The New York herald., 1872-10-11

SAFETY OF the Republic Under sne
Sovereign People.
The late instructive elections reafirm the
intelligence and the independent action upon
public affairs Of the American people, and the
safety of our republican institutions under
their sovereign authority. These elections
teach our unscrupulous politicians and partisan
journals the folly of attempting to delude the
people from the real issues at stake by violent
denunciations and debasing personalities
against this, that or the other candidate for
public preferment. We see. too. from the
remarkable results Of tho October Judgment
of the people, in Pennsylvania especially, how
impotent are those would-be leaders who
assume to divert the people to their sei1sh
purposes from the real issues before the coun-
try. It was supposed by many honest and
intelligent citizens ono short year ago, that
the corrupt chiefs of the old Tammany Ring.
with oil their means and appliances Of corrup-
ton, were so strongly ontrenched that it
would require close siege at least OF
several years to dislodge them; but
in the FIRST charge Of an indignant
people their works wero carried and their
garrison captured. It was feared by
many thoughtful and patriotic men that when
our long and embittered sectional agitation
had carried us into tho most gigantic ana
sanguinary civil war in the history OF any
nation, the end of it would be military
despotism, or two or three. or half dozen
republics Of the Mexican type, or several
European protectorates; but the rebellion was
suppressed, slavery was abolished, and the
Union, stronger than ever before, has been
restored on the basis of universal liberty and
equal rights.
The moral Of oil this is that for fifteen or
twenty years past, or more, our party poll
ticians, including party leaders, cliques con-
ventions and organs, have been far behind the
people, and have presumed too much upon
popular ignorance and credulity. Our party
managers have proved themselves genuine
Bourbons In adhering to their belief that the
country should be, and still may be, ruled
through such convenient devices as Albany
regencies, Richmond juntas and kitchen
cabinets. But these little oligarchies were
broken up and dispersed with the in
PRODUCTION Of railways, telegraphs, and
the Independent newspaper press. The
greatest perhaps, Of all the great mistakes OF
the Southern conspirators in plunging into
rebellion for the establishment of their absurd
idea of an Independent Southern Confederacy,
resting upon the cornerstone Of African
slavery, was the mistake of basing their calcu-
lations of success upon the American rebel
lion Of 1776, when telegraphs, steam presses,
railways and steamboats, were unknown. But
the printing press, the telegraph, the steam
boat and the railway, with the tremendous
power in these potential instruments of peace
or war, held by the North, rendered the sue
cess of Southern Confederacy an impossi-
bility from the beginning.
But more powerful in behalf of the Union
cause than oil the material advantages Of rail-
ways, steamers and telegraphs was the educa-
ton which this people generally had attained
through these agencies and the press in the
duties of patriotism when called to war for the
Union. A Southern Confederacy had been
created, Southern armies had been organized
and put in the field; United States forts,
arsenals, Navy Yards and mints in the South
had been seized and appropriated; Major An
derson, in Fort Sumter, had been quietly
encircled by hostile Southern batteries,
and it was greatly feared, even in
the loyal North, that the Union against these
dreadful warlike preparations for its over
throw would prove but rope of sand. But
we need not here relate how the loyal North,
with the news Of the frst shot against the flag
of the Union, rose as one man in response to
President Lincoln's proclamation calling for
troops to maintain in the South the sovereign
authority of the United States and the integ-
rity of the Union.
In the election Of Lincoln the Union-loving
people Of the North had partly foreseen this con-
tingency of war and were prepared for it; but
our politicians on oil sides were far behind the
people. Even Lincoln followed in their wake
and did not seek to lead them in the prosecu-
ton of the war. They carried him and the
country through the war-they carried Con-
gress and General Grant through the work of
Southern reconstruction and restoration, on
the basis of the new amendments to the con-
btltuuCu, duu IL al IuCoo ciCCllouS tuc
sovereign people have indicated their purpose
to give General Grant another Presidential
term it is because. in their judgment, the time
has not yet come for change in the admins
tration Of our national affairs.
The politicians, we say, are far behind the
people, and the people have risen to degree
of independence Of party leaders far beyond
the vain calculations of these mere creatures
of public opinion. Party leaders, in fact, have
become a cheap commodity in the public esti-
nation. The time was when in the bolt of
such conspicuous party men as Sumner,
Trunlbull, Greeley and Brown, Schurz Fen
ton, Curtin, Mcclure and Forney from their