A. J. GERRITSON, Publisher.t For the Democrat. The Great Conflict Between Democ racy and Abolitionism—The meaning of Copperhead. What is the meaning of the odious name which the Republican party applies wits political enemies 4 The copperhead, as all knoW, is a species of serpent. In mythology, the serpent is a symbol of the ma. The serpent was adored in Egypt as the emblem of the divine nature. In Elephants, almost all the deities either grasp serpents in their hands, or are envi roiled with them, which can only be in tended as a mark of their divinity. In the hieroglyphic sculpture of Egypt, their wreathed bodies represent the course of the stars, while the same bodies in a circle, were an emblem of eternity, and the serpent or dragon was one of the most conspicuous of the forty-eight great con stellations into which the ancients divided the visible heavens. The brazen serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness was a.tytie of Christ. Where is the key which unlocks the mysteries contained in the name by which a great political party in our country are called? Let ns search the lore of the past for an answer. What vile principles do they cherish, and what crimes have they committed deserving the odious name of copperhead ? One of the organs of their enemies makes the following accusations against them. It says: "The copperheads are making great la mentations over the trentendous power which is placed in the hands of President Lincoln, a power greater perhaps than that wielded by any other potentate on earth. The 37th Congress has vested more power in his bands than was ever before vested in the hands of any one man since the days of the Caesars. Some of the copperheads can hardly find language adequate to express their despair." Another organ says : " There can be no ipiesiion of the Anti y of the copperheads of 1863 with the tories of the Revolution of 1776." Before proceeding to other accusations let us search the history of that Revolu tion for an answer. The copperheads dreaded arbitrary power in the hands of one man or a few men, and are alarmed at the encroachments made by the Repub lican party upon the liberties of America. Let us hear what one of the signets of the Declaration says about arbitrary pow er. Samuel Adams wrote in 1773, as fol• lugs: " The !Topie are alarnica at tl.e large strides that are made, and are making to u:trds an absolute tyranny. Are not the ,istry lost to all sensibility ? Do they it •like the Egyptian tyrant, harden Ihvir heart against the just complaints of ti:e people ? If it should ever become a practicable thing to impeach a corrupt ad ministration, I hope that minister who ad vised the introduction of an arbitrary gol , ernment into America, will not be overlooked. He would make a figure equal to Lord Strafford in the reign of Charles. The conspirators against our liberties are employing all their influence to divide the people, partly by intimida ting them, and partly by arts aid in trigues. henever they shall have com pleted their system, our condition will be more humiliating and miserable than that. of the people of England in the infamous reigns of the Stuarts, which blacken the pages of hiStory. Ambition saw that stooping Rome could bear A inflater, nor had virtue . to "be free.' "Had not, Caesar seen that Rome was ready to stoop, he would not have dared to make himself the master of that brace people. He was indeed, as a great wri ter observes, a smooth and subtle tyrant, who led them gently into slavery. By pretending to be the people's greatest lriond, he gained the ascendancy over them. By beguiling arts, hypocri.y, and flattery, which are often more fatal than the sword, he obtained that supreme con trol which his ambitious soul had long thirsted for. The people were finally pre 'ailed upon to consent to titer own ruin. Is minions had taken pains to paint to their imaginations the godlike virtues of Casar, and then to sacrifice to him those rights and liberties which their ancestors bad so long maintained with their blood end treasure. By this act they fixed a precedent fatal to posterity. They volun tarily and ignominiously surrendered their own liberty, and exchanged a free consti tution for a tyranny. "It is not my design to form a com parison between the state of this country and the Roman empire—the comparison to all its parts would not hold good. The tyrant of Rome had great abilities. It behooves us, however, to awake to the dange r we are in. The tragedy of Amer ican freedom, it is to be feared, is nearly Completed. A tyranny seems to be at the Very door. Our enemies would fain have us lie down on the bed of sloth, and per suade ourselves that there is no danger. But is theio no danger when the very foundations of oureivil Constitution trem ble? Is it a time for us to sleep when our free government is essentially chang ed,and a new one is forming upon quite different system? What difference is tiler° between the present state of this Province, which in course will be the de plorable condition of America, than that of Rome