more than they did before Buchanan and Breckenridge, Jefferson Davis and Pendleton, Cobb and Floyd and the Democratic aristocrats plunged the country into strife for the purpose of spreading slavery over the territory of freedom. The people are not so blind. They know that the price they pay for beef and calico is the price they are paying for the preservation of their institutions. It is the price of future peace and. prosperity, wdien the citizen of the United States shall be free to carry his labor into Texas, or Louisi- ana, or Kansas, or California. It is the price of education , and liberty, of all that has made the great Republic a refuge for the oppressed of all nations, and a standing menace to the despots of the earth. They know that if the war w^as stopped as the Democrats propose to stop it, that taxes would not stop, nor prices return to old rates. They know that they must pay the cost of the last three years of war, and now that the war has so nearly accomplished its purpose, they are not going to throw awa}^ its results while they still have to pay its bills. They know- that war is a terrible and costly thing, and they are going to carry this through so as not to have another and yet another upon tlu.'ir hands. They are determined that the blood and treasure which have been spent shall not have been spent in vain. They have had enough of war. They have learned that rebellion leads to war, and they will put down this re- bellion in such a way that they will never be troubled with ^ another. They want peace so much that they are determined to have a peace which will last through their time and that of their children. CHAPTER III. A "cessation of hostilities" and a ''Convention of the States" mean dissolution of the Union. If we say to the South, as the Democratic party said at Chicago — "You have rebelled. We have tried to put down your rebellion by force, and we have failed. Let us treat for peace," we are simply suing for peace, and the South can dictate its own terms. The Southern leaders have many times declared, among themselves and to the world at large, that their only terms are separation and independence. They would listen to nothing else when their cause seemed desperate. Think you that they will come beneath the yoke of the Constitution and the Union when the North goes on its knees to them and begs for peace ? Farmers, men of the rural regions! You want peace. You dislike taxation. You do not admire the draft. How much pel'ace will you have when Virginia is a foreign country ? When a successful rebellion has made the two nations irreconcileable enemies, each eager to wipe out the recollections of its losses and sufferings in the other's blood ? When at any moment General Lee may lead his armies into your fertile valleys and convert your harvests and barns into smoking desolation ? When you will never know how long a hollow truce may last, or how soon the marauders may come to reap your crops ? What Will your taxes be when a divided country has to bear the burden which should be borne by the whole ? When standing armies to protect you must be fed and paid and clothed forever? When the country's credit is destroyed, and all its expenses must be paid by taxes? What will the draft be to keep up those armies in the waste of perpetual war ? Every man who can carry a musket will be called upon, and every man must serve, not for one year or three years, but for five years or ten years, as often and as long as he may be wanted. Men of Labor ! you dislike high prices and conscription. A Demo- cratic peace must be followed by constant war. The peace may bring low prices, but it will destroy industry and you will got no employment With wages at fifty cents a day, it will matter little to you what may be the prices of coal or beef, for you will be able to procure neither the one or the other. The war which will follow that peace, will make conscription con- stant. There will be no chance to fill quotas by volunteering, for quotas will never be fall, and the Prpvost Marshal's wheels will be kept turning as long as there is a name in them. There will be no chance to escape by deserting, for every able bodied man not in uniform will be known to be a deserter, and will be seized wherever he may be. Such is the peace that you will vote for if you vote the Democratic ticket. The rebellion is nearly destroyed. It is holding out in hopes that the election of McClellan and Pendleton will show that the North is tired of the war, and anxious for peace at any price, [f Lkicoln is re-eloctcd, it will sec that its last chance is gone, and it will make one final desperate struggle. That over, it will yield, and the 4th of March, 1865, will dawn on a regenerated- country, where from Maine to Texas there will be peace and unity, a peace that cau never again be broken. RftRY OF CONGRESS 312 027 986 5 lOCRATIC MOTTOES. V JEFFERSON DAVIS. The Constitution, Dissolution of the Union, and Secession ! THE CHICAGO PLATFORM. Peace and Union — or Disunion! GEORGE H. PENDLETON. The Constitution forbids Coercion— let the South go! CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM. Peace with the South— War at the North! FERNANDO WOOD, The Independence of the Metropolis — New York can take care of herself! HORATIO SEYMOUR. The War must be carried on— but we will give no more men or money! GEORGE B, McCLELLAN. Anything you like, gentlemen, — only make me President ! LIBRARY OF CONGRESS lllilininiii i|i||ii|i|i III ii|ii|iiiiii|i III I I 012 027 986 5 Hollinger