Democrats supporting the President

“We have no desire to see any firmer spirit of Democracy than that enunciated by ‘Old Abe.’  Recommend us to it forever.  He stands like a rock on the Constitution.  The Democracy will support him so long as he remains faithful to his present proposition.”  So says our neighbor of the Democrat.  We were rejoiced to hear it, and take pleasure in keeping the President’s “proposition” before the readers of our respective journals.  The first of these is his Emancipation Message, which provides for the abolition of slavery, more immediately in the Border States, and to facilitate that object proposes compensation to loyal owners.  The second is his full endorsement of a bill reported by Mr. Blair, prohibiting officers of the army or navy returning fugitive slaves who may seek their lines for protections – virtually abrogating the fugitive slave law.  Of course the Republican party fully endorses both these “propositions.”

Old Abe has taken a step in advance of the party that elected him.  The corner-stone upon which its platform rested was hostility to the aggressions of slavery, a defensive not an offensive measure.  Our President has taken a step beyond that, and attacks slavery on the ground it occupies, and, says our neighbor, - a fortnight not having elapsed since he declared Republicans to be abolitionists – the Democracy will support him!  We have shown in a previous article how the Democrats of the House supported the President – a single one of them only voting in favor of the “proposition.”  The bill forbidding officers becoming slave-catchers, thus affording aid and comfort to the enemy and prolonging the war, was opposed by all the Democrats of the House, while every Republican voted in its favor.  The President promptly signed it, and it became a law.  Call you that supporting the President?

The Re-installment of Gen. Fremont, the author of the famous abolition proclamation, of which the last mentioned bill is a reflection, and the appointment of Gen. Hunter, an ultra Republican, to the command of the South Carolina Department, shows truly that our President “stands like a rock on the Constitution.”  We only fear our neighbor is wrong, that the Democrats will not support him, but true to their instincts will forget their country in their love for party.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 25, 1862, p. 2