Why I Will Not Vote the Democratic Ticket.

I am opposed to the Democratic Party, and I will tell you why. Every State that seceded from the United States was a Democratic State. Every ordinance of secession was drawn by a Democrat. Every man that endeavored to tear the old flag from the heaven that it enriches was a Democrat. Every enemy this great Republic has had for twenty years has been a Democrat. Every man that shot Union soldiers was a Democrat. Every man that starve union soldiers and refused them in the extremity of death a crust was Democrat. Every man that tried to destroy this nation was a Democrat. Every man that loved slavery better than liberty was a Democrat. That man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln as a Democrat. Every man that sympathized with the assassin — every man glad that the noblest President ever elected was assassinated — was a Democrat. Every man that impaired the credit fo the Union States; every man that swore we would never pay the bonds; every man that swore we would never redeem the greenbacks was a Democrat. Every man that resisted the draft was a Democrat. Every man that wept over the corpse fo slavery was a Democrat. Every man that cursed Lincoln because the issued the Proclamation of Emancipation — the grandest paper since the Declaration of Independence — every one fo them was a Democrat. Every man that wanted an uprising in the North, that wanted to released the rebel prisoners, that they might burn down the homes of Union soldiers above the heads of their wives and children, while the brave husbands, the heroic fathers, were in the front fighting for the honor of the old flag, every one of them was a Democrat. Every man that believed this glorious nation of ours is only a confederacy, every man that believed the old banner carried by our fathers through the Revolution, through the war of 1812, carried by our brothers over the plains of Mexico, carried by our brothers over the fields of the Rebellion, simply stood for a contract, simply stood for an agreement, was a Democrat. Every man who believed that any State could go out of the Union at its pleasure; every man that believed the grand fabric of the American Government could be made to crumble instantly into dust at the touch of treason was a Democrat.

Soldiers! Every scar you have got on your heroic bodies was given you by a Democrat. Every scar, every arm that is lacking, every limb that is gone, every scar is a souvenir of a Democrat.

What the Republican Party Has Not Done.

The Republicans have done some noble things–things that will be remembered as long as there is history. But there are some things they did not do.

They did not use an army to force slavery into Kansas.

They did not fire upon Fort Sumter.

They did not attempt secession.

They did not plunder the nation of its arms.

They did not inaugurate rebellion.

They did not drive American commerce from the seas.

They did not “huzza” over Union disasters.

They did not “huzza” over Rebel victories.

They did not mourn over Rebel defeats.

They did not oppose enlistments in the Union army.

They were not draft rioters.

They were not “Knights of the Golden Circle.”

They did not commit the atrocities of Libby, Belle Isle, Salisbury and Andersonville.

They did not oppose emancipation.

They were not “Ku-Klux.”

They did not commit the Butchers at Fort Pillow.

They did not commit the horrible massacre at New Orleans.

They did not murder Dixon.

They did not butcher the Chisholm family.

They did not massacre black men at Hamburg.

They did not scourge, and hang, and shoot, and murder men for opinion’s sake.

They did not organize the Louisiana white league of the South Caroline rifle clubs.

They did not drench the South with the blood of inoffensive colored men.

They did not invent the “Mississippi plan.”

They did not use tissue ballots.

They are not “moonshiners.”

They do not resist the national authority.

They did not set up their States above the nation.

They did not try to destroy the Nation’s credit.

They did not try to pauperize the American mechanic.

They have not been an impediment to national growth.

They have not been an impediment to the people’s prosperity.

Can the Democratic party and all Democrats say as much? The people can trust a party that has not done these things, but they cannot trust a party that in whole or in part did do them.

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