Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-10-24
acknowledgements
ST. CLAIRsvILLE, OHIO:
THURSDAY MORNING, OCT. "a, 1867.
Warming in Seasonl

champion of National restoration by
means of giving the whole country up
to the revolted Shareholders and bidding
them work their will with it; If one had
been chosen in the August Of 1854, he
would have been pledged to peace on
any terms with the Confederate rebels.
Had the builders of the Chicago Plat
form Of that year evinced the simplest
common sense-had they briefly resolved
that they wanted Union and Peace, and
did MT care what became of the Niger
nay, had they known enougfto say
nothing at all-Gen. Mcclellan could
have barely been beaten, even with the
dead-weight Of Pendleton hung to his
skirts. That Platform cost him more
votes in this State than composed Lin
coins majority: we presume it was the
same in Connecticut, and elsewhere
We consider that Lincoln's election was
secured by Sherman'sc capture of Atlanta
and Sheridan's victories in the Valley of
Virginia; but McClellan's overwhelm-
ing discontinue was engineered by Val
1andigham & Co. at Chicago.
The Republicans owe their victories of
1865 primarily to Mayor Monroe and his
subordinate Thugs Id New Orleans; but
Andrew johnson & Co. greatly intensi-
fed them by their harangues while
swinging round the circle" somewhat
later. Eliminate those two elements
from the canvass, and we could not have
called out the full vote that gave us Penn
sylvania, New Jersey, and New York
There may have been no more Republi.
cans in either State after than before
those performances; but good many
more of them found their way to the polls
than would have done but for Messrs.
Monroe and johnson.
The Republican party need not depend
for its victories on the persistent misbe-
havior Of its enemies. 1t isstrong enough
to rule by its own merits, independently
Of their follies and crimes. But to this
end, it must l. Complete promptly the
Reconstruction of the Southern States on
basis of blended justice and magnan-
unity; 2. systematically educate and en-
tighten the People. The necessity and
urgency of closing up the work of Re-
construction on the bread and safe basis
of Universal Amnesty with Impartial
Suffrage is now 80 clear that we will not
dwell upon it. Events are more cogent
than arguments. We will speak to-day
only to the second point.
If there were neither newspaper nor
common school in the country, the
Democratic party would be far stronger
than it is. Neither elementary instruc-
tion nor knowledge of transpiring events
is needed to teach the essential articles
of the Democratic creed: "Love rum
and hate niggers." The less one learns
and knows, the more certain he is to
"vote thereg lar ticket from A to lizard. -
But Republicanism rests on radically
different basis, and is sustained by who'll
ly diverse considerations. 1t lives by
Intelligence; it dies in the murky, sti-
fling atmosphere of Ignorance. Canvass
almost any township in the land, and
distinguish those who take from those
who fail to take newspaper, and you
will find that two-thirds of those who
take vote Republican, whilethree-fourths
of those who read nothing but a chance
paper picked up for few moments in q
bar-room vote the Democratic ticket, and
will not be persuaded to touch any other.
Ifevery man in the country could read,
and did habitually read two good jour
mails, one of each party, we should have
no more doubt of eleeting Republican
President next year than Of the rising OF
the sun. But every voter who does not
read is in peril; and the multiplicity oi
such voters subject the results Of our
elections too much to the control of ac-
cident. Fortune will not always favor
us as she did in 1854 and 1866. We can
be sure Of victories only by deserving
them. And the duty now imperatively
pressing upon us is to take care that every
voter who can read, and Wiu read IL, OF
who has some one IN his family ,oho can
and tOil read Il to him, Is reasonably sup-
piled t0ith a good Republican Journal for
the whole gear 1868. ba r
We are not going to succeed SO easily
as many have fondly calculated, and we
rejoice that we are not. If we let the
contest go at hap-hazard, and do moi
seasonably provide for and desetye suS.