Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-08-24
THE NATIONAL ISSUES or THE CAM
P5IGN.

There have been three great political
and military crises which have stamped
themselves indelibly on our national
history, and afford remarkable lessons
of wisdom for the guidance of the
American people. The citizens of
Maine will not cease to remember and
practice upon them.
The drst of these great political and
military epochs was the war of the Rev.
olution and the political issues and
incidents of that war and its imme-
diately following years. In that strug-
gle the people were divided into two
political parties, the Wings and the
Loyalists. The latter by connections
and sympathy adhered firmly to the
mother country, and took all the risks
and sufferings of the struggle. These
men were numerous, wealthy and re-
spectacle. While the precise mathe-
matical proportion of the Loyalists to
the Wings cannot now be ascertained,
it is we'll known that they constituted
numerous minority of the wealth,
numbers and influence of the land.
The ratio of these men who entered
the British army and fought against
our National Independence, was prob
ably as large as the Confederates of
the recent civil war bore to the men
who fought to sustain the Union. Mr..
Sabine's History of the Loyalists of
the Revolution furnish most conclu-
sive evidence on this point.
Now for the lesson and the moral.
The Whigs-the supporters of our
National Independence crowned their
triumph by the surrender at Yorktown.
What was the course of a majority of
the American people towards the de-
feated Loyalists? Did Washington,
Adams, Henry, Jefferson, Hamilton
and their associates say that the con-
duct of the Loyalists should be entirely
overlooked-that it was clearly safe to
continue their political organization
and even to commit the Government
to their hands,? Such a proposition
would have startled the dead heroes of
the Revolution in their tombs and re-
ceived the indignant protest of the liv-
ing patriots and statesmen who guided
our National Government in the first
thirty years after the surrender of the
British forces at Yorktown.
How about the next great political
and military crisis of the country
the war of 1912? A large and re-
spectacle body of men opposed that
war. The views and feelings of q
part of these opponents of the war,
took form in the Hartford Convention.
These Federal opponents of the war
assumed nothing like such hostile
attitude towards the Government as
did the Northern Democratic sympa-
thizers with the recent Rebellion-no
such extreme and dangerous attitude
as the Maine Democratic Convention
of 1861, and of the National Demo-
cratic Convention at Chicago, in 1864.
The Federal party thus compromised
by the course of portion of its adher-
ents, never was able to regain the
confidence and support of the Ameri-
can people. The stern patriotism of
the American masses always swept
down summarily all Federal aspira-
tions and partizan designs thereafter
To have been Hartford Convention
Federalist was sufficient to send any
aspiring candidate to political COW
entry.
Are the American people of to- day
of less stern stuff than their fathers of
the Revolutionary epoch, and the
period following the war of 1872 7
Measured in the light of the plainest
facts, known and read of all men, the
conduct of the Tories of the Revoln-
ton and the opponents of the war of
1912, in criminality, in the vastness
of evil produced, in the cost of pre-
cious life and burden of taxation forcad
on the country, dwindle into insignifi-
canoe compared with the vast sweep
of blood, suffering, bitterness, destruc-
ton of property, and burden of taxa
ton imposed on the country by the
action Of the Southern Democrats and
their Northern allies through the Re-
bellion and the following years.
Yet, to-day the Southern Democrats
the men of the Confederacy - are
thoroughly re-organized, and are seek
ing to control the South as unit for
all political purposes, and they are
acting in complete party cooperation
with the Democrats OF the North and
West, under the lead of Tammany
Hall. Standing on their old doctrine
of State Rights, they have thrown
down the challenge in the face Of the
world, that they will again possess and
control the National Government as in
the years of Polk, Pierce, and Bu-
chanan. Were such unblushing i'm
pudence and insult ever before at
tempted among the American people 7
There is nothing else like it in the
political and partisan history of man
kind.
The pretense in Maine Is, that the
present is only State campaign-that
only local and State issues are pending.
Just as clearly so, and no more, was
the Maine election of 1862, 1868, and
1864, local campaigns. The present
movement of the Maine Democracy is