Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1863-11-19
LETTER FROS WASHINGTON,


WAsniNGToS Cry, Nov. 10, 1868
EDITOR INTELLIGENCER The Novem-
ber elections seem to be, in the main,
pretty much of piece with those of
September and October. Take this
years elections all around, through and
through, up one side and down the
other, and they may be philosophical
ly regarded as very respectable Jug
handle affairs. So far, the net Union ma
jorities of the year amount to the snug
figures, in round numbers, of 325, 900,
not counting Indiana and Illinois at
all, where there have been only cleo
tions of local officers. 1t is bad year
for copperheads.
1t is not my province, however, to
philosophize on the elections generally.
That is the business of the editors.
But may be pardoned for saying a
few words upon the election in the
neighboring State of Maryland. 1t
was not only an out-and-out Union vic
tory. 1t was a straight-out Emanci-
patton victory. And it was not only
that, but it was an immediate Emancipa-
ton victory. 1t was victory over rcb-
els and over slaveholders-for the I'm
ion and for Free Labor, for real Democ-
racy, in its broad not its party signifi-
cation, and against an oligarchy of any
sort. Such was Wednesdays victory
in Maryland, SO far as the principles
at issue were concerned. When we
consider that Mr.. Lincoln, in 1860, did
not receive as many votes in the whole
State as he did in several individual
counties of Iowa that early in 1861,
then the President elect, he had to
pass through the State in disguise in
order to escape threatened assassina-
ton in its principal city; we may have
something like a correct appreciation
of the magnitude of the change which
has been brought about in the popular
mind ........ ..
But enough of generalities. Let
me note a few facts of practical ma
ture The Hon. William ID. Kelly, of
Pennsylvania, made quite a stumping
tour in the State. Everywhere he an
nounced himself as a "Black Republi-
can" and a radical anti-slavery man.
I'm many places, he was at first receiv-
ed with distrust and i'll concealed op-
position, but in no place was he treat
ed save with kindness and applause
when once he had been heared to adj
vocate the cause of Freedom and the
interest of Maryland in that cause. AT
one place, be was threatened by a
mob at the commencement of his adj
dress. When he closed, several of the
very men who had threatend to egg
him, came up and shook him by the
hand, confessed their errors, and went
home immediate Emancipationists.
Others went on to the anxious seat"
Gen Garfield, who is about as radical
as B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri, made
several speeches in the State, and at
all places save one was most warmly
received. Mr.. Secretary Chase, under
stood all over the country as the most
thoroughly anti-slavery man in the
cabinet, spoke to tremendous meet
ing in Monumental Square, and his
utterances, were received as they
would have been received in the heart
of the Western Reserve, whilst the
Baltimore An,erican was forced to ex-
plain the miserable pettifogging speech
of the Postmaster General at Rockville.
At very many places the shareholders
turned out unanimously to hear the
Emancipation orators, and brought
their slaves along with them. Not a
few of the Maryland orators and edit
ors spoke and wrote in favor of imme-
diate action, not alone because of the
material interests of the State, but for
reasons founded in eternal justice and
right. Wendell Philips and William
Lloyd Garrison will find many of THEN
brain-children among the records Of
the recent Maryland campaign. But
he who stood pregminent above all the
good, true, and able men of the State
was Henry Winter Davis, who went
into most of the counties and with
and eloquence unequalled by anyman's
from south of Mason and Dixon's line
since Henry Clay's, spoke for the Un-
ion and for Liberty. And thus it was,
on principles of universal freedom, and
by the most outspoken arguments, that
Maryland was carried. / do not hesi-
tate to say the result shows more fol
the country and the right than the vic
tories in all the other States, and
dare say jeff Davis would rather have
lost New York dozen times than Ma
ryland once. His hopes, and the hopes
of his friends, that the North woul,
be divided and the South victorious
through the specious cry of "conservs
tism," have been badly frost-bitten,