under the law befote mentioned? The difference is only this, that they gave their formal assent to the change, which we have not yet done. "There seems to be a system of tyran ny and oppression already begun. It is therefore the duty of every honest man to alarm his fellow citizens, and awaken in them the utmost vigilance. Tyrants alone,' says the great Vattel, will treat as seditious those brave and resolute citi zens who exhort the people to preserve themselves from oppression, in viudica lion of their rights and privileges.' A good prince,' says he, will commend those virtuous patriots, and will mistrust the selfish suggestions of a minister who represents to him as rebels all those citi zens who do not hold out their hands to chains—who refuse tamely to suffer the strokes of arbitrary power.' " Is not this good copperhead oratory ? Does it not read like hundreds of their speeches and writings during the last four years? What did the Tory party say to these writings of Samuel Adams, which accorded with the principles of all the pat riots of the Revolution, as they are found on the persusal of their works. As the patriots began to rouse to activity, and the strength of their party increased, a Tory writer named Leonard, said: " This is the foulest, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued from the ego. of sedition. It is the source of re bellion. I saw the small seed when it was planted. I have watched the plant until it has become a great tree. The vil est reptiles that crawl upon the earth are concealed at the root; the foulest birds of the air rest upon its branches. I now would induce you to go to work immedi ately with axes and hatchets and cut it down, for a two-fold reason : Because it is a pest to society, and lest it be felled sud lolly by a stronger arm, and crush its th insauds in its fall." This was the tree of Liberty planted in America by our patriotic ancestors, and watered with their blood. The patriots who have watched over it for the last five years, and gave the alarm when they saw the old monarchists trig fo_cut ivdown; were i ecognized by them' at once us the same class of serpents and reptiles that first planted it, and the instinctive cry of those old Tories was, •• copperheads:— copperheads!" tie Tories of the Revolution said of Samuel Adams, that •' every dip of his pen stung like a horned snake." " Goodrich says: " When the news that the stamp act had received the royal signature reached New England, the CO IL runt was i,•sued with a frontispiece, bear ing a snake cut in pieces, with the initial names of all the Colonies to each piece, and abate them the words, 'Join or Die !' " This act was passed in 1765, so that just one hundred years ago, the patriots of America selected a serpent as their em blem of Liberty. Ten years later all the Colonies bad joined against the tyranni cal power of England ; and Bancroft gives an account of an agent of France in Amer ica, who wrote the French minister that " everybody in the Colonies appeared to have turned soldier ; that they bad given up the English flag, and bad taken for their devices a rattle-snake with thirteen ' rattles, and a mailed arm holding thirty arrows." History also says, John Marshall and Patrick Henry formed military compan panies and drove Lord Dunmore from the soil of Virginia. Their companies wore green hunting shirts; with " Liber• ty or Death," in white letters on the bosom, and their banners displayed a coiled rattlesnake, with the motto, "Don't tread on me !" What were all lb( ae serpents of the Revolution of 1776 but types of the cop perhead of this second Revolution ? Du riug the second war with Great Britain, the Tories called Madison and Jefferson and the Democratic party " Reptiles." Serpents are reptiles. When the amendments to the Consti tution were debated in the Convention, Fisher Ames, a Federal member, ridi culed Mr. Madison for insisting upon giv ing the people so much liberty. He says, "Mr. Madison has inserted in his amendments the rights of conscience ; freedom of the press, of juries, &c. There is a prodigious great dose for a medicine. The anti-federalists accuse the eastern people with despotic principles. Consol idation is a bugbear that scares them. We have near twenty of these dragons watch ing the tree of Liberty, lest it should be robbed of its fruit." A dragon is a fiery serpent. When the Democracy of our country can no longer protect the Tree of Liberty against the so-called " Union Republican party,"who are out with their "axes and hatchets to cut it down," then the tyranny which Washington overcame, after eight years of blood and toil, will resume its sway over the people of America—Liberty be exchanged for Slavery. Further proof will be found in the next number. IM'''Subscribe for the Democrat. MONTROSE, PA., TUESDAY, SEPT. 18, 1866. National Restoration.