Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-09-19

vantage OF position. 1t is easy TO skeIcn
model Administration without 6lunder or
a weakness. Tried by such standard, any
merely human Administration will fail: But
every honest man will try to be just. In the
details of our Government, administered Dy
20 600 or so 900 officers, scattered over terri
tory from the Lakes to the Gull, there VIII be
constantly facts occurring which are inter
preted to the disadvantage of the Govern
ment; and not fault or error can be COM
mitted by a postmaster or collector, but we
shall instantly be told that the entire Admin
istration is a huge fraud. On the other
hand, they will tell us what they will do.
Had they been in power, this or that would
not have taken place, and instead we should
have purity, honesty and reform. They will
be as lavish of their promises as the maple is
of red leaves in October. What are the
probabilities that they will be keptg They
wish to pass the sponge over what they have
done, and only wish us to listen to what they
say.
What is the record of this Administration?
Taking the first great point which any gov
ernmeut is bound to observe, has the Repub-
lican party guarded the equal rights of the
citizens? It is the very glory of the Admin,
istration that it has done so. 1t found
1000, 600 slaves. 1t has made them men and
women; it has united them in holy marriage;
and they sit with us in our legislative halls.
Doolittle and Others talk of negro suprema-
cy upheld by the bayonet. The negro has
hio NolC. bLdb 10 Ills supremacy. hOW is
it upheld by the bayonet? When it was
found there was an organized terrorism at
the South to trample the black man under
foot, the Government simply kept its word.
Frederick Douglass, wlro has known what
slavery was and what it has been to his race,
heard those words of Doolittle, and cried
with trumpet tongue to his fellows: "To the
negro the Republican party is the deck; all,
all else is the sea. Stand loyal to Grant"
Amen, amen, cried North Carolina, in the
first furious onset of the campaign, standing
steadfastly Republican.
After referring to the financial record, Mr..
Curtis, in reply to the remark often made
that General Grant did not pay the debt,
said that in the same sense he did not put
down the rebellion. 1t was the Union army
that put down the rebellion, but General
Grant was at its head. The prosperity of the
country is owing to the confidence and trust
of the people in the solidity of the Govern
ment.
One word further. We are told that this
is a campaign of reconciliation; that we
want peace, and therefore we want change
in party. "Let us clasp hands over the
bloody chasm," says Mr.. Greeley. Very
well, answer me. Who in this country has
refused to clasp hands ? Is it these men in
the Southern States who oppose the new or
der of things? Is it those in the Northern
States who morally supported them, or men
who have said equality for all shall be main
tanned at all hazards? Let US clasp hands !!
Yes, Mr. Greeley, we have sought to clasp
hands from the moment of Lees surrender
Il am against the policy of hate" says
Senator Sumner. Fellow citizens, the name
of your great Senator, the name of Charles
Sumner, shall never be mentioned by me ex-
cept with affection, gratitude and respect.
l do not forget-though for the first time 1
have come to that moment which 1 believed
never would come to me in this life-when /,
a Republican, should stand before you, Re-
publicans, and above all, Massachusetts Re-
publicaDs, and have to speak to you of what
Senator Sumner has said in infinite sorrow.
Fellow citizens, never was great victor
in great war marching in robes so abso-
lutely spotless of injustice as the robes of
the American people, organized into the Re-
publican party. When the war ended the
state of things at the South was very sad
Greeley has described the Southern mortif-
cation and rage. l thought he used strong
language, but we know from what our feel
ings would have been if we had heen con-
quered. believe that pacification by the
Republican party would have proceeded
quietly, and would have effected its end but
for one fact, and that fact is the Democratic
party. 1t resisted every measure of recon-
struction, and called them unconstitutional.
But just as fast as anything was done the
Democratic party declared it ought to be un-
done. What would we have done if we had
Deen IN tnelr pOsltlOn at the South, had we
discovered our old political allies still work
ing with us? The people of the South can
not bear to give up. They believe their old
political friends will unite in their behalf,
and all that will have to be done is to carry
their own States.
They support Horace Greeley to-day be-
cause they think he will bring a Democratic
restoration. So long as this feeling exists,
so long believe reconciliation impossible.
In word, believe no reconciliation, that is
to say, no perfect Obliteration of all the
wounds and sorrows of the war, is possible
until the Democratic party finally disbands.
That is the source of all our woe, as it has
been hitherto. 1t is an old Christian tradi-
ton, that when Christ was born, a voice is
said to have run along the shores of the Med
iterranean sea: "The great Pan is dead" So
on next November, when we hear, as surely
we shall hear, that the Democratic party of
this country, which was the power of slavery,
which was the power of rebellion that has
perplexed reconstruction, that that party is
not only defeated but disorganized, disband-
ed and dissolving, then the glad heart of
America will thank God that at last, at last,
perfect reconciliation has become possible,
because the new Union born of the war is
unchangeably established. Great applause
and three cheers for the speaker.