Was never taught this
During the Garfield vs. Hancock election a handbill was passed out as a reminder of who the Democrats were. It would be considered inflammatory language today, but if you were at age to still remember the Civil War and was handed this handbill, it was very profound and true.
Why I will not Vote for 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 man that shot Union soldiers was a Democrat.
Everyman that loves slavery better than Liberty was a Democrat.
The man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln was 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 wept over the corps of [end of] slavery was a Democrat.
Every man that cursed Lincoln because he issued the Proclamation of Emancipation – the grandest paper since the Declaration of Independence – every one of them 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.
The handbill then contrasted Republican and Democrats:
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 oppose emancipation/
They were not “Ku-Klux”
They did not scourge, and hang, and shoot, and murder men for opinions sake.
They did not organize the Louisiana white league or the South Carolina rifle clubs
They did not drench the South with the blood of inoffensive colored men…