—lmportant Let ter from Henry Ward Beecher. NEw Yowl, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1868. t To Rev. Henry Ward Beecher : DRAB AND REVEREND SlR:—The un dersigned have been appointed by the Ex ecutive Committe of the National Con vention of Soldiers and Sailors who honorably served during the late war for the Union, as a Special Committee to wait upon you, and request your consent to serve as Chaplain of the Convention, which will be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 17th of next month. Your name has been selected by the Executive Committee from sincere admi ration of your character, and as the only tribute within their power to pay in ack nowledgment of your noble devotion to the cause of the Union, and your earnest and unceasing efforts iu behalf of our soldiers and sailors during the recent war. The Executive Committee also find in your course since the termination of the struggle substantial harmony with the views to which they desire to give effect in the Convention—your eloquence and the just weight of your name being em ployed to enforce upon the country a gen erous and magnanimous policy toward the lately rebellious States, and a prompt re• construction of the Union under the Con stitution as the best means of regaining the national tranqiiility which the country so much needs, and readjusting the rights of all sections, under the new order of things, on a basis of law, order, Christian brotherhood and justice. In the call for the Convention, which the undersigned have the honor to trans mit herewith, you will see fully set forth the motives which actuate the military and naval defenders of the Union in their present unusual course of taking a part in a political movement; and it is our hope, as we have always looked to you in the darkest days of the war for inspiration, aid and the cheering sympathy of a noble heart —never failing to find_ them—that you will consent to invoke , . the Divine Blessing upon the Convention of the Sol diers and Sailors of the United States who served during the rebellion and who approve tho restoration policy of Presi dent Johnson and the principles announced by the recent National Convention of Philadelphia—the first Convention since 1.8(1U.1a wialen all 4LO Ztates or our witty ed Union were reOesented. Hoping an early and favorable reply, we have the honor to be, with very pro found respect for your character, and sin cere gratitude for your powerful gen erous efforts in behalf of the military and naval servants of the country during the late war. Your obedient friends and ser vants, CHAS. G. HALPINE, Brevet Brig.-Geueral., Chairman. H. NV. Sr.ocum, Major-General, GoßnoN GRANGER., Major-General, Committee. REY. lIENET WARD BREMER'S REPLY. PEEKSKILL, Aug. 30, '66. Clarke G. Halpin, Brevet Brigadier Gen eral ; H. W. Slocum, Major General ; Gordon Granger, Major General, Com mittee : GENTLEMEN :-I am obliged to you for the invitation which you have made to me to act as Chaplain to the Convention of Sailors and Soldiers about to convene at Cleveland. I cannot attend it, but rhearti ly wish it and all other conventions,of what party soever, success, whose object is the restoration of all the States late in rebel lion to their Federal relations. Our theory of Government has no place for a State except in the Union. It is justly taken for granted that the duties and responsibilities of a State in Federal relations tend to its political health, and to that of the whole nation. Even Ter ritories are hastily brought in, often be fore the prescribed conditions are fulfilled, as if it were dangerous to have a commu nity outside of the great body politic. Had the loyal Senators and Represnta tives of Tennessee been admitted at once on the assembling of Congress, and in moderate succession, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, the public tnind of the South would have been far more, healthy than it is, and those States which lingered on in probation to the last would have been under a more salutary influence to good conduct than if a dozen armies watched over them. Every month that we delay this health. ful step complicates the case. The ex cluded population, enough unsettled be fore, grows more irritable ; the army be comes indispensible to local government, and supercedes it; the government at Washington is called upon to interfere in one and another difficulty, and this will be &Me inaptly, and sometimes with great injustice—tor our government, wisely adapted to its own proper functions, s utterly devoid of those habits, and un equipped with the instruments which fit a centralized government to exercise au thority in remote States over local affairs. Every attempt to perform such duties has resulted in mistakes which have ex cited the nation. But whatever impru dence there may be in the method, the criticism should be against the requisition of such duties of the general government. The federal government is unfit ( to ex ercise minor police and local government, and will inevitably blunder when it at tempts it. To keep a half a score of States under federal authority, but without na tional ties and responsiblities; to oblige the central authority to govern half the territory of the Union by Federal civil officers and by the army, is a policy not only uncongenial to oar ideas and princi ples, but preeminently dangerous to the spirit of our government. However hu mane the ends sought and the motives, it is, in fact a course of instruction, prepar ing our government to be despotic, and familiarizing the people to a stretch of authority which can never be other than dangerous to liberty. • lam aware that good men are withheld from advocating the prompt and success ive admission of the exiled States by the fear, chiefly, of its effect upon parties and upon freedmen. It is said that if admitted to Congress, the Southern Senators and Representa tives will coalesce with Northern Demo crats and rule the country. Is this nation, then, to remain dismembered to serve the ends of parties ? Have we learned no wisdom by the history of the last ten years, in which just this course of sacri ficing the nation to the exigencies of par ties plunged us into rebellion and war? Even admit that the power would pass into the hands of a party made up of Southern men, and the hitherto dishonor ed and misled Democracy of the North, that power could not be used just as they pleased. The war has changed, not alone institutions, but, ideas. The whole coun try has ; advanced. Public sentiment is exalted ,far beyond what it has been at any former period. A new party would like a river, be obliged to seek its channels in the air( aly existing slopes and forms of the continent. We have entered a new era of liberty. The style of thought is freer and more noble. The young men of our times are regenerated. The great army has been a school, and hundreds of thousands of men are gone home to preach a truer and no bler view of human rights. All the in dustrial interests of society are moving with increased wisdom toward intelligence and liberty. Everywhere, in churches, in literature, in natural science, in physi cal industries, in social questions, as well as in politics, the nation feels that the inriumerc nod oEasy. - 4317.4.4...er in the horizon and works through all the elements. In this happily changed and advanced condition of things no party of the retrograde can maintain itself. Every thing marches and parties must march. I hear with wonder and shame and scorn the fear of a few that the South once more in adjustment with the Fede ral Government will rule this nation!— The North is rich—never so richi the South is poor, never before so poor. The population of the North is nearly double that of the South. The industry of the North, in diversity, in forwardness and productiveness, in all the machinery and education required for manufacturing, is half a century in advance of the South. Churches in the North crown every hill, and schools swarm in every neighborhood; while the South has but scattered lights, at long distances, like light-houses twink ling along the ege of a continent of dark ness. In the presence of such a contrast, how mean and craven is the fear that the South will rule the policy of the land! That it will have an influence, that it will contribute, in time, most important influ ences or restraints, we are glad to believe. But if it rises at once to the control of the government it will because the North demoralized by prosperity, and besotted by groveling interest, refuses to dicharge its share of political duty. In such a case the South not only will control the Gov ernment, but it ought to do it. 2. It is feared, with more reason, that the restoration of the South to her full independence will be detrimental to the freedmen. The sooner we dismiss from our minds the idea that the freedmen can be classified, and separated from the white population, and nursed and defended by themselves, the better it will be for them and us. The negro is part and parcel of Southern society. He cannot be prosper ous while it is unprosperons. Its evils will rebound upon him. Its happiness and reinvigoration cannot be kent, from his participation. The restoration of the South to amicable relations with the North and the reorganization of its industry, the reinspiration of. its enterprise and thrift will all redound to the freedman's benefit. Nothing is so detrimental to the freedman as an unsettled state of society in the South. On him comes all the spite and anger and caprice and revenge. He will be made the scapegoat of lawless and heartless men. Unless we turn the gov ernment into a vast military machine there cannot be armies enough to protect the freedmen while Southern society remains insurrectionary. If Southern society is calmed, settled, and occupied, and sooth ed, with new hopes and prosperous indus tries, no armies will be needed. Riots will subside, laWless hangers-on will be driven off or better governed, and a way will be gradually opened up to"the freed man, through education and industry, to full citizenship, with all its honors and duties. Civilization is a growth. None can es- cape that forty years in the wilderness who travel from the Egypt of ignorance to the promised land of civilization. The freedmen must take their march. I have