The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1870-08-25
TO ALL REPUBLICANS.
ADDRESS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS
SIGNAL CoMMITTEE TO THE PARTY.

ADDRESS OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS
SIGNAL COMMITTEE TO THE PARTY.
To the Republicans of the United States
The Executive and Legislative Depart
ments of the National Government, and
two thirds OF the State Governments,
have been committed to your keeping.
Such power carries with it grave respon-
sibilities. The people, as is their right,
will hold you to a strict accountability
for the exercise of this great trust Elec-
tions are soon to he held for the National
House of Representatives These elections
will Determine the political complexionof
the popular branch of Congress. They
VIII too, determine the pc itical character
oil several State Governments And these
results will be accepted as the verdict of
the people upon the ideas, principlestand
policies of the Republican party, and
upon the measures and character of the
national administration. To these re-
sponsibiiities, and to the gravity of these
issues, your thoughtful consideration is
invoked. In the present iuncture it
behooves the Republican d. rty not to
forget its origin, nor its history. Amid
the difficulties that beset it, and the re-
sponsibilitles and labors, which the needs
of the country ia the new and untried
condition of affairs impose, it should re-
member that it was born of the nations
necessities, and thus far it has grandly
met the exigencies for which it was form
ed Having passed triumphantly through
three great eras of its history, it is now
summoned to enter upon its fourth.
Gathering, therefore, Inspiration from
past successes, it should grapple hopefully,
and with unshrinking confidence, with
the duties OF the present and near future.
ORIGIN OF THE PARTY.
Recurring to their origin, Republicans
will remember, when the land was the
theatre of a stern and irrepressible con-
tiict between the demons of slavery and
the spirit of liberty and equality, when
the slave power held great interests and
i powerful organizations in its grasp, and
ruled the nation with imperial SWAY,
that the founders of the party, instructed
by passing events, with convictions deep
ened and zeal quickened by the teachings
of history and Holy Writ, and inspired
by the deathless words of the patriots.
statesmen and heroes of our earlier time.
rose to the exigencies Of the hour, opposed
the naughty ambitions, the maddening
passions, the cruel prejudices and the
disorganizing theories of the dominating
majority, and, although long oyerborne
by numbers, still struggled on amid ieers,
? insults mobs, blows and assassinations.
till, under the lead of Abraham Lincoln,
, they achieved success and grasped the
sceptre of political power.
~ ITS SECOND ERA
Entering upon its second era, APPALLING
responsibilities at once arose. The slave
masters in the pride and arrogance of
, power, instantly plunged the nation in
: the fire and blood of civil war. But the
i Republican party rose with the crisis,
1t raised money in unstinted measure,
organized vast armies, created powerful
navies, fought bloody battles, crushed the
! most gigantic rebellion of all recorded in
t history, and saved the nations life. It
was then, amid the clash of arms, that
! the Republican party saw that slavery
was the relentless and unappeasable foe
: of the country; was the inspiration, the
+, heart and soul of that civil war; and that
its death would be the annihilation of
the rebellion, the unity of the republic
t and the development of free institutions.
. Against cowardly fears, selfish instincts
and unreasonable passions and prejudices
: it pronounced the doom of that hideous
and horrid system of human bondage.
D though it was upheld by the aggregated
interests of three thousand millions of
dollars, hcdged about by the accumulated
passions and prejudices, prides and
! ambitions of seven generations and
, intrenched within the social, political
and ecclesiastical organizations and
: affiliations of life By series of execu-
tive and legislative acts it broke the
chains'and lifted from the depths of chat
telhood, up to the SUBMITS Of manhood
four and half millions OF hapless bonds
men, and stood before the nations with
! their riven letters in one hand and their
title deeds to freedom in the other.
/ THE THIRD ERA.
The war ended, the rebellion subdued.
the bondmen emancipated, the Republi.
can party entered upon the third era of
its eventfui history. Though conquered
by arms, the rebels did not accept the
ljust, humane, and generous ideas of the
victors. nor did they return to the govern
ment but, still bemoaning the "lost
cause" they remained unsubdued in will
and unrepentant in spirit and purpose.
Though made free, the bondmen were
homeless, without property, without
employment, subject to the cruel Iaws
against free people of color which had
always disgraced Southern legislation
and In the midst Of people exasperated
by defeat ana maddened by their loss of
power still longer to hold and Cypress.
Properly was swept away, industry dis
organized, society disintcyrated' and