Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-08-26
Address OF the Republican Congress
siousI Committee to the Party. -a
..,,,,.,,,s ~ ,be Limited STATED:

been committed to your keeping Such
nower carries with 1t grave responsible
ties. The people, as is their right, will
hold YOU to strict accountability for The
exercise of this great trust. vElections are
soon to be held for the National House OF
REPRESENTATIVES. These elections win de-
termine the political complexion OF the
popular branch of Congress. They WILL,
too, determine the political character OF
several State Governments. And these
results will be accepted as the verdict OF
the people upon the ideas, principles and
policies of the Republican party, and upon
the measures and character OF the Ma
tional Administration. To these respon-
sibilities, and to the gravity of these is
sues, your thoughtful consideration is In
voked. In the present juncture It be-
hooves the Republican party not to forget
its origin nor its history. Amid the dill
culties that beset it, and the responsible
ties and labors which the need of The
country in the new and untried condition
of affairs imposes, it should remember
that it was born of the nations necessl-
ties, and thus far it has gradually met
the exigencies for which it was formed.
Having 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
cesses, it should grapple hopefully and
with unsbrinking confidence with the
duties of the present and near future.
ORIGIN OF THE PARTY.
Recurring to their origin, Republicans
will remember, when the land was the
theatre of stern and irrepressible con-
hict between the demons of slavery and
caste and the spirit Of liberty and equal
ty, when the slave power held great inter
ests and powerful organIzationsinits grasp,
and ruled the nation with imperial sway,
that the founders of the party, Instructed
by passing events, with convictions deep
ened and zeal quickened by the teachings
of history and of holy writ, andsinspired
by the deathless words of the patriots,
statesmen and heroes of our earlier time,
rose to the exigencies of the hour, opv
posed the naughty ambitions, the mad
dening passions, the cruel prejudices and
the disorganizing theories of the domino
ting majority; and, although long over
borne by numbers, still struggled on amid
jeers, insults, mobs, blows and assassina-
Lincoln, they achieved success and grasp
ed the sceptre of political power.
IT'S SECOND ERA aus .u9il5e
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 rose with the crisis. 1t
raised money in unstinted1 measure, or
gained vast armies, created powerful
nayies, fought bloody battles, crushed the
most gigantic rebellion of all recorded
history, and saved the nation'ssl life. 1t
was then, amid the clash of arms, that
the Republican party, Qsaw that, slavery
was the relentless and unappeasable foe
of the country was the inspiration, the
heart anu soul of that civil war, and
that its death would be the annihilation
of the rebellion, the unity of the Repub-
lie and the development of free institu-
tions. Against cowardly fears, selfish in :
stincts and unreasonable passions and pre-
JUDGES, it pronounced the doom of that
hideous and horrid sy stem of human bond
age, though it was upheld by the aggre-
gatedintefests of three thousand millions OF
dollars, hedged about by the accumulated
passions and prejudices. prides and ambi-
lions ofseven generations, and intrenched
within the social, political and ecclesiasti-
cal organizations and affiliations of life.
By series of executive and legislative
acts it broke the chains and lifted from
= the depths Of chattelhood up to the sum
mits of manhood four and a half millions
of hapless bondsmen, and stood before
the nations with their riyen letters in one
hand and their title deeds to freedom in
the other. eF<1fs rayvRF
THE THIRD ERA ~
The war ended, the rebellion subdued,
the bondmen emancipated, the Republi-
can party entered upon the third era Of
it's eventful, history. Though conquered
by arms, the rebels did not accept the
just, humane and generous ideas of the
victors, nor did they return to their
proper allegiance and loyalty TO the Gov
eminent, but still bemoaning the "lost
cause" they remarked unsubdued in will
and unrepentant in spirit and purpose.
Though made free the bondmen were
homeless, without property, without en-
against free people Of color, which had
always Ndisgraced Southern LEGISLATION,
and in the midst of people exasperated
by defeat, and maddened by their loss of
power still longer to hold and oppress
Property was swept away, industry dis
organized, society disintegrated, and
States were without lawful governments.
THE WORK OF RECONSTRUCTION.
Upon the Republican. party .deyolved
the task of Reconstruction. To its intrin-
sic difficulties were added the intense
hostility of the ex rebels, the lingering
prejudices long engendered by the slave
system, the timid lcounsels of sconserva.
tism and the apostacy of the Executive
Great interests and powerful combinations
sought to so reconstruct the South as to
place the power in the hands Of the late
slave-holding class, and leave the help
less freedmen in the abject condition of
practical serfdom. Seldom in history has
there been imposed upon any body of
men work of greater magnitude or diff.
ficulty. The Republicans might have
shrunk from and avoided it. They were
sorely tempted to do SO. But they resist
ed the temptation of official power and
patronage, the threats of Executive dicta-i
ton and all other adverse influences and
with sublime fidelity and courage adj
dressed themselves to the herculean task
To aid in recognizing disordered indus
tries, caring for, protecting and instruct
ing the emancipated bondmen in the new
duties of their changed condition, the Re-
publicans established the Freedmen's Blu
reau, which, by the wise expenditure of
few millions of dollars, did an incalcu-
liable work for order, peace and the re-
Mobilization of Southern society. To re-
construct rebellious States on the solid
basis of equal rights, they gave suffrage
to the freedmen in 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 irrever.
sible guarantees equal political rights and
privileges they adopted the Fifteenth