The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1874-08-13

"oo uhidWlul W suppISoS ioNolt.
Such government is described no.
where In political history, save in the
message of President Buchanan.
Such was the style of administra-
ton, to which the Republican party
succeeded on the 4th of March, 1861.
That party was instructed to but one
duty. AS you had never known the
National Government to do any
thing, you evidently did not expect
it to do much. You simply command.
ed it to save your Territories from
the deflement of slavery that was
all.
THE ORDER oBEYED.
That command has been fulfilled.
There is no slavery in any of your
Territories. That will scarcely be
denied even by the opposite journals.
There is just as little slavery in any
Of the States. Something more than
you then thought possible has been
accomplished.
OTHER THINGS ACCOMPLISHED.
But there is no need to dwell upon
the national achievements of the last
thirteen years-they were too con-
spicuous not to have been seen; they
are too recent to be forgotten. 1t
will suffice to present a schedule Of
the leading events.
At home and abroad the Union
was proclaimed to be dissolved in
1861. The Union is restored now.
Nine States then claimed to have
left the protection of the Constitution
forever. They have all returned to
that protection now. "Those that
thou givest me I have kept, and none
is lost" said the Saviour of men.
The Republican party has preserved
more than the States you committed
to its keeping. 1t has found those
which were lost.
In 1851 the Confederate States
of America" so called, were clamor-
ing for admission into the family OF
nations. There is no longer any pre-
tense. Each one of those great but
misguided communities now has hon.
orable recognition as an integral part
of the United States.
A race numbering millions has
been raised from the condition of
chattels to the state ofman. Human
rights have gained the sanction of
three new chapters added to the ma.
tional Constitution. Murder organi.
zed in several States, bearing the
name of Kuklux, wearing the garb
and plying the trade of fiends, has
been exposed, convicted, punished.
Abroad our career has been scarce.
ly less triumphant. Great Britain
has corrected the mistake she made
when she assumed that the
appearance of the Confeder-
ace States was the sure pre-
monition of the departure of the
United States. She has done what
Great Britain never done before
she has apologized for mistake.
Out of that mistake has sprung
new era in diplomacy.
Without the employment of force,
but peaceably, the Republic which
was defied by her own citizens, and
despised everywhere in 1861, has led
Great Britain voluntarily to submit
her conduct to the judgment of ma.
tions, and in pursuance Of their judg-
ment, she has paid fine Of fifteen
millions for the wrong she did us.
That is not all. Those islands to
which she laid claim on our North.
west coast are relinquished. That
claim Great Britain submitted to the
judgment of the Emperor of North
Germany, and submitted herself to
the modification of being told to sur.
render it. She was simply told that
she had claimed great possessions
to which she had no right.
That is not all. If there ever was
one principle of English jurispru.
dence which England believed to
be irreversible and unaIterable, it
was the principle that British. born
subject could never change his allie.
glance. "Once Briton, always q
Briton" was a law she held to be as
fixed as gravitation. She fought
one war with US in defence of it.
But after seeing our pitiful army of
eleven thousand men suddenly swol,
len by volunteers to nearly million,
she wisely concluded that it was not
worth while to fight another war in
defense of that principle, and by
peaceful negotiation she has repealed
the law she so long and so obstinate
ly held to be irrepealable. Germany
has followed that wise example, or
rather set the example. Belgium,
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
have done the same, and now when
the Republic grants the boon of citi-
zenship to one of Irish, English, Ger.
man, or Scandinavian birth, the
grant is recognized in the land of his
nativity.
POSTAGE REFORM.
That is not all. If he cannot re.
visit his home, but cares to write, q
letter can be carried with marvellous
celebrity and at trifling cost. The
following table exhibits the great re-
ductions made in the rates Of foreign
postage by postal conventions tram.
ed since 1861: