The Portland daily press., 1866-02-28

1t would be useless to deny that the excite
ment growing out Of the political events of
the past few days has been intense, and per
haps in many instances, angry and bitter.
Under the first smart of wrong received at
the hands of one we have trusted, it is diff
cult to reason with perfect calmness. For
many months the painful apprehension has
been growing stronger that the man whom
the loyal people have honored and defended,
whom they lifted into power as proof of their
hDerallty, who was the living monument Of
their unsectlonal and fraternal spirit, meditat-
ed betrayal of their interests, and an al
lance Of himself and his influence with the
cause OF their enemies. Indications of such
a nature have been many, but they have re-
fused to believe such evidences. They have
suppressed their doubts and fears, and per-
sistently hoped for the best, when often their
sole ground for that hope was the feeling that
no man could really descend to such baseness
as would be implied in the justification of
their fears. A generous and noble people
could not bring themselves to believe that the
man whose hands they had sustained and
strengthened, whose honor they had trusted,
whose errors they had pardoned and forgotten,
could grow treacherous to them, and callous
to the claims of humanity and justice. So
they sileneed the apprehensions they could not
stifie, apologized for acts which caused them
unutterable pain, and strove to put the most
charitable construction on every indication of
coldness and indifference to the objects they
had most at heart.
Under such circumstances it could not be
otherwise than with the deepest grief and in
dignation that they have seen the complete
betrayal of their generous confidence, and it
Is but natural that their first emotion should
be one of angry excitement. This feeling,
however, is not the one which is to endure.
Already it is giving place to the mood of calm.
but indomitable resolution. Something has
been gained even by the developments of the
last few days. Doubt and suspense, at least.
are at an end: and the present aspect of the
crisis, painful as 1t is, peculiar as are its dan
ders, untried as are its difficulties, stern as are
its duties, is preferable to that universal nm
certainty in which of late men have been
compelled to act. The situation becomes
clear. Men see their duties and accept their
responsibilities. For we have reached one of
those dividing points which mark the cbanpe
from one distinct period of progress to anotb-
er. The contest Of arms, resulting in the de-
feat of secession and the death of slavery Ia
ended; but new contest is begun which Is to
decide questions equally momentous. In This
new contest, now that it Is fairly inauo,,rat-
ed, there can be but two parties. On the one
side stand arrayed the friends of freedom and
impartial justice, the loyal people who, having
carried the nation triumphantly through a
bloody struggle for existence, are now resolute
to secure for themselves those guarantees of
permanent peace and security which are the
rightful fruits OF their victory. On the other
side are the sworn supporters of privilege
and caste, the men of the South who engineer
ed the rebellion, and the disloyal Democrats
OF the North who assisted them to the ut
most by sympathy and encouragement, to
hold out against the government. To these
forces are now added other elements of
strength. The powerful influence of the Ex
ecutive will draw to that side that class of
corrupt politicians and asprants for office who
hold principle secondary to the emoluments of
place. The whole tribe of party hacks, the
sycophantic throng which every demagogue in
high place can call about him, are, of course.
to be counted ON the side which has place and
patronage to bestow. The people must ex-
pect to see some prove recreant, even of those
whom they have trusted and believed in. In
the same ranks, also, there will be found
many Of those timid and conservative, men
who, though loyal during the war, have vet
no abiding faith in the principles of right, and
who shape their course by the rule of weak
expediency.
All these elements, rallying now under the
leadership of the Executive, make the party
OF reaction, the party whose aim and hope it
is to cheat the victorious and loyal people of
the fruits of their hard-won victory. The
body of slavery is indeed dead, but its spirit
yet lives, and their task is to reinyest it with
living form. They cannot restore the institu.
ton itself, but they can perpetuate the civil,
social and political disabilities which it has
engendered. The distinctions of race and
caste, and the power and privilege which
grow out of such distinctions, they believe
they can retain; and to this end it is that the
party, armed with its old weapons of arro-
gance, sophistry and treachery, and shouting
its old war-cries, now devotes itself, Whether
it shall succeed or not is the issue before the
country. Recent events have torn off all dis
guises, and brought the question to fair trial.
The people, and we believe also, noble ma
jority Of their representatives in Congress see
clearly the issues Of the hour, are prepared to
accept their mOmentous character. and az faar-
lessly as determinedly as on thousand bloody
fields, to do battle for Liberty and Union
against all the forces of retrogression, of sec
tionalism, caste and oligarchy. And then ,ciu
preodA They have not poured out their
blood in rivers, and their treasure in millions
to yield now the dear-bought fruit of their
triumph. They are neither to be daunted by
the forces of Southern secession and North
ern treason allied under the banner Of Execu-
tive patronage, nor are they to be cheated by
the pretenses of sham Conservatism" and
sham magnanimity into surrender of their
convictions and principles. 1t is not the ma
ture of revolutions to go backward. The op-
posing forces may be able to hinder and post
pone the triumph of freedom, justice and
equality, but they cannot ultimately prevent
it. The people have sworn its accomplish
ment, and the result is as sure as the fixed
and immutable laws of Gods universe.
HOURS AT HOME, for March presents an interest,"
ing table Of contents. The author of 0cLife and
Times of John Huss," contributes an apprecatiye
article on Samuel Adams" which is followed by
"Rambles among the italian Hills," by an American
lady resident in Roma apd hy tha er.t .hantars of