Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-11-11
The Election of Genl. Grant.

The electionsof Genl. Grant to the Presidency
of the United States is the end of an eight years
struggle, which has teencd with events withouta
parallel in the annals Of this or any other nation.
During -four. of these years the Republic was en-
gagged in one Of the greatest civil wars that over
couyulscd mankind, and throughout the othor four
it has been the prey Of factions ard passions that
have Inflicted evils hardly less calamit9us than
strife on the battlefield.
And now, after the first cxutation Of the tri-
umphant party shall have abated, the American
people will soon address themselves to the con-
sideratiuu of questions that can no longer be
postponed till I" after the election" The North,
almost equally divided between the two political
parties, as all the local elections show has, in the
Presidential contest, tthc prestige Of military
candidate preponderate in the balance. And
Genl Grant comes to tho Presidential chair with
so blaDk-a political record that we know not what
to expect from. him. Certainly, under the cir
cumstances, it. were well that we Of tho South
by premature denunciations and representations
of tyranny and partisanship. What he will do
we know not; we pretend to no prescience on the
subject. The:oxtreme Radical wing of his party
assume that he is bound to them by solemn
pledges, and that he will carry out their policy by
all the means they may put into his hands. On
this point we must await tho developments of
time. Genl. Grant, in entering upon the Presi-
Dental Office, will swear Z" to protect and defend
the Constitution Of the United States" Faithful
to that oath, he must encounter the hostility Of
the party leaders who:openly scoif at the consti-
tuition, und avow their determination to rule
outside of it." Grant must either submit to
them or resist them. And if he resist them he
must appeal to the people for support; to the
thoughtfu, conservative masses Of the people,
who have not yet been weaned from their attach
ment to the free, popular government which is
their birthright. Never, then, was there better
reason for The Democracy of tho country to close
up their ranks and stand firm. Let no man now.
baxely desert the ranks of the great Democratic
army. The stragglers and camp-folowers may
now wander of after plunder and profit, but the
true soldiers in the good cause know that this is
the very time to rally round it's banner.
The party that takes its lease of power now,
finds condition of things impossible to continue,
and difficult to mend. The extreme Radicals wish
to p4rpetuate military despotism at the South at
the cost Of the North, and in the interest of the
negro. But Grant may, in this matter, prove as
uu<ynpuhetc us Johnson; or US Lincoln, for
even the Inter was full Of what aro termed the
rrejudices" Of the white race. Easily led as he
was, Abraham Lacoln could never be brought,
by word or act, to favor the "negro reconstruc-
ton" of the Radicals. And in the very last days
of his life, he declared unequiyocaly for the
riYlts of the States; and no loft his policy ns an
Inheritance that may reach remute as we'll as an
immediate successor.
Tue country, in the approaching changes and
mutations which the signs of the times indicate,
will ultimately put its trust in the Democratic
principles tested by time and reason, approved by
the practice of the bottor days Of the Republic,
and hallowed by tho precepts of its founders. No
vile and earnest thinker traces the evils that have
overtaken us to any other Cause than an aberra.
ton from those principles; no statesman can find
any other remedy than return to those princi-
Piles. Let no man now abate his faith in them.
They must prevail. Moro speedily, too, than
might now seem probable. Radicslsm was never
more fierce, insolent and confident, than when it
attempted to seize the Executive branch Of the
Government, and put Wade into the Presidency.
Suddenly, i; failed in the impeachment plot, and
its representative men sank out of sight to make
place fer the soldier whose military fame was to
hide Radical infamy. --,,--.----,r
m H., s,--.,vursm IS again e1ultant IN the IN
toxication Of success. Tomorrow, the honest,
honorable men of its party may range themselves
along side of tie unconquorable Democracy as
the only chance for themselves and their country.