Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1872-08-30

Twelve years ago at this time, the most
momentous Presidential election that the
country has ever known was pending.
| Tho real significance of the campaign was
| not, however, fully understood by the
country. Few persons supposed that the
two tendencies which had been long evil
dent in our politics were now joined under
circumstances so threatening, and that the
| most cruel and sanguinary civil war was
| hidden in the ballot-box. The antislavery
struggle had long before practically sever
ed the Union. No citizen of the United
States who was conspicuous as alover of
| liberty, and who boldly asserted the truth
of the Declaration of Independence, was
personally safe in half of the country. The
laws had ceased TO protect. Fundamental
rights were scorned. Good men almost de-
SPARED. But there was still in the general
| mind an invincible faith in peaceful poll
tics. War had become a remote tradition,
and there were few men who could under
stand or who would accept as true the re-
mark which was calmly made at dinner
table in September, 1860, and which threw
a shadow upon the feast: "ABRAHAM
LINCOLN will be elected, and then there
will be the fercest war in history"
The two parties in that election repre-
scented the two views that had long before
absorbed all other considerations in public
affairs. The one was that liberty and JUS
tice, or, in a word, equality, was indispen-
sable not only TO the peace and prosperity,
but TO the continuance of the Union. The
other was that the Union might not only
be stable, but would be stronger, If half
slave and half free. With this moral there
was n corresponding political disagree
ment. One party maintained the constitu-
| tional right of the secession of any State at
will from the Uuion, and the other denied
| it. These were the moral and political
| differences of that tremendous campaign.
| Fortunately the future is hidden. In the
glare and music and excitement of the
hour, in the parade of Wide-Awakes, in
the mingled fun and earnest which max es
the Presidential campaign n kind of huge
national frolic, the tragical import of the
hour was not generally considered. An
RAHAM LINCOLN was elected, and tho war
followed.
changes. We are again in the midst of
political campaign. The same old organi-
cations dispute the field. The issues are
in form different, but they involve the
same convictions, spirit, and tendencies
The Democratic party now as then is
strongest in the Southern States, and
among those who were then the advocates
of secession and afterward the leaders in
rebellion. The Republican party now as
then is strongest in that part of the country
which is most enlightened, most indus
trious, and most prosperous. The real
question is one of administration. Can the
| government be more wisely and safely
committed to an alliance of which the chief
and necessarily controlling element is the
Democratic party, with the composition,
principles, history, and spirit which are so
familiar?
| The earnestness OF its appeal to forget the
past should arouse the suspicion of all
Thoughtful men. For history can not safe
| ly be forgotten. The attitude of a party
| ten years or two years ago can not wisely
be disregarded. A man wishes TO engage
a coachman who will drive his wife
and children. Because the coachman pro-
fesses to be sober o-day, is the fact that
| last year he was sot unworthy of consid-
Grafton? The Democratic party promises
| to respect and enforce the amendments,
| and the whole spirit of the settlement of
| the war. Is the fact that it has always con-
temptuously and bitterly denounced them,
that it believes them to bear harshly and
unjustly upon its especial friends, of no
importance in considering its probable ac-
ton Let us shake hands over the bloody
chasm, says the Democratic candidate. But
who has refused to do 1.-THE Democrats,
who have sought to terrorze the colored
voters, or the Republicans, who have de-
clared and maintained equal rights?
Instead of forgetting, this is the very
moment to remember. FIVE are to refuse
to be taught by experience, and permit so
incidentally grave an event as the election
of President to be decided by anything
else than the clearest knowledge and con-
81 Iteration of all the facts, we deserve such
an Administration as such blind stupidity
would doubtless impose upon us. From
the first moment that the aggression of the
tional existence down to the speech of the
last Democratic partisan in favor of Mr..
Greeley we have heard the Democratic cry
of Cancellation and fraternity, which meant
always the same thing, the supremacy of
the party of the State sovereignty, obscure
| ly involving the right of secession, as in
the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions
the party planted upon injustice and pam
der to ignorance. Just before tho war JEFF
ferson Davis claimed that heand his friends
were national and the Republican party,
because it was not tolerated in the Slave
STATES, was denounced as sectional. The
war for the Union in the same way was
fratricidal. President Lincoln was a des-
pot, the Union soldiers were his hirelngs,
and the whole Republican policy was I'M
constitutional.
Why is the past to he forgotten? Has it
no lessons? Has IL not taught us the real
meaning of those cries? Were the intelli-
gence and industry of the country befool-
ed so long and so advantageously by Dem
ocratic ascendency that II is anxious to re-
new it? The alternative is not hate, as the
Greeley orators declare. The alternative
is justice. If our Southern fellow -citzens
do not mean to DO reconcled until they
can control the government, it is not the
fault of others. There never was a victor
so magnamimous as the loyal people of the
United States. They never hated "thC
South" and do not hate it now. But they
hated slavery, and they love equality anC
mean to maintain 1t and therefore they
will not forget they will diligently re-
member; and they will trust those who's
fidelity has been proved from the begin
ming, not promised on the eve of an cleo
tion.-HaJper'S Weekly.