full faith in the results. If they have the stamina to undergo the hardships which every civilized people has undergone in their upward progress, they will in due time take their place among ns. That place cannot be bought, nor bequeathed, nor gained by slight of hand. It will come to sobriety, virtue, industry, and frugality. As the nation cannot be sound until the South is prosperous, so on the other extreme, a healthy condition of civil society in the South is indispensable to the welfare of the freedmen. Refusing to admit loyal Senators and Representatives from the South to Con gress will not help the freedmen. It will not secure for them the vote. It will not protect them. It will not secure any amendment of our Constitution, however just and wise. It will only increase the dangers and complicate the difficulties.— Whether we regard the whole nation, or any section of it or class in it, the first demand of our time is, entire reunion! Once united, we can, by schools, ch arch er, a free press and increasing free speech, attack each evil and secure every good. Meanwhile, the great chasm which re bellion made is not filled up. It grows deeper and stretches wider! Out of it rise dead spectres and threatening sounds. Let that gulf be closed, and bury in it Slavery, sectional animosity and all strifes and hatreds! • It is fit that the brave men, who, on sea and land, faced death to save the nation, should now, by their voice and vote, con summate what their swords rendered pos sible. For the sake of the•freedman, for the sake of the South and its millions of our fellow-countrymen, for oar own sake, and for the great cause of freedom and civili zation, I urge the immediate reunion of all the parts which rebellion and war have shattered. lam truly yours, llEsnv NV ARD tEECIIER. General Gordon Granger on the South em Situation. WASHINGTON, August 24. To His Excellency 4ntireta.Johmon 3 Presi dent of the Untied b'fates: - Sia:—ln obedience to instructions, dat ed May 9, 1866, directing me, while car rying out a specific mission, " to examine carefully into the disposition of the peo ple of the Southern States through which I might pass, toward the Government of the United States," I have to report, That in all the States I visited I found no sign or symptom of organized disloyal ty to the General Government. I found the people taking our currency, and glad to get it ; anxious for Northern capital and Northern labor to develope the re sources of their wasted country, and well disposed toward every Northern mari who came among them with that object in view. In some localities I bear rumors of se cret organizations, pointing to a renewal of the rebellion. On investigating these secret societies, I could discover in them nothing more than charitable institutions, having for their principal object the re lief of the widows and orphans of the confederate soldiers who had fallen in the war. During the whole of my travels I found it to be as safe and convenient to mingle with the people of the South, freely dis cussing any and every topic that came up, as in any other section of the United States. I was often among them unknown, and the tenor of their acts and conversa tion was then the same as when my name and official postion were thoroughly un derstood. The people of the South may be divid ed into two classes. There is the indus trious class, laboring earnestly to build up what has been broken down, striving to restore prosperity to the country, and interestedbmainly in the great question of providing food and clothing for themselves and families. These form the great ma jority of the people. Then there is an other class, an utterly irresponsible class, composed mainly of young men who were the " bucks" of Southern society before the war, and chiefly spent their time in lounging round the court rooms and bars, in chicken fighting and gambling. These have been greatly broken up by the war, many of them have been killed ; but those , who remain are still disturbing elements in the community, and are doing much mischief. It is this class of men and a number of the poor whites, who have formed gangs of horse stealing. It is they who in some instances have made attacks on the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau, and have illtreated the freedmen. It is they 'who afford the main pretext for saying that there is among the people of the South a. feeling of hostility against the tithed States Govertment. But they are not the representatives of the South ern people. They form but aninsignifi cant minority in the community, and oven they are aetuated,not so larch by a feeling of opposition to the Government as by a reluctance to earn their own livelihood by honest labor and individual exertion. VOLUME XXIII, NUMBER 38, That cases- of authentic outrage. 