The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-11-18
The Prevailing Gloom.

In a transport of political excitement,
and acting under the influence of strong
delusion, to which nations, like individuals
are sometimes subject, the people of the
North have reelected ABRAHAM LINCOLN
president of the United Ststes The pop
ular impulse, gathering strength through
weeks of agitation, eliminated on the 9Th
day of November, in one of those acts
which rise into historic proportion, and
will attract for ages to come, the eye Of
the statesman and historian, as the dome
of the capital at Washington looms upon
the eye of the traveller and dwarfs the
surrounding objects long before he has
reached its base and rested himself within
its shadow. 1t is seldom that the old
Grecian proverb, "whom the Gods would
destroy, they first make mad" has been
practically illustrated On so large scale.
It is seldom that nation under the pre-
text of saving the national life, deliber-
ately commits an act of national suicide.
Yet, paradoxical as the statement may
appear, it rests upon a foundation of
truth, and time will most certainly verify
the affirmation that on the 9Th day of
November, 1864, the American nation
laid violent hand upon its own nation
atty.
And now that the &C: has been accom-
plished in the endorsement of President
and policy which have combined for our
popular destruction, We see written upon
every countenance those characters of de-
lection and gloom which assure US that the
crisis has passed, that the reaction of re-
pentance which is too late has already set
in, and that now nothing remains to US
"but fearful looking for of judgment."
No popular rejoicing re-echoes and pro-
longs the popular triumph. Our v,lieys
are not vocal with the shout of people
who have achieved their redemption. Our
hill tops are not lit up with far-stretch-
ing Gordon of bonfires. The corpse of pop
ular enthusiasm has been carried out from
the threshold, and the nation is attending
its obseQuies. The skies are hung with
thick black, and the hearts of our citizens,
like "mufiled drums"
"are beating
Funeral marches to the grave"
Nevertheless, ia the midst of this gloom
which obscures the light of the national
countenance, the Democratic party, COM
pact, organized, firm in its abiding sense
of truth, of justice and of right, gathers
its defeated columns around the old flag,
upon which it has inscribed in letters of
living light the motto of its faith "merer
despair eftte Republic"
Occupying as it does the attitude of
bold, defiant and unyielding minority, and
clinging as it does with renewed determin-
alton to the Constitution and the Union,
zone and indivisible, now aud forever"
it will protest to the last against the poll
cy of national suicide, it will renew con-
tinually its objections to Executive en-
croachments upon State and Constitu-
tional rights, it will criticise with I'M
sparing condemnation each new attempt
to introduce an unusual and dangerous Or
der OF precedents, it will analize and dis
sect for general information the military
and political record of the Administration,
and it will 60 down, if 60 down it must,
with its drums beating, its colors flying,
and all its guns trained upon the enemies
of our country. AS Arnold Winkelreid in
the high Alps gathered q sheaf of Austrian
spears in his side to protect his comrades,
80 the Democracy of the United States,
standing upon the heights of an unsulled
patriotism, throw themselves between the
advancing hosts of despotism and the Con-
stitution and the Union.
The Old Union and It's BlessInys..
How It Can be Restored.
Tha memory of four years 400 is "a de-