Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-12-23
The New York Tribune.
1871.

Through struggle and suffering, at the
cost of multiform agonies, bereavements,
dcvastations, the American idea embodi-
ed in t preamble to our fathers Dec
laration of Independence approaches its
complete realization. The noble, inspir-
ing assertion that F" all men are created
equal" and endowed by their Creator
with inalienable rights to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness, is no longer
Il glittering generality, poets fancy,
philosophers speculation, but the recog-
nized base of our political fabric The
benign Revolution, which dates from the
Boston Massacre Of 1870, finds its logic
al completion, just one century later, in
the XVIII Amendment, which gives to
the equal political and civil rights of
every man born or naturalized in our
Republic the shield and defense of the
Federal Constitution. The pillows of
Caste and Privilege may roar and rage
around that rock, and may transiently
seem on the point of washing it away
but its foundations are deep laid and
steadlast, and the breakers of reaction
and Slavery are hurled against and dash
their spray over it in vain.
We do not underrate the forces of Preju-
dice and Arstocracy. We do not for
get that a very large minority of the
American People still hold in their in
most hearts that Blacks have no rights
which Whites arc bound to respect
We fully appreciate the desperation
wherewith all the warning elements of
hatred to Republican achievement will
be combined and hurled against the bat
Elements of Republican ascendency in
the Presidential Election of 1872. We
do not doubt that loca! successes, facili-
tated by Republican feuds and dissen-
sions, will inspire the charging host with
sanguine hope of victory, such as nerv-
cd it to put forth its utmost strength in
the earlier stages of the contests Of 1864
and 1868. Yet our faith is clear and
strong that the American People still
bless God that. on the red battle-helds
of our late Civil War, the Union was
upheld and Slavery destroyed, and will
never consciously decide that the .,re-
cious blood thereon poured out was law
ished in vain.
The TRIBUNE believes in the prosecu-
ton of the great struggle by legitimate
means to benefcent ends TO State Sow
ereignty, it opposes indissoluble Nation
al Integrity to Slavery for Blacks, Lib
erty for All; to Prescription, Enfran-
chisement to Popular Ignorance, Uni
versal Education to intensity and eter-
nifty of wrathfu. Hate, universal and in
vincible Good Will. 1t would fain do
its utmost to hasten the glad day when
the South shall vie with the North in ex-
ultation and gratitude over the disap-
1 vi tut last ildCt VI ttillt VI
that spirit which impelled Man to exult
in the ownership and chattelhood of his
fellow man.
Profoundly do we realize that the con-
test is not yet ended-that Millions
mourn, more or less publicly, the down
fall of the shareholders Confederacy.
and rear their children to hate those by
whose valor and consistency its overthrow
was achieved. If we ever seem to differ
essentially from other Republicans, our
conviction that magnanimity is never
weakness, that vengeance is never polit-
ic, and that devils are not cast out by
Beelzebub, must serve to explain alleg-