1          Bucks County Intelligencer, Col. Davis and the Brigadiership.  April 21, 1863  Page 1  Col. 2         1

 

Col. Davis and the Brigadiership.

“ Bucks County is fully entitled to a Brigadier General, and

would have one now, but for the interference of some of the

Union Leaguers’ of Doylestown ”

The above is an extract from an editorial is the last No. of

that vile sheet, the Doylestown Democrat.  I suppose Dr. Men-

denhall means by the above that Col Davis, (I mean Col. W. W.

H. Davis, the owner and really responsible editor of the Doyles-

town Democrat,) “ cannot be promoted because he is a Demo-

crat.”  Are not most of the Brigadiers as well as the Major Gen-

erals now in the army, democrats?  I do not believe the Presi-

dent, or any reasonable man of true sentiments, cares one

straw what the political bearings of any General are, if he will

only fight his country’s battles and demean himself as any good

citizen should.  The real difficulty, I should judge, about Col.

Davis and a Brigadier’s office, is not that he is a democrat, but is

this ; While Col. Davis is facing the rebels in South Carolina,

his paper, the Doylestown Democrat, under his editor,

keeps up a fire in the rear, and many think far more fatal to the

hopes of the Administration in crushing out the rebellion, than

ever can be counterbalanced by the brave boys of the 104th Pa.

Volunteers.  For instance, the same number of the Democrat

that complains that Col. Davis is not appointed a Brigadier, has

the following infamous paragraph :

“ The President of a mighty Republic, just elected bye a free

people, stealing into Washington City like a thief in the night.”

Now, is not this a mean, detestable slur upon the Chief Magis-

trate of this great republic ?  And is the man who lends the col-

umns of a paper of which he is the reputed owner, to slander

not only the President of the United States, but the Commander-

in-chief of all her military and naval forces, a fit and proper per-

son for the office of Brigadier general ?  I care not what party name

such a man might bear, whether Democrat, Republican, Conser-

vative, or Abolitionist, I would not only refuse to appoint him

to the office in question, but would pull off his shoulder straps

and send him home for better counsels with those fiery spirits in

Doylestown, who mingle the columns of his paper with “ spirits

white, blue and black,” and of every hue.

Now we all know, and I think Col. Davis so published in his

paper at the time, that had President Lincoln passed through

Baltimore to Washington according to his original programme,

he would undoubtedly have been ASSASSINATED.  Not only so,

but if, the bridges between Philadelphia and Baltimore had not

been destroyed by the aiders of the rebellion, and the Northern

troops had attempted to pass through the latter city, no one could

estimate the loss of life and blood that would have the result. 

Dr. Mendenhall seems determined, however, to KEEP UP A STEA-

DY FILE IN THE REAR; and every vile paragraph, however stae,

that he can find to slander the President or to destroy confidence

in the only government capable of putting down the rebellion,

must be hunted up to garnish the columns of a paper owned by a

Union officer, and whose office comes from the dignified head his

paper attempts to calumniate.

In the same number of this patriotic sheet! is the following

precious morceau :

“ Knowing Mr. VALLANDIGHAM as I do, I would prefer him,

and trust his loyalty a thousand times before I would any man’s

who justifies the course of this Administration.”

To further ? ? ? ? suffi-

ciently severe to characterize such vile sentiments, nor contempt

for the man who would publish to his reader anything so insult-

ing.  But the day of retribution will come.  The mask that

covers the Copperheads, who secretly and openly obstruct the

efforts of the government, will speedily be removed.  The poor

negroes in the South are kept in bondage by being kept in igno-

rance by their masters ; and the columns of the Doylestown Dem-

ocrat are used to blind its readers and keep them in ignorance of

the real issues that now agitate! the public mind.  But light

must be let into this moral darkness, and then we shall receive

the veridct of a Union-loving people.  Seymour, the Copperhead

candidate for Governor in Connecticut, entered boldly into the

canvass of that State, openly avowing his sentiments antagonis-

tic to the Administration ; but the people saw through the de-

ception.  Light was let into the minds of the voters of Connect-

icut, and they have nobly stood by the Government and the Pres-

ident whom the Doylestown Democrat characterizes as stealing

into Washington “LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT.”  Only give the

people light, and all will be well.  Will not some good Douglas-

Union Democrat get up a paper now to diffuse TRUTH into the

minds of Union-loving Democrats?  Such a paper at this time

would soon secure a large amount of patronage.  It is time the

mask was removed from the present organ of a party, true and

loyal among the masses, if only permitted to read the TRUTH.

April 10, 1863.                                       TOBY.