The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1872-10-05
The Key-Note Of the Campaign.
(Erom the n. Y. Tribune.1

for granted, of the prospect of Mr..
Greeley's disappointing his friends.
But his enemies certainly deserve
the sympathies Of all feeling hearts
over the disappointments he has given
them. They have been waiting, ever
since his nomination, with an early
affectation Of gayety which speedily
turned sour for some manifestation of
his strong and resolute individuality
which should afford handle to
the opposition and stumbling
block to his supporters. They remem-
ber how his noble frankness on the
subject of Amnesty cost him IL seat III
the Senate; how the deliberate and
magnanimous act of bailing jefferson
Davis made him for year the target
of all the vidictive and narrow mind
ed men of his party. They knew he
was not the man to paddock his mouth
for q half year, and they earnestly
hoped that his rugged franl1ness
might during the canvass give them
some purchase upon him. But it must
be that honesty and frankness have
suddenly come into fashion, for no
candidate has ever yet been SO out
spoken, and every utterance Of his
has helped the cause forward. In his
two letters of acceptance addressed to
Cincinnati and to Baltimore, he gave
the most perfect body Of true republi-
can doctrine ever put forward by any
public man. And in his journey
West, with that power and insight
which for thirty years made him the
first journalist Of America, he has
seized and presented, with singular
force and felicity, the most vital and
inspiring question Of this campaign,
the Justice and necessity of reunion
aud reconciliation.
Through all the clamorous COM
plaint OF the small but noisy faction
which was disappointed at Cincinnati
this one truth appears. The Reform
ers who called the Convention to-
gether in that city undoubtedly
thought OF little more than the refor-
nation of the Government and the
establishment of honesty and pur-
ity i'll public affairs. But when the
Convention met, the conviction
which possessed and ruled it was the
first and the absolutely essential de-
mand Of the hour was for peace; that
without this there could be no etfec-
tive Reform. This conviction nomi-
mated Mr.. Greeley instead of any less
conspicuous and consistent advocate
of Justice and generosity to the South.
No more appropriate standard bearer
for a: great reform movement could
be futlaak than the man who had
fought Turing busy lifetime against
every form OF municipal and national
corruption. But in this campaign,
where the first object was, while hold
ing resolutely to all the precious re-
suits Of the war, to restore the Union
in spirit and truth, to end the long
contest cfectually and forever, to dis
card hate as Il political force and sub
stitnte charity, there could have been
no name which in itself signitied and
promised so much as that of the illus
trious puhlicist who for seven years
had consistently, through every
prase of varying public opinion, de-
manded universal amnesty and inn
partial suffrage.
Thfscampaign of reunion and reform
is therefore the legitimate fruit of the
Cincinnati movement in its purest and
best sense, and the popular impulse
which seized and sent it on its present
path had as much wisdom as gcneros-
ity in it. Before the best results of
the labor and blood and gold expend-
ed in the war can be enjoyed, we must
have real and genuine peace, 4 re-
union of hearts and hands, instead Of
unwilling and reluctant submission to
military rule. The sword must not
devohr forever. The true war party
of 1861 is the true peace party now.
The war was made in the interest of
freedom and union. and now to save
freedom and the Union The war must
end, and end at once. With an eff
frontery as remarkable as their vindic-
tiyeness, the party of hate arrogate to
themselves the legitimate succession OF
that noble and self sacrificing coalition
of the. army and the country which
accepted the war, and carried it
through to it's triumphant close. But
they are working now in the interests
of perpetual discord, and when they
carry the tattered flags and guidons of
battle into political conventions where
the only object to be obtained is the
renewed plumber and continued de-
radiation Of the Southern peoble, they
commit Il brazen and shameless sacri-
lege. If the war is to pass into history
as any thing but Il frightful carnage, if
! the blood spilled on Il thousand fields is
to fructify and not curse the land, if
the cause for which Lyon and Wads-
| worth, Sedgwick and Lincoln gave up
their lives is to 50 OH to full realiza-
ton of its glorious and beneficent plan,
it can only be by the triumph Of this
liberal principle, which shall bring the
sundered States together and make
all the sections feel once more COM
mon interest in their common govern
ment.
This, we avow it, is the first, the
most momentous issue we find in this