The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-03-18
The Beginning of the End.

The result of the election in New Hamp-
shire, as it is indicated in the dispatches
we have received at this Office, will pro-
badly be surprise to the country, for it
records Republican victory in strong
hold which, being in their possession, the
Democrats believed they had strengthen
ed beyond the possibility of capture. All
that the Democratic party could do by
political gcrrymandcring and unscrupul-
Gus partisan trckery, to secure the hold
they had gained upon New Hampshir
they have done; and we confess that w
had believed that the reaction from tn
Republican losses of last fall Lad no
gained sufficient strength to overcome
these efforts so speedily. Had the State
remained unchanged in its political com
plexion we should neither have wondered
nor grieved; fer we esteemed that to be a
natural. sequence at this time. So much
the more then must we rejoice over this
unexpected Republican victory; an honest
and square triumph won after a bitter
battle in which the forces of both sides
seem to have been mustered IN tncir full
array.
Following the confirmed Republican
strength shown in he recent municipal
elections in this State, we must look in
this victory for some important lesson to
be learned by the people o. the country,
and we think we can fad it. In the first
place we claim that we see herein indis-
putablc evidence that we were right in
our argument after the terrible upset to
the Republican party last fall, that the
causes of that were not to be looked
for in tho gain of converts to the
Democratic party, but rather in in
tluences leading to a desire Of Republicans
to rebuke some ideas thrusting them
selves into offensive prominence within
their own ranks. Foremost among these
was what is called the third term" agita-
ton; a conception originating no matter
where, and holding possibly no germ of
real force beyond the brain of its pro-
jectors, but in its very theory SO OBJ
jectionable to the mass Of the people that
they deemed il necessary to crush it be-
You'd hope of recovery. And this they
most certainly did.
That question set at rest finally, and the
discomfort with the evident tendency to
extreme political aggressivcness in the
Republican party which unbridlcd license
was leading beyond proper limits, having
been checked by the overwhelming re-
buke of November, we think we see fur
ther in these reports from New Hamp-
shire proof that the loyalty to principle
which formed the inhert mt strength of the
Republican party is uniting with it again
all who marched temporarily under the
banner of disaffection. The Republican
party needed its punishment, but the very
fact that 1t fell with such unsparing hand
helps to induce those who gave the blow
to hasten to show by renewed fcalty that
it was the harshness of discipline not
malice. The Democrats tlind except to
the fact that they had gained power, and
reckless of the causes which brought
about SO unhoped for response to their
years of prayer, have not been able to to-
strain themselves to cautious limits despite
the warnings of the wiser few among
them, and fortunately for the country if
unhappily for themselves, have already
given evidence of what would follow the
entrusting to them of more complete
possession of the nation and its govern
ment. Their defeat in New Hampshire
leaves no room to doubt that the people
have not wrongly read the signs of the
distemper which is threatened; and by the
time the campaign opens for the great
national contest Of 1876, they will have
provided the weapons for their own
Observation-Disclosures North Ameri-