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Oliver Hazard Perry Morton, 14th Governor of Indiana, in a speech to the Union Mass Meeting at Masonic Hall, Indianapolis (20 June 1866): as contained in Treason Exposed: Record of the Disloyal Democracy (1866), Republican Party (Ind.) State Central Committee, p. 3
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Every wolf in sheep’s clothing, who pretends to preach the gospel, but proclaims the righteousness of man-selling and slavery—everyone who shoots down negroes in the streets, burns negro school-houses and meeting-houses, and murders women and children by the light of their own flaming dwellings, calls himself a Democrat. Every New York rioter in 1863, who burned up little children in colored asylums—who robbed, ravished and murdered indiscriminately in the midst of a blazing city for three days and nights, called himself a Democrat. In short, the Democratic Party may be described as a common sewer and loathsome receptacle into which is emptied every element of treason, North and South, every element of inhumanity and barbarism which has dishonored the age.

— American Civil War

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Every wolf in sheep’s clothing, who pretends to preach the gospel, but proclaims the righteousness of man-selling and slavery—everyone who shoots down negroes in the streets, burns negro school-houses and meeting-houses, and murders women and children by the light of their own flaming dwellings, calls himself a Democrat. Every New York rioter in 1863, who burned up little children in colored asylums—who robbed, ravished and murdered indiscriminately in the midst of a blazing city for three days and nights, called himself a Democrat. In short, the Democratic Party may be described as a common sewer and loathsome receptacle into which is emptied every element of treason, North and South, every element of inhumanity and barbarism which has dishonored the age." in the context of "Oliver Hazard Perry Morton, 14th Governor of Indiana, in a speech to the Union Mass Meeting at Masonic Hall, Indianapolis (20 June 1866): as contained in Treason Exposed: Record of the Disloyal Democracy (1866), Republican Party (Ind.) State Central Committee, p. 3" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "American Civil War" (Quotes, The war on the home front, Anti-war movement in the Union, Contemporaries) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
American Civil War

About American Civil War

The American Civil War (ACW), also known as the War of the Rebellion, the Great Rebellion, and several other names, was a civil war that was fought in the United States of America from 1861 to 1865. Fearing that the future of slavery was in jeopardy after the election of an anti-slavery U.S. president, eleven slave-holding U.S. states located in the southern United States declared their secession from the country and formed the Confederate States, also known as "the Confederacy", sparking war. Led by Democrat Jefferson Davis, they fought against the United States, also known as "the Union", led by Republican Abraham Lincoln, which consisted of every free U.S. state as well as five slave-holding states, known as "border states". In 1865, after four years of warfare, the Confederacy surrendered, and slavery was abolished in the United States with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by three-fourths of the states.

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