'BO occurred in the South is patent ,to every one familiar with the current news of the day. Bat these cases are few and far.be tweet!, and it is both unjust and 'llo4ook row to charge the responsibility Rif. snub, act of lawlessness upon the Whole n 4 ,So; ern people. For some malicione accounts of less isolated disorders lisria been collected and grouped together ;*1 sown broadcast over the Xorth, so as . to give the public mind an utterly erroneous impression as to the condition-of Southern society. The fact is that - whereVer' dis affection and turbulence have manifested themselves outside the class to whOln have alluded, there has been some loci' or specific cause to account fbr it. Laws lessness, like an epidemic, has extended over particular belts of the country, alid• like an epidemic, is equally traceable kr some initiatory cause. Chief among these causes must be termed bad government. pillage and oppression. For five years the Southern people Into been the subjects of gross misrule. Dur ing the war their government was a. mat tary despotism, dependent solely upowthe dictum of an individual. Since the war they have been left more or less in a chaotic state—their government semi civil, semi-military, or rather a division of rule between the military, the freedman's bureau and.the provisional governmentili What might have been the reseltof.a different policy it is not altogether idl e . to speculate. Every military man who serv ed in the South during the war will agree that the great mass of .the people was not thoroughly in the struggle. The number of desertions from the rebel armies abun dantly establishes this fact. Had a poficy of wise and statesmanlike conciliation , been followed out immediately atter the close of the war, it is more than,pron.s. ble that the condition and disposit ion ~of the people would now be far better. than they are. But on the subjugatiOir 'Of the South the national authority in the lota, rebellious States was divided and broken up into opposing.factions, whine. •actioti greatly hindered the re-establishment of civil law and good order so !Push needed among a people demoralized by the demoralizing of all agencies—civil trith The country was flooded with treasury agents, who with their accomplices. und imitators, fleeced the people right aottlet), returning into the United States Treasu for all the enortnotia amount of : V e t t er they seitedana coninsuatecroai..a to pay the cost, of confiscationvp Agent" of the freedman's bureau steppedbetween the planter and the laborer, stirring tqr strife, perpetuating antagonism, and often' adding to their quota of extortion .and oppression. On every hand the .people saw themselves robbed and wronged;:,by agents and self appointed agents•prcifese, ing to act under the sanutiou of ..,the United States Government. it , be Wondered at that among the eutiiiiitinity thus dealt with, powerless to resist add' too weak and prostrated for 'successful complaint, some bitterness and_ ill feeling should. arise ? Done. -but fbribli . *;, and well-meaning people could have endured unresitingly all that the South htis undelSß gone. In prosecuting this inquiry T herff& deem it fair to ask more than *het hit& been the actions of the people of the South toward the General Government. With their private opinions, their sympa r , thies and their prejudices, liad nothing' to do. Yet for a more thorough 'ti dere standing of the question I made it 'a Fart of my mission to investigate evert , thew I found they had universally oomplied with the conditions granted and tupopted at the final surrender of their armies and cause. I found that they were eitritillit out with good faith and alacrity the 're , quirements of the Constitutional' amend: ment abolishing slavery, and thatiin,,ell the States, except Mississippi and Teittt l / 2 , the famous Civil Rights bill bad been an ticipated by the action of the &site Le gislatures previous to its passage by Coo. gress. Further than this, I found thane the repudiation of every dollar linOnen as the Confederate debt, the same prompt notion had been taken by the State he; thorities, and had been universally domed by the people ; and I neither Bair nor heard any disposition, or anythint that pointed toward a disposition, to' re pudiato the National debt, or to tevivo the institution of slavery. But while the Southern people nre Aar loyal, and have fulfilled all the :requite. went asked of them by the Feder id G. eminent, it is impossible to dis i gaise, the fact, and the better class or otivia's do not attempt to disguise it, = that thereei among them a deep feeling and -iltichig• apprehension as to the cause of their long continued exclusion from Congress: They; believe that is part of a set plan, flior perpetuating the existence Of , a political party now in the ascendant, and thet.the question of suffrage, readjustmentocrep resentation and taxation, are but exettBea for still longer delay. Thus °regard*" of the great interests, not only of tkln suffering South, but of the whole country, burdened with debt and laboring dear severe embarrassment, I found thespre, vailing opinion among the most gent citizens, as well as among .the moat anxious for au early restored= of the t7nion, to be that, if representation and , an equal and just co-operation in the ad-