The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1870-08-25
Address of the Republican Congress
sional Committee.
To the Republicans of the United State:

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-
tons are soon to be held for the national
House of Representatives Thase cleo
tions will determine the political complex
ion of the popular branch of Congress
They will, too, determine the political
character Of several State governments.
And these results will be accepted at the
verdict OF the people upon the ideas,
principles and policies of the Republican
party, and upon the measures and char
acter of the national administration =
To these responsibilities, and to the gravi
~ OF these issues, Jour thoughtful con-
alteration is invoked.
In the present juncture it behooves
the Republican party not to forget its orr
gin, nor It's history. Amid the Difficult
ties that beset 1t, and the responsibilities
and labors which the needs of the coun
try IN the new and untried condition of
affairs imposes, it should remember that
1t was born of the nation necessities,
and thus far it has grandly met the ex-
agencies for which it was formed. Hav-
ing passed triumphantly through three
great eras of its history, it is now sum
moned to enter upon its fourth. Gather
ing, therefore, Inspiration from past sue
eesses, 1t should grapple hopefully and
with unshrinking confidence with the du-
ties of the present and near future.
Recurring to their origin, Republicans
will remember, when the land was the
theatre of stern and irrepressible con-
filct between the demons of slavery and
caste, and the spirit of liberty and equali-
ty, when the slave power held great in
terests and powerful organizations in its
grasp, and ruled the nation with impe-
rial sway, that the founders Of the party
instructed by passing events. with con-
ylctlons deepened and zeal quickened by
the teachings Of history and of holy writ,
and inspired by the deathless words of
the patriots. statesmen and heroes Of
our earlier time rose to the exigenc:es Of
the hour, opposed the naughty ambitious,
the maddening passions, the cruel preju
dlces and the designating theories OF
the dominating majority, and, although
long everborne by numbers, still strug-
gled on amid ieers. insults, MODS, blows
and assassinations, till under the lead Of
abraham Lincoln they achieved success
and grasped the scepter of political power.
Entering upon its second era, appalling
responsibilities at once arose. The slave
masters, in the pride and arrogance of
power, instantly plunged the nation into
the fire and blood Of civil war. But the
Republican party arose with the crisis
1t raised money to unstinted measure,
organized vast armies, created powerful
navies, fought bloody battles, crushed the
most gigantic rebellion of all recorded
history, and saved the nations life. 1t
was then, amid the clash Of arms, that
the Repubhcan party saw that slavery
was the relentless and indispensable foe
OF the country, was the inspiration, the
heart and soul Of that civil war. and that
its death would be the humiliation of
the rebellion, the unity of the Republic
and the development Of free institutions.
Against cowardly fears, selfish instincts
and unreasoning passions and preiudices
1t pronounced the doom OF that orrid
system of human bondage, though it was
upheld by the aggregate interests of
three thousand million Of dollars, hedged
about by the accumulated passions and
prejudices, prides and ambitions cf seven
generations, and intrenched within the
social, political ecclesiastical organizations
and affiliations of life By series Of
executive and legislative acts it broke the
chains and lifted from the depths Of
chattlehood up to the SUBMITS Of man
hood four and half millions Of bonds
men, and stood them before the nation
with their riven letters in one hand and
their title deeds Of freedom in the other.
The war ended, the rebellion subdued,
the bondsmen emancipated, the Repub-
Hcan party entered upon the third era of
Its eyentful history. Though conquered
by arms the rebels did not accept the Just,
humane, and generous ideas Of the vic
tors, nor did they return to their proper
allegiance and loyalty to the government,
but still bemoaning the "lost cause" they
remained unsubducd in will, and unre-
pcntant in spilit and purpose. Though
made free the bondmen were homeless,
without property, with employment, sub
ject to the cruel laws against free people
Of color which had. always disgraced
Southern legislation, aud in the midst of
people exasperated by defeat, and
maddened by their loss of power still
F.. longer to hold and opmess Property
society disintegrated, and States were
Upon the Republican party devolved
the task of reconstruction. To its in
trinsic difficulties were added the intense
hostility of the eA rebels, the lingering
prejudices long engendered by the slave
system, the timid counsels Of conserva-
tism and the apostaey of the Executive.
Great interests and powerful combina-
tons sought to so reconstruct the South
as to place the power in the hands Of the
late Slaveholding class, and leave the
helpless freedmen in the abiect condition
Of practical serfaom. Seldom in history
has there been imposed upon any body
of men work of greater magnitude or
difficulty. The Republicans might have
shrunk from and avoided it. They were
sorely tempted to do so. But they re
sisted the temptation of official power
and patronage, the threats of Executive
dictation, aud all other adverse influences
and with sublime fidelity and courage
addressed themselves to the herculean
task.
To aid in re organizing disordered in
dustries, caring for, protecting and IN
structing the emancipated bondmen ia
the new duties OF their changed condition
the Republicans established the Freed
mems Bureau, which, by the wise ex-
penditure of few million of dollars, did
an incalculable work Tor order, peace and
the rehabili alton of Southern society. To
reconstruct rebellious States on the solid
basis Of equal rights. they gave suffrage
to the freedmen ia the reconstruction
measures. To secure citizenship and
civil rights to a wronged and hated race.
they proposed and adopted the -Four
teenth Amendment and enacted the bill
OF Civil Rights. To establish by ire
versible guarantees equal political RIGHTS
and privileges, they adopted the Eff
teenth Amendment, and, as crowning
act for freedom, they provided By law Tor
the enforcement of these amendments