The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1871-08-05
"THELESSON. .OF TEE HOUR" +"
Il RADICAL JOURNALS pIEW OF THE
CITIZENS VICTORY. IN
A Bitter Pill Gracefully Swallowed.


,..--'- ,--- - tii:. ~ Hrit...,-
From the Charleston Republican August Al
The battle Is ended. AS some of our wags
say, travesty1ng Perry's celebrated dispatch,
tive have met the ehemy and we are theirs"
General Wagner Is elected and-the most of
his ticket.
One Of the hardest lessons for men to learn,
lesson so hard that some men never learn it,
Is to bear defeat philosophieally and manfully,
and to gain wisdom from even their very re-
verses. The Republican party Of Charleston
are called to-day. to that lesson, and.; their fl-
ture triumphs largely depend upon the way
they meet it. We, believa-we knoW-that our
party will face this defeat manfully, and
courageously, and accept. 1t gracefully; we
know that, as good citizens. they win bow to
the will of the people as expressed through the
ballots on Wednesday, and give to the govern
ment elected such an obedience and AID that
our city. shall be strengtneneda and advanced;
and we trust that they will find In this defeat,
now so grieyous, that which shall really prove
the grander future victory for our party fn the
city and throughout the State. -
Those mistake who think the Republican
party of Charleston was Killed by the Issues
of this election. To be sure, we are beaten
badly; we are beaten In o worse way than
even the most gloomily disposed OF our own
party or the most sanguine or the Opposition,
had clear right to expect; but this only
means one reverse In our long series Of victo-
ries; and If we are only faithful to the highest,
noblest doctrines Of Repubilcanism, our party
banner shall yet again wave triumphantly over
this very field.
But this election has lesson SO plain and
so binding upon us that it we refuse to read
it or heed II, we shall go on to still further
disasters, Republicans Of Charleston: let US
turn to that lesson new. Some of the pages
Of 1t will be painful, but let US face 1t In the
uor rphinh honotnpth man This r. Ia AZ we
underestimate: ....a
The Republicans defeated themselves. With
the flush Of victory actually beginning to lfght.
up our banner. we threw away our chances OF
success In q way which has hardly been paral-i
leled In oil the political history we are abe,to
nigh liz. We would not let Conservatives vote
who wanted to for Mr.. Plllsbury, but We must
drive them back by the nomination of certain
men totally unftted,fo for offlce-we must drive
them back by torchlight professions. which
were little better than slices cut out OF Pande.
monium-we must drive them back BY this
and that tomfoolery which disgraced our city
our party. We repeat 1t, the Repubh-
cans defeated themselves; and we but
prepare for even more stunning defeats
il we wiltu1y shut our eyes to this 80 palpable
fact. Mayor PIllsbury was elected In 1858 by
18 majority, after stormy and bitter contest.
That surely was small margin. But, although
In the State campaign last fall the Democratic
ticket beat the: Republican ticket In TINS clty
BY over three hundred and thirty votes, Still
Mr.. .Plllsbury by bis justice and kindness had
so won the hearts Of his enemies, that this, In
conjunction with other things, gave our party
prospects ofa.filll, q sweeping victory. Three
weeks ogo,. some of the Democrats who were
experienced In political calculadons,1 had
hardly hope of defeating u.s., And yet with
oil these our prospects Of splendid victory,
behold the results -f' -
The Republicans threw away their victory;
and this is the way. they dld. 1t: We give the
plain, unvarnished chapter, to the end that
never again may the great Republican party
commit such stupendous, suicidal folly as IN
the campaign just'ended.
Iu.the f1rstpIace,. there Is faction 10 our
party which is enOugh to-klll any political
Organization whatever, so long as such Shall
O faction: Rather let US say there 1ods-for
let us trust that one Of the good things COM
Ing to our party through defeat Is. the ront-
ing, the stamping out. the utter annthila-
tlon of this faction; this rule.or-ruin clique,
which have 30 long and so often spit upon
Republicanlsm, and which have done their
last, we hope, to degrade the party which
deserved 30 much at their hands. That fac-
ton Is broken up; It Is dead for the present
political bungIer here or In Columbia shall
resurrect IL -.-=.---, .-. =. !.
Well. as we were saying, We had that fac
tlon. They planned tor themselves. When
the ward meetings we're held for the election
of delegates to the City Convention, these
meetings were 10 the main manipulated by
that faction or their sympathlzers. Those meet
OF them were mere mob gatherings where
brains and culture and moral worth and de-
cency were crowded to the wall.
-*s - = -
Then look atthe history of that convention.
A mere glance is enough. ills too painful to-
90 over all their work. r, They wisely nomina-
led our good Mayor for reelection, for they
knew this was the demand OF the entire party;
but after that what folly did they not commit !!
Some of the men they nominated were excel
lent citizens and worthy Of of1ce-but the bal
ance The convention, as q body, showed The
most pitiable selfshness, nominating large
number to Office from among themselves
The ticket, as whole. was auch that We conld
not and would not support 1t. We denounced
%endatlon 7, from nearly every good and sensi-
The leading Republicans held caucus; and
In obedience to their wishes-their demand,
rather-the ticket was changed. The change
was for the better; but it did not give us the
ticket which respect for our city, for our fel-
low citizens. of the Conservatives, for our
own party demanded. Some of the men were
excellent as candidates. but the ticket was 80
made up that we frankly declared that two or
three OF the candidates for aldermen should
by all means be defeated. This we said, be it
remembered, even though We did work tor
the ticket as ticket, that Is, for the good
part of it. We said that two or three OF these
should be defeated. It even required the
grief which came from knowledge of the
pressure of the Conservative party to make
the Conservatives upon our ticket withdraw
pressure which threatened the busi-
ness ruin of some OF them-it required
this which we regarded as the treachery
of some Of the Conservatives, (espe
cialy In view of what good Republicans had
done to obtain good governmentD 1t took
this to induce US to use any expressions whichi
could In any way be interpreted as an ad.
vocacy OF all the men upon the ticket. And
we ought to have been at least halfway un-
dersiood, 1t would seem, when we frankly
called for the defeat OF some OF the men upon
this second or remodelled ticket. The very
day before the election our advice was not to
elect all, but to elect Gilbert Plllsbury, and
every qood man upon the ticket with him.
The Ticket was such an one that we ourselves
s,scratched" it, and voted for several Of the
Conservative candidates. How could we hope
for success with such ticket
And vet, bad as all this work was, there was.
IL possible, worse to come. The Conservatives:
from state oil apathy, became aroused, and
set to work earnestly. They organized well
and worked faithfully and intelligently; while
o,r oryopi1atinp and mnnn0pmpnt MANNED