Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1870-08-17
The Fall Elections .

The long continued security in which the
Republican party has retained the control of
the government, has, we regret to say, given
birth to feeling of apathy among many
who should now be watchful and vigilant
There has been of late SO little apparent need
OF that union IN which lies strength, that
those who should have forgotten little differ
ences of opinion in their zeal to maintain
great principles, have allowed themselves to
forget the great interests of the country in
their eagerness to advance their favorite the
cries. For this no one can be especially
blamed. A long continuance in power al
ways produces similar results. Those who
would find the cause of this carelessness either
in the principles or the organization of the
Republican party, show themselves ignorant
of the simplest workings of the human mind
But it is time that this apathy should cease.
It is time for renewed activity in the ranks
of those who have been victorious since 1860,
and who have carried the country safely
through the most trying period of its history
The results of the recent elections in New
York, North Carolina and Oregon, if they
prove anything, prove, not that the democ-
racy have gained strength during the past
year, but that those who sleep must necessa-
rily be beaten. Nothing is truer than that
" eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
The Republicans of the country will look to
Vermont to wipe out these defeats, or at
least to prove to the country that the great
principles for whose maintenance we have
struggled for the past fourteen years, are
still as dear as ever to the hberty-loying free
men of New England. No one fears that
the enemy will make any great gains in the
State. But should any general carelessness
seriously reduce the majority of last year, the
results would be hailed with shouts by our
enemies, and would discourage our friends
elsewhere who are working amidst far greater
difficulties than we. The next Congress will
have very important questions to settle, and
it is very essential that good and true men
receive elections to it. No one who loves his
country should, therefore, by any other in
= terests, either domestic or foreign, allow
himself to be led to neglect the work that is
necessary between now and the first Tuesday
in September.
The Vermont election is one of the earliest
of the Fall elections, and no one can tell how
much its results viii encourage or dishearten
those who are laboring earnestly for the COM
mon success in the doubtful states and con-
gressional districts. The very fact that there
is so much general apathy throughout the
country among Republicans, and that the
recent elections have encouraged the enemy,
should rouse in every true heart a sense of
the necessity of a more encouraging result
in Vermont and we feel sure that TO produce
such result, it is only necessary to make
its necessity apparent. When the bells are
rung and the cannon fired, which announce
the election of Stewart and Dale, they ought
and we trust will at the same time announce
thirty thousand majority for the principles
of the Republican party. If all who have
called themselves Republicans viii at this
time bury the minor questions about which
some of them have disputed, and remem Der
that union Of the friends of progress can
only be secured by mutual concessions, such a
result win be assured. 1t is the glory of the
Republican party that it is not composed like
the democratic, of those who are united be-
cause of their adherence to-everything that
is old, and their opposition to all that is new,
but of those who are seeking in many differ
ent ways to carry out the principles Of the
progressive nineteenth century. But it has
also in the past been its glory that its mem
bers have always been ready to sacrifice in