Litchfield enquirer., 1868-01-02
A RETROSPECT.
THIRTEEN YEARS OF THE NArIos-ls54-1s67

Magaziae for January, and was written by V. E. Denslow, formerly editor of the Chi cago Repubican: ...,-f ,f-t
 In one of the latter numbers of the first series of Putaans's Monthly, we published an article entitled "Our Parties and Poli- tics.' The date, September, 1854, was immediately after the passage of the Kan sas Nebraska bills, repeating the Missouri Compromise, and opening our National Territories to slavery. On that hint, we spoke. We now resume the discussion, after an interval of thirteen years. Dur ing this period events have occurred more important in our history, as people, than even those of our war for Independence, because involving 8 population ten times larger, in struggle ten-fold more sublime and terrible, resulting in revolution not merely of our national regime, but of our social institutions and entire system of in- dustry. H---
 Mr. Pierce had but two years before been elected by majorities which swept all but three of the states; Jefferson Davis his bo- som friend in Mexico, who had been most efficient in procuring his nomination, was his Secretary of War; the fugitive slave law had been passed; the revival of the African slave trade was preached; Mr.. Bu- chaDnan was Minister to England, and was plotting the Ostend Manifesto; Cap tain George B. Mcclellan was detailed on secret service in the harbors of Cuba, un- der instructions from the Secretary of war; General Quitman, Lieutenant Beauregard, and others, were plotting filibustaring raids against that island, for which the Government soon after made an offer of one hundred millions; the Senate, House a i'd nearly all the State Governments, our foreign diplomacy, our army and navy, our civil service, custom houses, postOffices ali preferment, much of our business, and even our society, and 9 large majority of our churches, were controlled by men who either were pro-slavery, or preferred to re- main on friendly terms with the institu- ton, rather than incur the dangers of 8 quarrel with it; Parson Brownlow had written savage work in it's defense and was challenging Northern clergymen to dispute its divine authority; the stand made under Van Buren and Adams, and the Democratic 'Free Soilers of '48," had apparently accomplished the purpose of its leaders in defeating Cass and eIecting Taylor: instead of self-sacrifcing mar tyrdom for principle, it proved to have been prompted only by personal spite, which, being satisfied the Van Burens and most of their supporters, except few sim cere free-soilers, were humbly doing pen ance for the sin of pretended devotion to freedom, by dancing attendance in the ante-chambers of Democratic officials, and defending their fidelity to the party before the dull, unwilling ears of Tammany. The United States Marshals, appointed solely for their subserYiency to slavery, gloried C1a %ro1 their vessels, and shareholders in recover ing their negroes; "Uncle Toms Cabin" had been written, and its leaven was rapid ly spreading. but had not yet affected the voting masses; Gerrit Smith, Dr. Howe, Henry Ward Beecher, Owen Lovejoy, the saints at Oberlin, and few hundred others were doing qufet and limited business over the underground railway; John Brown had not yet left his farm in the Northern wilds; the Republican party was not yet formed. In word, the ~anti-slav- cry sentiment seemed like Christianity at never be party, or even sect, but was a mere flicker, for which the world was wal. ting to say, ''There! it is gone!"
 In the surAey of ''Our Parties and 'Poli- tics." to which we refer, we affirmed that our War for National Independence grew out of ga new idea-the American idea the conception of state founded on the inherent freedom and dignity of the indi- viduals man,. 'san idea which, we said, "still transcends the highest practical achievements of our race" .."But among the States which form the elements of the Confectionery, there are some not strictly democratic and scarcely republican They are asistocracles or oligarchies, built upon diversity of races. Their political and social privileges are confined to class while the rest of the inhabitants are slaves The consequences has been growing di- vergency, though it was not always appa- rent or even suspected, between the con- victions, the interests and the tendencies of one-half the Union, which was eminently free and democratic and those of the other half, which was slaveholding and aristocrat- ic.'' We asserted that '.when, in the pro- gress of empire, the question arises whether the social system of the one or the other shall prevail, to the exclusion, which is un- avoidable, of its opponent" Ca strenuous grapple and fight" would be imminent. And we closed by demanding 'sthe repeal of the fugitive slave law-t6e restoration of the Missouri compromise-no more SA$~'S kSooeSo -AO AAOAO Olbf0 4oII1tOI1GS the homestead for free men on the pub- lie lands"
 Two years after, the Republican party met in its first National Convention at Philadelphia, and organized on this plat form, nominating Fremont for the Presi- dency. An obscure individual remember GU by few as having once represented Sangamon District, Illinois, in the House. and opposed the Mexican war, in an awk- ward, ingenious and extremely unpopular argument, received few complimentary votes for Vice President, in competition with MT, Dayton the nominee. Captain U. s. Grant, hardly suspected of being an ex-army officer by those who bought mo- iasses or cord-wood of him, was generallv taken for steamboat captain temporarily stranded by stress of ill-luck, or. who had hardly the requisite energy and pluck to succeed in business calling for so much ot these qualities, and who had therefore collapsed into speculator in sundries
 MT. ". I. sherman was teaching school in Louisiana. Generals Sickles. Butler. and Logan were rough and tumble Democratic lawyers of some notoriety. Two of onr most prominent and promising officers of
 the httie army were Colonel Albert Sidr ev Johnson and Lieutenant Colonel R ET,es
 Brief as is the period since then. we have but two men in official life, Mr. Seward
 and MT. Chase, whose prominence hoe ,-,t <.