New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-28

OF an ordinary vlctOTs Wc luuuikou V'oA'o"
in permanent monuments of our success; we
hung up hourly new trophies In our pubic
places; and we committed to history the story
of our triumphs. There was no help for TINS;
even though the fallen were our brothers,
even though we might DO ready to raise them
from their low estate and take them once
more to our hearts, we could only partially
rid ourselves Of the infirmity which so easily
besets the successful. God knows that, even
without encouragement there was enough
of this self-complacency; but sedulousiy
to promote it. to talk the language
and to howl fcrcely as ever the
slogans Of war above the sepulcher
of the COnfederacy, and specially to make it
the main business of the Republican party and
of tho United States Government to tear open
afresh every wound which might show inten-
ton of healing, was to disregard all the
maxims of craftsmanship, and to put out OF
public affairs every element of morality and
even of Christianity. Least of all did it be-
come any party anxious to be useful IN the
present, and to make wise provision for the
future to place its main emphasis on the
deeds and the policy of the past. This would
be the natural course of trading politicians,
thinking more of the spoils of Office than OF
the prosperity of the Republic, and understand
ing the strong hold which military tradition
always takes of the public mind.
But we may well ask how long these gen
tlemen, who are so anxious for the honor of
the Union, intend, by prolonging hostilities,
to render perfect Union impossibef How
long their passion for theoretical fraternity
Il
How long, in their love of the shadow they
mean to disregard the substance They for
get, or they do not choose to remember, that
Amnesty is not simply boon to the South
but something which all parts of the country
do equally need. Union! Why, if they are so
enamored of it, are they so unwilling that we
should have itf Why cannot they see that
with those lately in arms against each other
still aDgrily scowling across the border, still
severed by the spirit of revenge, there can be
no Union, and that ours Is not peace,
but truce According to the Republican
State Convention which met at Elmira
on the 18th inst, we are still IN the
thickest Of the fight, with the issue yet doubt
full: nor could the resolution which the Con-
yention adopted have been much more belig-
with the smoke of the battle i'll the nostrlls
of all men. One might suppose that these
gentlemen of military metaphor had never SO
much as heard of the surrender OF Gen. Lee, anu
are persuaded that the Confederate Congress
is still holding its long session In Richmond.
They tell MS distinctly that there still "can
I" be at this time but two equal real parties III
the political field-the same which rere lately
" arrayed upon the battle feld-each animated
"by the same principles as before" SO that
there is no peace after all Nothing has been
gained by all the blood shed and all the
waste and all the suffering of the fight; we
have merely changed our method or conten-
ton nothing is settled, the war is still going
on, and we may be at each others Threats
again tomorrow! We are not so much as in
the state before the war; not in the state
after the war we are In the state OF war
itself! And this is what seven years of nom
inal peace have brought us to, when all the
questions which anciently divided the sections
have been settled; when equal rights have
been secured to the Freedmen; when future
Slavery has been made constitutiOnally impos-
sble; when the payment of the public debt
has been rendered certain by solemn guaranty
that us NaUully bDdl uOJ no puCSIioh'u'
All these amend ents the South has accepted
if not cheerfully, at least, we are bound to
believe in good faith. That whole section is
rising with unexampled unanimity to accept
their reanirmation in the best summary of
Republican principles ever presented to the
people, the Cincinnati platform. The party of
opposition during the war overwhelmingly
tends in the same direction. For the first
time since 1861 we are clearly on the eve of
universal acquiescence in the settlement of the
questions then submitted to the trial of
battle. At this moment it is, when we
might reasonably expect an era Of good
feeling that the Republican Convention of
New-York challenges the South to return to
its old anger, to consider itself still beliger
ent to hate with the old hatred, and to defy
with the old defance At this rate when
shall we have peace7 Will it be before an
entire generation of ofice-seekers and Office
holders has passed away, or have received
significant hint from the people that govern
ments are not instituted for the maintenance
of the shiftless or parties for the preservation
of the patronage2
TIE VICTORY OF LABOR.