Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-01-01
Speech OF Mr.. Blaine, Of Maine, on the
Results of Grants Election.

s~IN-Committee Of the Whole, in the
House, 10Th inst, Mr.. Blaine said: &ss&
MR.. CHAIRMAN The three Presiden-
tial elections which have resulted in vic
tory to the Republican party are by far
the most memorable and momentous in
the history of our country. The issues at
stake each time have been grander, the
contest on either side fercer, the verdict
in each instance more decisive and signifi-
cant, than ever attended previous struggles
for the control of the National Govern
ment.
In the. frst.victory of 1850, slavery pro-
pagandisrii received its fatal blow the
American people decided that at all hez
ards the further spread of human servi-
tude into free territory should cease. This
decision was resisted by reheilious war,
and the war led to the necessity of entire
" abolishipg the institution whose exist
ence had been merely checked by the
expression of the popular will. The cleo
ton OF 1854 turned upon the point of con-
tinuing or disseminating the bloody con-
test which up to-that time had ragged with
undated fury, and with enormous sacri-
fee of life and property. The vote OF the
people demanded the prosecution of the
war until the rebellion should be sup
pressed, the national unity secured, and
slavery utterly abolished throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Had the
verdict then rendered been enforced in the
Cabinet as faithfully as it was in the field,
the Presidential struggle of 1868 would
not have turned upon the issues which
actually entered into it. But the unex-
pected and unprecedented course of the
Executive, the revived malignity of the
Southern rebellion, and the manifold at
tacks or our national character and credit
by the Democratic party, rendered
the victory of 1868 as absolutely essential
to conserve and preserve the fruits of our
great triumph, as was the victory of 1854
to secure the prosecution of the war to a
successful conclusion. And now that vic,
tory, complete and nnsullied as now, and
the passions naturally engendered in the
heat OF the canvass are gradually cooling,
it may not be improbable to take hasty
glance at the ground we have passed over,
and to- make brief summary of the
points that have been solemnly adiudicated
and permanently settled by the Ameri
can people in the election of Gen. Grant
to the Presidency.
And first The Union of the States has
been maintained, and its perpetuity guar
anteed, by this election, in a sense and
with force that were never before enun-
ciated when the question was involved. /
edo not mean to assert that the election of
Mr.. Seymour would have necessarily led
TO q separation of the States, though there
are notwanting facts of great Significance
that might well Justify suehan inference
and such q fear. But what do mean is,
that'the triumph of the Democratic party
under that Rebel lead, and the formal in
eft <xf
tive control, would have destroyed the
true aim and spirit of the Union, and re-
duced our Government, as Mr.. Webster
ssaid the same pernicious theories would
have reduced it in 1880, "to the worst
forms Of the old confederation, in which
the "lost cause "would have regained its
paradise of State Rights, and its privilege
OF ruJhlessly trampling on many of the
most precious principles and priceless
guarantees of our Constitution. General
Grants election has averted this great evil
NOT merely by temporary triumph,
leaving the contest to be renewed hereaf-
ter with doubtful issue in the end, but
with victory that removes it from the
list of questions on which parties will di-
4, vide IN the future. The election of 1853
; Is the last in which the lately rebelIious
section, even fit could be wholly controlled
by rebels will have sufficient power in the
electoral vote of the country to make it
the object either of hope or of fear on the
part Of political organizations striving for
the government of the nation. The tend
er1cy has been in that direction ever since
Mr.. Calhoun's famous theory of an eaui-
poise of free and slave States was de-
>stroyed by the admission of California in
1850. The relative power of the two Sec
tons has been changing since that date
. with startling rapidity, even without the
intervention of war; and the approach
ing census of 1870 will disclose the fact
that the ten rebel States, vieysed as one
compact power, will no longer have suffi-
Gent strength to offer temptation to the
Democratic party Of the North to sacrifice
its loyalty and its pride for the profit of
an alliance with them. The withdrawal
of Northern Democratic support from
these States will give to the loyal inhabit-
ants, who are clear majority in each one
OF them, the power of governing them in
the interest OF loyalty, whereby the Sec
tlonal and clannish spirit that has been
their bane and their destruction will be
expelled, and broad, generous national
= sympathies takenin its place. And the
8 elect OF this result on the Northern Dem
ocratlc party in turn will be to enforce in
the end an abandonment Of the disloyal at
tltude, by which it has lost its ancient
prestige and renown. The Southern
rebels and Northern Democrats, having
derived no honor nor profit from their
persistent cooperation, may find mutual
advantage and gain by a separation in
which each, disencurnbered of the other,
: may atone at leisure for the joint sins of
the discreditable partnership This pros
pectlve and penitent attitude of the two
great classes of offenders heralds the dawn
of that day when Presidential elections
will be contested and decided without a
melancholy prediction or a savage menace
OF dissolution of the Union. There are
. few voters now living in this country who
ever participated in Presidential cam
paigh in which the fate of the Union was
not involved, either in the angry threats of
& political malcontents, or in the timid an
prehensions of well.meaning citizens.
That day has now passed We have
heard the last of that alarm in 1868. The
Union was actually saved by Gen. Grants
victories in the field. The menace of its
destruction ceases with his victory at the
polls.
Second. The reconstruction laws of
Congress have been vindicated and sus-
tanned by Gen. Grants election. The State
governments erected under those laws
will be upheld, and the basis of imperial
loyal suffrage without regard to race or
color, will be accepted as the permanent
rule in the lately rebellious States, as it