The Portland daily press., 1865-01-06

his dag, sought igncmiuious safety on board
the neutral yacht 50 conveniently at hand for
his rescue. Winslow, the countryman of De-
catur and Hull, has earned for himself fame
as enduring as the mountain from which his
noble ship was named. ~ --ass-
The youthful Cushing, glowing with the
same chivalrous spirit which animated Somers,
Wadsworth and Israel, to- immediate them
selves in the harbor of Tripoli, but more for
tunate than they, by the destruction of the AL
bemarle, at such imminent peril, well deserves
association with those honorable names.
Along with these, come Foote-sweet be
his sleep and hallowed his memory Porter
"a name of glory in our naval annals -
Worden, the hero of the first combat of IRON
clads, and scores of others worthy the naval
genius OF our country.
The action of other nations has inaugurated
a system of piracy flor it is not warfare invit-
ing the destruction OF our commercial marine,
which to some extent has been effected. If
any expectation has arisen in unfriendly
bosoms, that the naval power of this country
was to be crippled by such procedure, they
may learn at once that it is not wood, iron
and cordage which constitute the essence OF
that power, but it is the maritime genius of
our people and the determined valor of our
seamen. The vast increase OF our navy, and
the record of its exploits the past year, dem
OuSbIdkc bunb l4O OulLCu obobCc arc Idpluly
preparing for any conflict which may be forced
upon them.
1t is not, however, in the conflict of armies
upon the land, or the combats OF ships upon
the ocean that the record OF the year that has
just expired fluids its most brilliant page. AT
ter nearly four years of deadly strife, attended
by gigantic efforts, enormous sacrifices and
heart sickening suferings, in the regular or
der of our Constitutional history, the people
of the United States were called upon to elect
for another term Chief Magistrate of the
nation.
The earnest and exciting discussions incl
dent to 3 Presidential canvass, even when ac-
companied by none but its ordinary surround
ings, have, from the beginning of the war,
caused this point in our history to be looked
forward to by all rejecting minds, as the
hour OF our extreme peril and the very crisis
of our national life. The policy and measures
of the government in the conduct of the war
and during its whole progress had been assail-
ed with severe and able criticism by a portion
of the press and public speakers of the coun-
try, with freedom unrestrained, beyond the
example of any other land, unsurpassed even
in this. irrefutably disposing of the charge
that the liberty of either speech or press was
in danger and renewing the assurance that
the long enjoyed American privilege of ar
raigning parties in power or candidates for Of
fee at the bar of public opinion for all short
comings, is not likely to fall into desuetude.
The denomination of the present incumbent,
implying in itself, and accompanied by dis
tinct approval of the general principles by
which he had been governed in his admins
tration, with an expressed determination to
prosecute the war to a triumphant vindication
of the national authority, occurring long be-
fore the name of his competitor for Presi-
Dental honors was authoTitatively announce
ed, was but the signal for more impetuous
assault a9tg44
| The friends of the government were COM
| PEELED more earnestly than ever to defend its
measures while yet ignorant of what was to
be the avowed policy of its opponents At
length the convention assembled which nomi-
mated the rival candidate, and 1t did not adj
| journ leaving the country Ia doubt as to its
| purposes, however otherwise 1t might have
been, judging simply from the antecedents
and character of its candidate.
That Convention proclaimed IS as the sense
| of the American people. that, after four years
| of failure to restore the Union by the expert
ment of war, during which, under the pre-
| tense of military necessity or war power
higher than the Constitution, the Constitution
itself has been disregarded In everv part, and
public liberty and private rights alike trodden
down, and the material prosperity of the
| COuubAy cSScHtldiy lLupdlIcuS JuSllC6s uuuldul-
| ty, liberty, and the public welfare demand
that immediate efforts be made for cessation
OF hostilities. with view TO an ultim ate Con
! vention of all the States, or other peaceable
| means to the end that at the earliest practical
7 Bile moment peace may be restored on the basis
OF the Federal Union Of the States"
| ). The issue was thus squarely submitted to
the people.
The canvass, though short, was animated
and bitter. The prestige Of a man long hon
| ored and honorable as the designation of a
party which, almost from the birth of the ma
ton, had shaped its measures and, as it were,
claimed the traditional right to the possession
| OF the administration of its government;
whose proud boasts were the vast expansion
| of the borders of the republic, its unswerving
aaeiity to the country, its promptness to re-
sent any outrage of its authority or insult to
| its flag, which ever visited its fercest wrath
upon every utterance calling in question the
| justice of any national quarrel with foreign
| powers as moral treason, and which had never
been twice successfully defeated, in an appeal
| to popular favor, allured thousands to the sup
| port of the candidate of the opposition, in
| spite Of the pregnant implications of disunion
| contained in its platform. But it was OF no
avail. The people of the country, raIying in
the spirit of the declaration that "the Federal
! Union must and shall be preserved" endorsed
bu6 autuiHiSGEdtIOu Vi II6SlQeuL Lincoln Dy
overwhelming msjorities, paying him the
| tribute of reelection, which was last ac-
corded to the patriotic jackson, and being the
second which has occurred in forty years.
This was, however, in no sense personal or
party triumph, it was the result OF national
necessity. That nation governed by an alb
solute despot or by a monarch of limited
authority, surrounded by aristocratic orders
| upon whom the sacrifices and burdens of war
bear lightly, should protract bloody strife
for years is no new thing in history. But
that nation where each man is sovereign
| and every voter an integral part OF the Gov
eminent, in which every ballot cast, as ia the
late election, is verdict upon the past, and,
combining in majority, decree Tor the fu-
ture; binding the whole nation, msjorities as
well as minorities, individuals aud masses, to
meet the sacrifices and bear the burdens of
continued war is marvellous testimony to the
steadiness Of popular government and the
capacity OF mankind to sustain it. A war
waged for less than the life OF nation freight
ed with the hopes OF freedom and mankind,
could alone have evoked 50 sublime conse-
Grafton. i4jnih
Since the day which heralded the advent OF
our Savior, none more glorious has dawned on
our race than the eighth of November, eigh-
teen hundred and sixty-four.
SAMUEL CoNY.