Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1875-08-06
Republican Prospects.

We believe that the result of the State
elections this iall will disclose compact,
igorous and successful Republican party.
rom every quarter there comes the most
,'icering intelligence. Out Of the shadow
that came over us in the general elections
of last year we see unmistakable evidence
of returning light and of noon.day efful-
gence. The dark cloud Of political insan.
ity which since then has seemed to hang
ominously over the nation is surely break
ing away and the clear light of political
reason is fastening its homeward flight.
Not onlythose who have all along been
Republicans, but truthful and honest men
everywhere have become conscious of the
approach ofdangcr, and that II must be
averted. They are fully alive TO the tre-
mendous importance of the present cam
paign in the pivotal States, and they have
both the courage and the ability 10 com
mand success. In Ohio and in Pcnnsyl-
vania, in Ohio especially, where the
fiercest battle must be fought, our friends
arc marshaling in solid phalanx, with an
earnestncss and enthusiasm that are
auguries of victory in every good cause.
The people, who, for various rea-
sons, were sluggish and fretful a year
ago, are now awake to the fact that they
dear and which they are unwilling to sur
render. They well know that the time
has come when they must renew in earnest
the struggle with their desperate and un-
scrupulous foe; that the elections in Octo
ber and November next are something
more than ordinary skirmIshes-tha they
are battles Tor position in the great con-
flict next year for the possession of the
National Government; and they do not
propose to permit the occasion TO pass
without administering to their enemy
such rebuke as their audacity and
hypocrisy deserve. 1t has not yet become
quite clear to their minds that il will be
safe to trust well.known and avowed enc
mics with all that is most sacred in life;
to drive from the grand old ship the crew
that have remained steadfast in the per
formance of their trust through storms
and perils through sorest trials and fierc-
est assaults, that pirates may plunder and
destroy her Those who in all seasons
have stood firm as q rock amid the sea
must not he supplanted by those who trim
to every passing breeze, stcadfast in moth
ing but an eager desire to seize the spoils.
That the present omens are auspicious,
need not be surprising. Last year, for
various reasons, which no man could fore
see and no Government prevent. the people
were sulen and supine, and showed their
discomfort by voting down their friends
and voting up their enemies, who have
either betrayed them or will do so at the
first opportunity. There was then no
great national peril; but that little expert
ment has fully satisfied their prurient
curiosity. The friends of good govern.
mcnt, of the maxims and tenets of the Re
publican party, are now, as they have
cd I,n ,,1 q 10
absurd and illogical to suppose that in a
crisis they would surrender all the ground
they have fairly, yet so dearly, won. Ex-
perimenting with and trusting the Dem
ocratiC pdrty now lod, and as il is now
comporting itself everywhere, would be
folly of which we trust the nation will
never be guilty. To believe that, in
the light of experience, and under
the sober teachings of history, this
people could so far forget their duty to
themselves and their country as to de-
liberately reverse all their glorious his
tory and set the seal of idiocy upon all
their grandest achievements by ushering
into power combination of men whose
| inspiration and hope are in the degrada-
ton and betrayal of the nation would be
unworthy an American citizen, and too
absurd to find lodgment in any honest
heart. 1t takes long years of tyranny
and oppression to reduce great people
to a state of indifference and to cause
them to look without concern and without
! dismay upon their ignominy and their
shame. 1t was only after long centuries
of shameless lawlessncss and tyranny that
the once great Roman Empire could be sold
at auction to the highest bidder; and the
day is yet distant when this people will 50
forget their duty and their honor as to
set their seal of condemnation upon all
their achievements.
This then is the time for all good citi-
Zens to stand shoulder TO shoulder; and
we believe that thousands who have moi
yet affiliated with the Republican party
and thousands more who, in 1872, fol
lowed an old and trusted leader into q
crooked path whose termination would
be nowhere else than in the present so
called Democratic party, will now be found
in our ranks. And they are welcome
Their hearts are with us, and let them
come. The party he's yet a bright future
before it and it cannot afford to quarrel
with its friends over the past. 1t has free
ly used the scalpel and the broad-ax in
severing from itself the putrid excres
cences and deformities which are inciden
to human government, and it is now ready
and equipped for the campaign.-Repu6H,
MdgaziRe.