Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1868-01-30
GRANT FOR PRESIDENT.
BY HENRY WILSON.

10 cnooSe cllleI magistrate. DIX
millions Of men, weaponed with the
ballot, will strive for the glittering
prize. Mighty issues are involved
in the impending contest. The po-
litical organizations, with sharply
defined ideas, principles and poll
cies will contend for the mastery,
for the executive power Of the gov
ernment during the coming four
years, in which are to be garnered
up the fruits of the victories of the
terrific struggles of the past seven
| years, or in which old issues will be
reopened and old strifes renewed,
that must embitter the future of the
republic.
The people are ranged into two
political organizations, each with
nearly three millions of voters, a
name, and a history. The one
claims to be the Democratic party;
the other calls itself the Republican
party. The history of the country
during the past thirteen eventful
years is record of the ideas, prin-
ciples and acts of these antagonis-
tic organizations, Their issues
have not been, like the ordinary is
sues of political parties, mere ques-
tions of administration; but funda-
mental and vital, as opposite as the
zenith and the nadir
The history of the country for
the past thirty years too clearly
shows that the democratic party
has been dominated by the dark,
inhuman and unchristian spirit of
slavery that it was guided through
a series of years by the councils of
slave masters, or by leaders IN sym
pathy with slave masters That
history teaches us that under that
fatal leading the democratic party
renounced the faith of the republi-
can fathers; took from black men
rights accorded by the founders of
the republic; struck at the rights of
petition; annexed a slaveholding
people, avowedly to strengthen sla-
very; opened free soil, won from
Mexico, to human bondage; enact
ed the fugitive slave law, and then
ronounced its victories over liber-
ty and justice "fnalities." T." That
history teaches us, too, that it re-
opened sectional agitation by re-
pealing the prohibition of slavery
embodied in the Missouri compro-I
mise of 1920; by Sustaining the
lawless violence that seized the gov
ernment of Kansas, inaugurated the
reign of robbery and blood, estab-
lished slavery, and framed the Le-
compton Constitution; that it has
tened to accept the Dred Scott dog
ma; divided into two hostile fac
tions, the one shamefully avowing
that it "did not care whether slavery
was voted up or voted down." and
the other proclaiming the right to
take slaves into the territories and
hold them in bondage under the au
thority of the federal government
that it went into the canvass of 1860
rent in factions, and was inglori-
ously defeated; that its old slave
master raised the banner of rebel
lion; that many Of its northern
chiefs and their followers gave sym
pathy to their old comrades; but
that hundreds of thousands nobly
strove to save their country, and
tens of thousands found in the re-
publican ranks new and more con-
genial associations.
The history of the republic dur
ing the past thirteen years, shows
that the republican party has been
inspired by the just, humane and
ennobling spirit of liberty. 1t was
brought into being amidst the
struggles to repeal the Missouri
compromise and carry slavery into
Kansas. Defeated in its first ma
tional contest, it appealed to the
patriotism of the people, to their
love of liberty and their sense of
Justice, 1t called the battle rol
anew, went into the canvass of 1850
for the freedom of the territories
and the restoration of the govern
ment to the policy of the fathers,
and made Abraham Lincoln Presi-
dent. 1t then accepted the bloody
issues of civil war, rather than be-
tray liberty, or sacrifice the rights
Of race, or the enduring interests
Of the nation. In the trials ofcivil
war, it made the national capitol
free; prohibited slavery in all the
territories; repealed the fugitive
slave laws; armed black men to
fight for their country; gave liberty |
to the slaves, when they enrolled
their names on the muster rolls of
the country's defenders, and free
dom to the wives and children of
colored heroes; emancipated three
and half millions of bondmen by
executive proclamation, and all the
slaves in the land by constitutional
amendment. 1t achieved its series
of splendid victories for freedom,
justice and humanity in spite of the
stern and persistent opposition Of
the democracy. Since the close of
the war, it has, through the freed
men bureau, protected and instruct
ed the weak, and lifted up and given
heart and hope to the landless and
houseless poor. Inspired by patri
otism and liberty, and actuated by
a sense,of justice, it has given the
ON, =, o;,,otod hondnooD civil riphtc