Posted on 12/27/2007 9:42:26 AM PST by Graybeard58
The party platform noted the public had turned against a failed, four-year "experiment of war." During this period, "under the pretense of a military necessity of war-power higher than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country essentially impaired ..."
Therefore, "justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities ..."
The sentiments, unearthed and posted on the Internet last week by Scott Johnson of powerlineblog.com, are quite familiar. The passage, condemning the war and commander in chief, might have been uttered yesterday. But why the archaic language?
That's easily explained. The war in question was the Civil War; the year, 1864; the commander in chief, Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. The document was the platform of the Democratic Party, led that year by George McClellan, the former general whose persistent refusal to confront Confederate troops earlier in the war exacerbated the awful carnage and provoked President Lincoln to fire him.
Gen. McClellan and the Democrats called for "an ultimate convention of the States, or other peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States." One shudders to contemplate what concessions the wily Confederate leaders might have wrung from this feckless crew, and the even worse fate that might await America if Gen. McClellan's ideological successors prevail in the present.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
African-Americans wouldn't have liked it much.
Liberals don't like my rapid retort to their assertion that Roe v. Wade is "settled law".
My four word response? "So was Dred Scott."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.