The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-08-27
For Whom Should The YOung &
tfsfi'" Men vOte.t '

Men vote.
What ticket should eyouig men
of the.~countrY- support A large
number of young men will cast
their first vote for President at the
next election. Doubtless they want
to support that ticket whose cleo
ton shall most benefit the country.
They do not wish to do that of
which they will have to repent here
after. General Sherman said once
that he voted for Buchanan, and
had been sorry for it ever since /;
and General Sherman is not the
only one who entertains such re
grets. 4gDTa ~ E4Is.
To the young men we have q few
words to say. Everybody knows
that before very long time passes,
there must come about. a reorgan-
ization of parties. Those who have
studied most thoughtfully the po-
1itical and industrial condition of
the country : are persuaded that
many important interests are neg
lected, and that the country; suffers
in different ways, because this reor-
organization of parties has been so
long delayed and that it will con
tinue to suffer until parties are form
ed upon the real questions of the
day-which are taxation and fl
nance.
In the present canvass neither OF
these important questions takes the
lead. The democratic party had
the power, if it's leaders had possess
ed the necessary wisdom, to. make
the questions prominent. 1t had
only to accept accomplished facts,
to take for granted the reconstruc-
ton of the southern states, and to
fling out Of the arena of politics all
the old questions, which preceded
and grew out of the war; and to an
nounce a policy of equal civil and
political rights, and with this pol
icy of justice, wisdom and good
faith, upon the questions of taxa
ton, internal and external, the cur
rency ana the debt.
But the democratic leaders have
neither the courage nor the wisdom
to place themselves in the advance !;
they cannot or will not see that the
attitude of protest, which they have
held for so many years, is not the
attitude of a victorious party. They
protested. in 1860, against the spread
Of liberal opinion on the slavery
question-and were beaten. They
protested in 1864 against the war
for the Union, and demanded an
immediate cessation of hostilities-
and were still more badly beaten.
In 1868, they still protest-against
reconstruction at the moment it is
accomplished in nearly every state
against the debt, when the people
have made up their minds to pay it
honestly; against negroes voting,
when they have voted in every
southern state.
Now, in the first place, it is plain
that so long as tbs democratic party
thus disputes the validity oflaccom
plished facts, so long as its sole pol
icy is to go back, to carry the coun-
try back over the old tracks, to un
do what has been done, to begin
again the turmoil through which we
have just painfully passed---just. SO
long is any true progress impossible.
The old questions must be put aside
before the new ones can come up
for argument. 1t is the democratic
party, therefore, which bars
the way to progress; and when it
is swept out of the way then
only can we come to that discussion
of other questions most important
to the whole country, which is so
necessary and imperative.
It is, therefore, for the general
interest and welfare that the demo-
cratic party should be beaten in the
coming election for thus only can
these questions which it attempts to
revive be put aside forever. The
party protested against emancipa-
ton until it was beaten in 1864 but
that defeat settled the question, and
put the slavery question out of our
politics forever. So, in, 1868, a
defeat Of the democrats will compel
even them to accept the reconstruc-
ton, now already accomplished,
and suffer the country to pay at
tention to other and more impor-
tant matters. e. ..
But this is not all. There was a
time when the democratic party was
the party of progress, the party of
sound ideas, of generous instincts,
the party of justice, of human bro
therhood, of equal rights, Of free
dom. Then it's leaders had cour-
age, they were aggressive, they were
not afraid to attack wrong wher-
ever they found it, or to maintain
the right wherever it led them. If
it were that now; if it: had in it
any of the old leaven of righteous
ness, it might be well to support it.,
and keep it from destruction. But
it has not single good democratic
quality remaining; it is the party of
hate, of inhuman prejudice; it has
planted itself on injustice and dis
honor. During the war it was
ready to surrender the Union since
the war it is ready to disgrace the
nation by repudiating the debt. It
denies justice, and boastfully apeals
to the baser passions of the multi
tude. i i''' - r4a-f
Is that party with which the
young men of the nation, generous,
full Of ardor, loving liberty, having
faith in mankind, believing also in
the irresistible eprogress of this great
Union, in intelligence, virtue and
wealth, can join? Here, for in