The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1861-03-09

THE roITTicaL srTUaTIo. go.
pi'i [Yfoath New York Ivenlne Poss y aoes
The geplt,tcaann party was formed 81 old free
| soil Democrats ana Of part Of the idisbahde,
| Wing party, In opposition TO the party calm,
/ itself Democratic, which had held possession 0
the Government for series Of years Its hos
tility to the dominant Organization was arima
ted BY an earnest feeling that q fundamental snt
complete revolution was necessary, not only I,
the purity but to the perpetuity Of our poi'tica
system. The Democratic party had been tn
popular party Of the country, but its long.con
tinued and almost unbroken success had brough
with it the usual penalty Of success-corrup
ton, audacity, recklessness and license.
In the irst place. in nearly every department
of the Administration the greatest abuses hac
been demonstrated, while others still more gross
we're suspected, which time has since revealed
in the second place, the purity had become g
thoroughly devoted to the interests of slavery
that all the traditions Of the fathers were for
gotten, the uniform practices of seventy years
disregarded, and the federal power in all its
branches changed into "a mere implement for the
defence and extension Of slavery. But, thirdly,
the organization had passed almost entirely into
the hands of sectionalists aud their tools, who
were determined to direct every energy Of the
Government to the furtherance OF their partcu-
lar views, or in the failure Of that, to break up
not merely the Democratic party ITSELF but to
bring about the rupture of the Union.
An almost spontaneous rising Of the people Of
the North, aided by sympathizers in the border
States, made the success of the Republicans
The election of Lincoln was the triumph of their
principles of opposition over the dangerous pro-
clivities which had seized upon the Democratic
organization; By that success the Democratic
leaders and followers have been shown the mag
nitude of the errors into which they had fallen;
their corruptions have been exposed to their own
eyes; and the significant lesson has been taught
that reckless partisan expenditures, that venali-
ty, that exclusive Southern affinites and exclu-
sive devotion to Southern rights are not the
means to retain or secure popular favor. No
President hereafter, until the lessons OF 1850
are forgotten, will follow in the footsteps of
Buchanan or Pierce. No administration, in the
face of the recent popular verdict, will indulge
in the practices which have stripped these late
administrations OF moral dignity and influence,
and dismissed their agents to private life cover
ed with an indellible disgrace.
Another great effect of this Republican sue
cess is, that the existence of North, SO long
ignored and unheeded, has been established; Of
aNorth with all our old peculiar convictions Of
right, and all our incradcable ideas of freedom;
but above all, OF North which is capable of
united action when an emergency requires that
it shall make itself heard This in itself is
controlling fact. Politicians, for all time to
come, will heed the warning. In the public
councils hereafter the North will be allowed the
weight due to its superior numpers, its intclli-
gence and its wealth; men OF liberal opinions
will not be s,dehly shut out from committees
and appointments; candidates for the Presiden.
cy will not duck and pander to the prejudces of
one section exclusively; and everywhere, in po-
litical life, new tone and sentiment will pervade
the action of public bodies and of administra-
tons. Those schemes Of flibustering, in the in
terests of slavery, which have made US the ter
ror of our weak Southern neighbors, are, for
time at least, at an end. The practical organi
cation Of our territories is largely under the
control of the new powers. In all our foreign
relations it will come to be understood that the
Government OF the United States is not the
mere propaganda of slaveholding theories, but
the genuine representative of republican free
dom and republican progress.
These are immense achievementS-they are
noble ends to have been accomplished, after SO
fierce, and yet SO brief o struggle; and they
should dispose the Republicans to use their adj
vantages with moderation, with wisdom, with
nagnanimity Their battle has been fought
the victory won; but they have not yet reapcd
all the fruits of success. Their real trial has
yet to come. Thus far they have acted only in
opposition; now they are to assume the respOn-
sibiity. The Government is theirs, and they
will be answerable for the issue. The Govern
ment is theirs; but It comes to them under more
embarrassing circumstances than it was ever be-
fore assumed. Six States of the Union, misled
by daring schemers, who work upon their preju-
dices, have openly revolted against the central
power. Other States are balancing between
their attachments to the old Corfederacy and the
seductive appliances of the new. A final disco
luton of the nation is threatened, and the prob
lem is. to prevent so disastrous a calamity.
1t may be done, we are disposed to believe, by
combining frmncss in the maintenance of the
laws with generous moderation towards the
disaffected. Our national possessions, which are
essential to national purposes, must be retained
the integrity of the Government must be upheld
but pacifcation, and not war, is the chief end Of
al! wise policy. If the border States, which
have evinced strong a desire to remain in the
Union, can be confirmed in their disposition; if
the love of TIE Union can be strengthened in
them by such adjustments of existing difficulties
as Mr.. Adams has indicated, or by such harmless
concessions as the Peace Conference seems like.
ly 10 agree upon, there are imperative reasons
why they should be held. While they adhere to
the Union, the secession of the Cotton States is
shorne of much of its moment. The latter will
then be unable to continue an Independent con-
federacy. A party will grow up within their
own limits, which will soon c.amor for reunion.
Supported by the central Government, by the
unanimous feelings of the North, and the nearly
unanimous feelings of the border States, it will
acquire strength enough to battle the worst eff
forts of the seceders, and in the end crush them
utterly in their own localities.