The New York herald., 1874-11-05
TAs Lessons % the Elsstisn-MoAera'
tion In Victory.


side we have the ecstasy of success, the reali-
zation of hopes SO long deferred; land land
at last, after so many years Of tumbling on
the lonely seas Of what seemed to be on end
less opposition; upon the other we have the
dismay Of sudden and unexpected disaster
The democrats will exaggerate their victory
the republicans their defeat Local. silent,
indifferent causes will be found to explain the
general result. The election will be attrb-
uted to what, after all, are among the Incl
dental phases of the election. We shall be
told that temperance issues in one place and
side issues in another effected o movement
which is political and national, which means
not merely isolated dissatisfaction with the
measures of the party in power, but great
change in tho management Of affairs To
use the familiar rhetoric of this hour of
exultation and discontinue, we have the
tidal wave" or the rising sea of success.
Here aud therc are events which have their
own especial significance, like the defeat OF
Mann, in Philadelphia of Butler, in Massa-
chusetts, and Of Ellis Fl. Roberts, in New
York. And any special importance that may
attach to these results will be lost in the mag
nitude Of the issue that was decided on Tues
day.
Above oil else-and for this we fervently
thank the God of Peace-thers is an end Of
the war and its bloody Instructions We shall
hear no more of ''war records" As the HERALD
said during the canvass, ''war records"
ara now SO dead that ."Mr Tlden would
not lose fifty votes had he commanded
the attack on Fort Sumter" This canvass
shows that the Americans, are o magnani-
nous, forgiving people; that when the rebel
lion was suppressed the rebels became once
more our brothers and our fellow citizens
and that in the progress of these States in
the road to empire the test Of political rewards
must henceforward be merit, honesty, capacity
not what was done or said during the civil
war for, as all candid men must admit
many of the finest characters Of this gen.
Grafton fought against the North. What
shall we do with them? There is General Long
street, for instance. He fought until the surren-
der of Lee, and was second in command to
Lee at Appomattox; and yet he is as
good o republican as even Roscoe Conk-
ling could wisb and if tomorrow he were
to be candidate, say for the Vice Presidency,
Mr.. Conking would speak and vote for him.
And if Longstreet, why not men like Lee,
Stonewal jackson, Johnston, Breckinridge
and Hunter? Are these men any worse Ameri-
cans now for having fought against Us ten
years ago? Are they to be despised because
they have not joined the republicans? Are
they not better in every way than the
mnrrain Of carpet-baggers and 'scalawags"
that now overrun the South? Would not even
Mr.. Conkling prefer to see Breckenridge in
the place of Kellogg, Hunter in the place of
Moses, and Lee and Jackson, il they were
alive, in the place Of Patterson and Clayton?
Would he not feel that the country was better
served by these gallant and honest rebels than
by the miserable riff-raff that now infest, de-
p!ete and dishonor the South? And is it not
matter for rejoicing that by the results
Of this very election the dead past has
buried Its dead, that Americans are brothers
to Americans once more, that all the hatreds
and sorrows of the rebellion are sleeping I'M.
der the green hills and valleys of Virginia, and
that even for the miserable purposes of q can
vass in New York the eloquence of Roscoe
Conkling cannot summon up the Mumbo
Jumbo of rebellion?
Therefore we are glad that the election on
Tuesday destroys oil .'war records as claims
for political distinction. The rebellion passes
from politics into history. The election has
been really, to repeat the familiar phrase of
the hour, the 'st1dal wave" Conservatism,
which seems to have been moving over the
world, has asserted its mastery in the United
States. We have seen its influence in France
in the overthrow of the Theirs Republic and
the establishment Of the Septennate. We have
seen it in Spain in the fall of CASTELAR, and the
accession of Serrano We have seen it in Eng
land in the dethronement of Gladstone and
the liberal party, and the accession Of the
tory Disraeli to power. We see similar influ-
ences in Germany, and the question there is
whether a statesman of the prodigious power
Of Bismarck Will be able to sustain the radi-
calism Of Prussia against the conservations
of Germany. 1t was, therefore, time, in the
natural movement Of events, that the United
States should yearn for the rest which will
come with the advent Of the democracy to
power.
The victory has been so dazzling, SO tran
scendent, SO conclusive in its results, that we
can hardly comprehend it. C@sarism is dead.
Henry Wilson was right when he said that the
third term was the heaviest burden the repub-
lican party could carry. The next Congress,
as matters now look, will be under the control
of the democrats. The thirteen OF fourteen
years of republican supremacy will be severely
scrutinized New questions will not be con-
sidered SO seriously as old questions. A duty
will fall upon the next Congress more serious
than any that has fallen upon any Congress