Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1860-08-11
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
NJ HORACE oREELKr.

sy. Very few desert their fields aud workshops
to swell the thousands who gather at mass con-
yentons hundred miles from their homes
few (yet still too many) neglect their families
TO spend night after night in heated, crowded
grog.shops where politicians most do cougre.
gate, saving the country's constitution by ruin
ing their own few are prompted to quarrel
with their neighbSrs aud defame their best
friends on account OF political differences. The
change from such contests as that Of l840 or
even that Of 1856 is manifest aud signal, but |
it is not deplorabe. The people shout less, it |
may be, than they have done but they do OF
read less nor think less They ore not the less
likely TO render just salutary Judgment be-
cause they have not decided first investigated
siterwurd. There may be more light than
usual-evCn though there be less beat and
he who attends but one convention--or even |
none-msy have informed himself quite as fully |
and accurately as to the issues and candidates
presented, as one who has been marching aud
singing and shouting for the last six months.
There will be more legal votes poed this year
throughout the country than there ever were
before aud, If fewer illegal ones with them,
90 much the better.
As matter OF fact though the People have
been more excited in some former contests we
doubt that they were ever more widely and
generally interested than now. In close States,
like Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, they are
holding many ard largely attended meetings
not of on6 party only, but all in localities like
Vermont or South Carolina, there is little move
ment because effort is known to be uuaval ing;
but, on the whole, there we're never SO many
states sharply contested, nor a contest which
more clearly pervaded the whole Union, than
in 1860.
| And never was there better or wider op.
portunity for sowing broadcast the seeds of po-
litical and moral truth. Never could men of
principle, of integrity, Of profound, enlighted
conviction, do more good by judciously direct
ed effort than now. The fountains of the great
political deep are broken up. Men who for
thirty years have been impervous to conviction
are now hesitating aud inquirng. Where for
merly the votes of nine-tenths of the electors
were fxed and unchongeablc from the outset,
now we are within three months of the election,
and hundreds of thousands are yet undecided
Men who have never inquired further than
"Where FOR which) is the Democratic ticket 2"
are now compelled to determine which of the
titled to that appellation and having begun
to inquire they are not likely to stop at the
threshold. They may proceed to inquire what
claim either of the competitors has TO the name
thus struggled for, and what claim is given by
that name to the favor and support Of men
who love their Country and the Right. And
thus many voter may be led Oh to review the
whole field OF political controversy and to re-
wise opinions which he never till now permitted
himself to doubt. In such time, a "word Gt-
ly spoken"-a gentle aud friendly remonstrance
or admonitiou-the reading of an able and for
chile speech or essay-nay change the current
OF individual thought and action for lifetime.
Seldom have opportunities been presented for
doing so much good at so moderate cost of
effort or Of time
Above all should attention be given to the
case Of Young Men. Some hundreds of thou
sands Of these are now to cast their first vote
for President 10 every county, almost every
township some of these will be found in the
humber walks of life who have enjoyed slender
opportunities for acquiring political knowledge,
aud who have either not as yet received par
ty bias or are loosely attached to some party
through very crude aud imperfect acquant-
ance with its principles and the issues of the
day. There are One Hundred Thousand Of
these who might be won by kind and friendly
assiduity to appreciate the cause Of Justice,
Humanity, Liberty, and Who on ce attached TO
it, would cling to it.through life. May we not
hope that each reader will consider and deter
mine whether there is not one such within the
sphere of his own activity, in the possibility of
being won through his efforts +!
1t is just and singing reproach to the good
that they are not. as class, so generally zeal.
Gus and effective in politics as the bad. The
keeper OF one grog-shop is worth more, as
general rule to the party he faVors, than two
average deacOns. This need not and should
not be. A man truly religious must therefore
be better patriOt--more devoted TO bis cOun-
try's Well-beiDg snd willing to make sacrifices
to promote or secure it--than loose liver and
seofer. II bis religion leads or ineIiues him to
look with indifference on political struggles And
stay away from the polls, there must be hole
In it. He forgets or disregards the Divine in-
junction. Render unto Cesar the things that
are Cesar's" II there be anywhere man so
pious that he does not care to vote, be certainly
stands in need Of enlightenment, IL not Of stern
er discipline. A religion that does not manifest
itself 10 the market, the field, the street, and at
the polls, belongs to a darker and more SUPER
StitOus age than that into which we have been
born.
1t is very true that bad men sometimes con
meet themselves with the best political cause,
acting so as to render it odious to the super
heiAl and unthinkiog. But here Is just where
the inIerPositiOn Of the good becomes indispeD-
sable 1t Is their imperative duty to separate
the good from the bad--Ghe righteous cause
from its unworthy champions, putting each 10