Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1870-07-29
THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY AND
ITS POSITION.

us FOSi tION.
The Cincinnati Gazette makes the
following magnificent, unreasonable
defense Of the Republican party.
We commend its perusal TO our in
telligent readers:
Congress has adjourned after a
long and laborious session. Its
measures are before the country,
and to be discussed in the coming
Congressional elections. They are
too clearly and positively taken to
be misunderstood; and the Repub-
lican party is willing to be tried on
its conduct and its principles. be-
fore the people and before the world.
Let us look briefly at what the Re-
publican party has done, and where
it stands. Coming out of great
war, in which the republic was saved
from disunion, and preserved as a
bulwark to the liberties of mankind,
the Republican party had before it
great objects, not less important in
peace than those it had obtained in
war. Look back five years five
years is very brief space of time J
and see how faithfully and com
pletely it has accomplished those
objects. What were they? The
Confederate, or r bel States, were
literally in ruins! These ruins had
to be reconstructed, and those
States brought up to their original
prosperity. Slavery had been des-
troyed but the slave rem aimed
without protection, and on all sides
he was surrounded by armed men,
who threatened, amidst the greatest
outrages, his life, liberty and prop
erty.
The freedman must be protected
and put in the way to become a
good citizen. Then the financial
condition was such that even Amer
ica-s almost despaired of il, while
the financiers of Europe deemed it
impossible we should recover from
our burden of debt and taxation. 1t
was great, almost insoluble prob
lem to restore the finances of the
United States. Yet, it has been
done, and this problem is so far
solved that now no one doubts the
country will pay every dollar OF it's
debts and in due time return to
a moderate taxation. These were
problems before the Republican
party, and now let us see in what
mode they have been solved. We
undertake to say, and defy contra
diction, that five years of such tri-
success has never attended
a political party in this or any other
country. Try it by the historical
facts.
l. The Confederate States were to
be reconstructed and returned to
prosperity. And here we ask the
candid reader to note the position,
prophecies and assertions of the
Democratic party during and since
the war on this subject, for these
things ought not to be forgotten in
a day. All the leading Democratic
papers asserted the ruin of the
South as a consequence of the war;
the ruin of the slaves because they
would be idle and worthless without
masters 10 take care of them; the
impossibility of paying the public
debt; the excessive burdens of taxa
ton; a social vice amoug the races
in the South, and so on-in lugubri-
Gus wailings over the ruin of the
country in consequence of having
had a successful war for unity and
liberty! This was the position of
the Democratic party. Now what
did the Republican party do ? First
of all it reconstructed the rebel
States, till now every star is in It's
place, not one wanting. The flag of
many stars and many stripes
waves over the whole republic, not
one star lost. This was q great
work, but what followed? Pros
perity followed to that very South
whose ruin and disaster the Demo
cratic party SO prophesied and SO
bewailed. We say, on the basis of
the facts, without fear Of contradic-
lion, that the South was never so
prosperous materially as it is to day.
The cotton crop has almost reached
it's largest limits Corn and wheat
are planted in larger quantities than
ever. The negroes are doing better
work than ever. Richmond is re-
built; Memphis is growing faster
han ever, and Charleston is recu-
oerating. in one word, no candid
nan in the South will deny that it
8 now prosperous, with the pros
oect of far exceeding in material
prosperity anything il has ever
Known. Reconstruction, then, on
he principles Of the Republican