Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-11-28
WAsnINGToN, ID. c.,
Nov. 24th, 1874.


RAcY IN THE CONTEST.
WASHINGTON, ID. c.,
Nov. 24th, 1874 )
To The Editor ofhe KenneJec Journal;
The National capital is dull and mild, as it
usually is at this season-no duler, no mild
er as to business, politics or weather. although
the last article has been drawn very mild
thus far, and with no present indications of
change in temperature. Whether this is a
| calm before a storm, time alone will show
1t is predicted by knowing CD ones that the
present cloudy condition of the political sky
will be succeeded by a terrific thunler storm
| when Congress meets a week hence that
things will get an wful shaking up; that the
| two Honorable National Bodies will lecture
the President because he did not speak out
against the Third Term and did and didn't
do so and SO, and that as a matter of course
General Grant will get his back up and big
row will ensue; that the House Of Represen-
tatives will be even worse demoralized than
| it was at the commencement of last session
| (Which Heaven forbid, and that in the alb
sence OF any great vital question and for the
want of great captain, the Republican party
will go to the dogs speedily.
These are all very comfortable predictions
for oar Democratic and sorehead ex-Republi-
can friends, and no doubt seem to them the
most natural and probable results they are
already feasting their furnished eyes upoa the
promised land Of milk and honey ard fat
Offices, for which they have 50 long an han-
gered and been athirst But hold, friends.
go slow. The Republican party still! lives
and has being, tenacious existence which
it will not yield as readily you might
wish. Your hands are eager and ready to
clutch the docr knob of the White House and
of the Senate; disatfecton and apathy have
already given you the key Of the next House; ;
but you will fad tina, the issues which built
up the greatest and noblest political party that
ever existed are not dead so long as treason
but half sleeps during the day, and issues forth
boldly at night through the South. You will
find that a cry will come up from the Threats
of the millions of black men, women and
children there who are but just learning to
tread the rough pathway of life upright, and
with the dignity of human beings which will
demand of the Republican party that it must
not disband and leave them to their fate-a
fate too terrible to be borne, judging BY the
past
There are undoubtedly corrupt men who
have too long disgraced high positions in the
Republican party-the late elections gave
warnings to these-but would it not be folly,
the folly of madness, to entrust the destinies
Of the Republic in the hands Of a party whose
later existence has been traled through trea-
son and corruption until the name of Demo-
crat has become stencil in the nostrils Of
men? When has that party been in power
that it has not disgraced itself and the State?
Who was responsible for the Tammany frauds,
the most gigantic public stealing ever brought
to light, carried on through series of years
under the eyes and nose of the leading Dem
ocrats Of the country? None but that party
whose sympathy rent assunder the Union and
convused the country in blood, and whose
sympathy to-day bids the lurking spirit of
evil to rise again and once more imperl the
best government in existence
The Republican party has been struck down
from staggering blow dealt unawares by the
united force of its opponents and supposed
friends. Party Quarrels, local difficulties,
personal jealouses and grievances, together
with the general spirit of uneasiness and dis
satisfaction engendered by "hard times" have
been the allies by which the Democrats have
temporarily doomed up into position. Butwe
have faith that wise councils will prevail in
the Republican camp; that harmony will be
evolved out of the present chaos; that the
President and Congress will not quarrel, and
that when the present session ends it will find
the party more compact and far more hopeful
than now.
To be sure party lines are loose to day.
looser than they have been since the war, but
we can not, We will not believe that we shall
be compelled to witness the mournful specta-
Gle of the downful of the party of liberty and
conscience with such a glorious record to sus-
tain it and such great work before it. Some
of its great moral lights have indeed gone out
in the darkness OF the tomb but shall the or
ganization be abandoned, and the party dis
band ia all directions like a flock of rightened
sheep because afew OF its time honored leaders
are no more? Is there not enough ofvrtue and
courage left among us to give heart sufficient
to save the party? We firmly believe there
is, and we firmly believe that we shall win
gloriously in the next National contest.
We think that the advice of Alexander
Stephens to Georgia at the commencement OF
the rebellion, that her only safety was in the
Union, is applicable here; that the only safe
ty of the Republic is in the Republican party
But while we hope for the BEST let US prepare
for the worst. Our opponents are intoxicated
with success and mad for power; with them
success is everything, defeat is ruin, and no
stone will be left unturned, no means will be
left unresorted to whereby they may accomp-
lish their ends-the grasping of the National
sceptre and the control of the National pat
ronage. Those who have the welfare of their