1 Bucks County Intelligencer, ATTACK ON THE
LADIES’ WAR MEETING AT NEWTOWN.
September 2, 1862 Page 1 Col. 1
For the Bucks County Intelligencer.
ATTACK ON THE LADIES’ WAR MEETING AT
NEWTOWN.
The ladies of Newtown and vicinity, actuated by the true
spirit of their mothers of the Revolution, in the goodness of
their hearts, and with a desire to benefit the suffering soldiers
engaged in putting down this wicked and unnecessary rebellion,
have been holding meetings to secure funds to enable them to
carry out their laudable and highly-praiseworthy intentions.—
They really deserve and should receive the thanks and gratitude
of every citizen of this county. There ought to be but one sen-
timent upon the subject. But it appears that the bachelor Edi-
tor, for a time of the Doylestown Democrat, thinks the meet-
ing deserving of reprobation, and that the ladies are so much
imbued with the spirit of Abolitionism as to be undeserving of
countenance and support. They are not the real friends of
the Union.” The resolutions of the ladies do not please this
? Editor, being “a direct attack upon the President and
the policy he has pursued.” Shades of departed heroes what
an expression from the temporary Editor of the Doylestown
Democrat!! How he loves the President and his policy, let the
columns of a paper owned by a gallant Colonel in the United
States Army testify!! Be not discouraged, good ladies! If
you had published resolutions against the “ Abolition-Republi-
cans, and not bore so hard upon Jeff-Davis and his fellow trai-
tors, your meeting, no doubt, would have secured the approba-
tion and smiles of the valorous Editor and conductors of the
Doylestown Democrat, in this its day of disgrace and ignominy.
You cannot expect to be true to your country without meeting
with rebuke in the quarter referred to. Praise the John C.
Breckinridge Democracy, and their leaders, Hughes, Vallandig-
ham and others, and no fault will be found with your resolu-
tions.
It is amazing that a meeting, at which the venerable and pa-
triotic General John Davis, father of the proprietor of the
Doylestown Democrat, was both an officer and a speaker, should
be thus characterized. Why do not Gen. Davis, and his son, Col.
Davis, rebuke the ultraisms of this periodical, and bring all its
present conductors to account? Col. Davis is an officer of the
Government of the United States, and is bound both by his oath
and position to defend the same. Is it right, that, while he is
putting money in his pocket as a sworn officer of the Govern-
ment, he should, at the same time, let a set of harpies conduct
a periodical owned by him, and by which he is also putting
money in his pocket, in such a way as to negative a hundred-fold
all the good he ever will be able to accomplish in the war in
Virginia? I have heard this matter referred to time and again
in many quarters, and the question asked how Col. Davis could,
consistently with his formerly published opinions and present po-
sition, permit his paper to be used in disseminating views an-
tagonistic to the present Government? Compare the editorials
of the paper while under the immediate supervision of Colonel
Davis, with those now propagated, and let no man be surprised
at the necessity of complaint. Nothing but a tender regard for
Col. Davis endorses the sentiments of the Doylestown Democrat, as
conducted for the last six months, he ought immediately to re-
sign his position in the army. This he ought to do, or have the
paper conducted as it used to be—in a manner not to asperse a
Government from which in part he gets his bread and butter.
I have just read Colonel Davis’ interesting letter from Harrison’s
Landing, but it contains no rebuke as to the manner in which
his paper is conducted. W. W. H. Davis as a Colonel is one
thing—as the owner of a partisan paper, quite another. No man
in this county has a higher respect for Col. Davis than this
writer. But truth, justice, and a proper regard for “ my bleed-
ing country” at this time, admonish me that such inconsistency
ought not to go unnoticed.
A few lines in the Doylestown Democrat contained all the re-
ference to the meeting of the Ladies in Newtown, the weeks fol-
lowing their meeting. Not even the excellent speech of Gen.
Davis was reported. The resolutions have not yet been published,
and none of the speeches. This could not have been for the want
of reporters, as quite a number of those who grace the “Sanctum”
of that paper were on the ground. In the speeches listened to
by the writer, nothing but the strongest feeling to sustain the
Government animated them all; all party, but the one to sus-
tain the Government and put down the rebellion, was ignored.
Many of the expressions of Col. Forney deserve to be printed in
letters of gold. They were highly patriotic, but scathing to the
sympathizers with secession. I did not hear a word of disappro-
bation to speeches or resolutions in the vast concourse assembled
at NEWTOWN.