Litchfield enquirer., 1870-08-18
ADDRESS
OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL Co1I
 MITTEE.

ADDRESS
 OF THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL Cosr
 .x MITTEE. To the Republicans of lie 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 responsibilities. The people, as is their right, will hold you to a tstrict accountability for the exercise of l this great trust. Elections are soop to be l held for the national House of Represents tives These elections will determine the political complexion of the popular branch of congress. They will, too, determine the political character of several state govern ments. And these results will be accepted as the verdict of the people upon the ideas, principles and politics of the repub lican party, and upon the measures and character of the national administration. To these responsibilities, and to the gray ity of these issues, your thoughtful con sideration is invoked.
 In the present juncture it behooves the republican party not to forget its origin, nor its history. Amid the difficulties that beset it. and the responsibilities and labors which the needs of the country in the new and untried condition of affairs impose, it should remember that it was born of the nations necessities, and thus far 1t has grandly met the exigencies for which it was formed. Having passed triumphantly through three great eras of its history, it is now summoned to enter upon its fourth. Gathering therefore, inspiration from past success, it should grapple hopefully and with unshrinking confidence with the du- l of f,,t
 Recurring to their origin, republicans ater of stern and irrepressable conflict between the demons of slavery and caste and the spirit of liberty and equality, when 1 the slave power held great interests and powerful organizations in it's grasp, and ruled the nation with imperial sway. that the founders of the party, instructed by passing events, with convictions deepen ed 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 haugh- ty ambitions, the maddening passions, the cruel prejudices and the disorganizing theories of the dominating majority, and, although long overborne by numbers, still struggled on amid jeers, insults, mobs, blows and assassnations, 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 pow CT, instantly plunged the nation into the fire and blood of civil war. But the republican party rose with the crisis. It raised money in unstinted measure, organized vast ar mics, created powerful navies, fought bloody battles, crushed the most gigantic rebellion of all recorded 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 un- appeasable foe of the country, was the inspi- ration, the heart and the soul of that civil war, and it's death would be the annihila tion of the rebellion, the unity of the re- public and the development of free institu tions. Against cowardly fears, selfish in dices it pronounced the doom of that hid eous and horrid syetem of human bondage, though it was upheld by the aggregated interests of three thousand millions of dol lars. hedged about by the accumulated passions and prejudices, brides and am bitions of seven generations, and in- trenehed within the social, political and ecclesiastical organizations and affiliations of life. By series of executive and leg islative acts it broke the chains, and lifted, from the depths of chattelhood, up to the summits of manhood, four and half mill lions of hapless bondsmen, who stood be- fore the nations with their riven letters in one hand and their title deeds to freedom in the other.
 The war ended. the rebellion subdued, the bondmen emancipated, the republican party entered upon the third era of its eventful history. Though conquered by arms the rebels did not accept the just, hu- mane and generous ideas of the victors, nor did they return to their proper allegiance and loyalty to the government, but still bemoaning the ''lost cause" they remained unsubdued in will, unrepentant in spirit and purpose. Though made free, the bondmen were homeless, without property, without employment, subject to the cruel laws against free people of color which had always disgraced Southern legislation, and in the midst of a people exasperated by de- feat and maddened by their loss of power still longer to hold and oppress. Prosper ty was swept away. industry disorganized, society disintegrated and states were with out lawful governments.
 upon the repuDucan party ueVOlVe tue task of reconstruction. To it's intrinsic difficulties were added the intense hostility of the ex.rebels, the lingering prejudices long engendered by the slave system, the timid counsels of conservatism and the apostacy of the executive. Great interests, powerful combinations, sought to so recon struct the South as to place the power in the hands of the late slaveholding class, and leave the helpless freedmen in the ab- iect condition of practical serfdom. Sel- dom in history has there been imposed on any body of men work of greater magnitude or difficulty. The republicans might have shrunk from and avoided it.. But they resisted the temptation of official power and patronage, the threats of execu. tive dictation, and all other adverse infu- ences, and with sublime fidelity and cour- age addressed themselves to the herculean 1 task,
 To aid in recognizing disordered indus tries, caring for, protecting and instructing the emancipated bondmen in the new du- ties of the changed condition, the republl- cans established the freedmen's bureau, which, by the wise expenditure of few millions of dollars, did an incalculable work for order, peace and the rehabilitation of southern society. To reconstruct rebel 1 ious states on that solid basis of equal