The New era. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1865-1871, 1865-11-02
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October 81, 1866.
Although mere "looker-on In Ven
ice," we have felt deep interest in the
result Of the election just passed, in
West Virginia. Wehave seen no official
statement of the result, but enough is
known to place beyond a doubt, the
defeat of the Conservative party. But ,
we see nothing in this to discourage the
true friends of republican government.
The contest between truth and error,
through all the centuries past, has been
al exceedingly difficult one, victory and
defeat, whose varying fortunes have de-
cided the fate of churches and States,
the breaking down Of one to-day, and
the setting up of another tomorrow.
These allegations we regard as the ordeal
by which great principles, which shall
live forever, are tested and purified;
and we are taught to believe that, in the
end whatever istrue, beautiful and good,
will achieve an enduring triumph. The
heroes of thought and the heroes of
action, wherever their impress is made,
have all struggled mp through difficult
ties and dangers to the eminence whose
summit is radiant with deathless fame.
And every country, in every age, has
it's struggles and its heroes.
We stand in the midst of one of these
grand struggles which are ever SO fruit
full to the historian and the philosopher.
Between the indestructible principles of
liberty and the overcoming spirit of
despotism, a conflict is now going on in
America. On the one are arrayed
party whose labors are for the spread of
liberal ideas on this continent; on the
other, and in perfect antagonism, is
an INSCRIPTIONS and tyrannical party
whose purpose is to revolutionize our
republican system of sovereign States,
and destroy the guarantees of a written
Constitution. Upon West Virginia soil
this momentous conflict has been fully
waged in the campaign just ended, and
the standard of Justice and Truth has
been covered with defeat, though borne
by as brave a host as ever fought under
the banner of right. History has but
repeated itself in this. There are pre-
cedents for defeat as we'll as in victory,
but no reason for encouragement to the
champions of truth, and human kind
never! They have struck the keynote
to future triumph which awaits them,
as victory ever awaits the final efforts of
the just and brave. The issues of the
contest just passed are everything issues.
They will recur over and over again, in
the history of mankind, for they lie at
the very basis of popular government,
toward which the enlightened judg-
ment of the world is gradually, yet GER
tainly, tending.
No man who supported theconservative
ticket last Thursday should feel the least
dismayed at the result. You could
hardly have expected success under the
A "test oath," such as
disgraces no other State in the Union,-
save, perhaps the equally infamous
registry law of Maryland-kept hun
dreds of loyal men from the polls, men
who could have taken it as consci-
entiously as any who voted the Radical
Ticket, but whose high sense of honor
and manhood would not permit them to
willingly bow down at the partizan
behests of an INSCRIPTIONS faction to an
requirement. But in
the face of all obstacles, bearing all
threats of violence, all taunts and jeers,
a vote has beed polled by the conserva-
tive party such as will insure it's perma-
nent organization, and give it Il fixed
basis for future operations. They We're
defeated, it is true, but,
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again"
They worked and voted for a prin-
ciple. 1t still lives, and will live on
forever. As long as we have country,
there will be {; party struggling for
" equal and exact justice to all men," OF
whatever religious or political per-
suasion, and clinging to the Constitution
as the shipwrecked mariner clings to the