Show WORDS OF CONFESSION There arc now but few survivors of the original abolition movement in the United States and these must at times even when they get together as they did recently re-cently feel sad and lonely It seems that there were but few of them to be present but most if not all of these were there As is customary at such gatherings there was a certain amount of I the outpouring of mutual love and affection but beyond this there was nothing to distinguish dis-tinguish the assemblage from any other uf like kind and import in other words the gatherers were back numbers representing nothing that is and but little that ever was bo far as the affairs of the nation are concerned con-cerned And still it was a meeting not altogether destitute of meritorious phases and commendatory mcndatory situations The abolitionists had a mission in our midst and they filled it They furnished the draught which JOHN i BUOWN drank of until ho became intoxicated intoxi-cated and lit the torch which went out in blood at Harpers Ferry This was really the beginning of the rebellion And yet wo have the word of a truly loyal and altogether Republican sheet the same being no more nor less than the iloljcDcmoirat of St Louis to the effect that those old fellows are merely reminiscences reminis-cences of a period now existing only in history The irreverent and we might say ungrateful sheet goes on to state taut there was no lack of the old spirit of self appreciation among the veterans and that it was impossible to convince them that they and their associates did not abolish slavery This coming from such a source is for certain the very acme of mans ingratitude in-gratitude But then the paper adds infatnj to infamy by suggesting that those felloy honestly believe that the extirpation Qf tho great evil of slavery was brought about through their efforts with alttle assistance assist-ance from heaven We doitft much blame the GD for becoming s5mcwhat irritated over such a 8tatementas that the idea of Republicans individually or any number of them recognizi the assistance of heaven in anything tbfot is commenced or carried out is altogether too much to endure the par referre to goes further and uocsmprfe It causes the old fellows bj its terances to believe that the fact that tiyf extinction of slavery was reached is 8 ifflcient proof in their minds that they j are entitled to most if not all the credit for it They easily overlook the services of others it says and monopolize the glory of an achievement with which they really had very little to do so far as the practical side of the matter is concerned it would not be strictly true the St Louis luminary confesses to say that they hindered rather than promoted the cause of emancipation great admission admis-sion trulybut it is certain that emancipation emanci-pation came to pass at last by reason of influences in-fluences that they neither created nor controlled con-trolled As if the foregoing were not sufficient as an almost complete giveaway the GD goes on to say At the outblcok the war the Abolitionist were little more honored in the north than in the south They had not been able to gain the mastery in a single state There was wide sympathy with their feeling about the sinfulness i sinful-ness of slavery but comparatively none with their Idea that it should bo utterly abolished The men whose votes had elected LIKCOLV were not in favor of touching the institution where It already existed but only of preventing Its extension and their opposition to Its extcn Ion was based not so much upon moral sentiment senti-ment as upon material consideration IfLiv XJix had intimated a purpose to interfere with slavery in the southern states he would have been defeated The Abolitionists did not expect ex-pect him to do anything of that Kind They re trardcd him as an enemy more than an ally His success wa not their victory and they aid not claim it as such They suspected and distrusted him and were prepared to see him administer the government in the interest ot slavery to the extent of giving it full protection wherever it had gained a foothold He could not be coaxed to give any pledge beyond that of resisting too spread of the evil and in that respect J the great majorltj of the northern people agreed with him himBut But perhaps the most damaging statement state-ment in the article is that which follows Our contemporary says that there was no time previous to thclstof January 1803 when the south could not have preserved slavery by simply ceasing to wage war against the government The north realized real-ized that the root of the trouble was the s stem that the Abolitionists so bitterly assailed but there was no desire to remove it if the union could be saved without resorting re-sorting to that expedient It then goes on further m this burst of candor and admits ad-mits that it was not until emancipation was seen to be a supreme necessity as a war measure that it secured northern favor Had it been proclaimed before that time the effect would have been disastrous to the union cause The people of the free states were opposed to it so long as they thought the rebellion could be suppressed by other means It was not by the arguments argu-ments of the abolitionists that they were persuaded to accept such a decree but by severe lessons of experience which showed them that it was indispensable to military success This is all very acceptable to the Democratic Demo-cratic palate oven if it does come a little I late It ought at this stage of the argument argu-ment to be set forthand of course after I the above display of ingenuousness the statement will not be deniedthat men were hung in effigy and hung physically I for just such language as the foregoing during and immediately after the war It I was of course an exciting period a time when men were not altogether responsible for what they said or did And yet it seems rather hard that a lot of blue coated ruffianly soldiers in a passenger car should detach tho bellrope and seek to string up Hon D W VOOUUCKS with it when his only offense was that in a public speech he had used language almost inden Uca with what now emanates from a truly loyal and altogether upright newspaper news-paper Of course tho abolition of slavery was a means to an end and if the Republican Republi-can party could at the beginning have se oared the reunion of tho states without fighting or at any time before the emanci ptttiou proclamation without further fighting fight-ing they would have done as they charged Yr i = the Copperheads with wanting to do stopped the warand the slaves would have been slaves till this day so far as they were concerned II was then as now power and vale that they were after That is not all that can be said of the Republican Re-publican partys disposition to barter principle prin-ciple for pelf In the last campaign it came out as a flatfooted high tariff combination because their disposition was to unconditionally uncondi-tionally oppose the great and good GROVER who had favored such reduction and revision revi-sion as the necessities of the common people seemed to require and this too in view of the fact that every Republican President down to and Inclusive of GARFIELD GAR-FIELD the latter being more pronounced than any of his predecessorshad declared substantially for the same thing Truly the Republican party is wonderfully and paradoxically made up |