Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-11-23
No Time for Rlusfer.

We fake leave to utter a word ol
warning for the benefit of these impul.
5lve persons who are indulging in heat.
ed discussions of the political situation
and sometimes in threats as to what
Will happen in the event of the election
being given to Gov. Hayes. 1t is not
new. 1t has been heard in this coun
try before. We take the opportunity
to remind all these eXcitable and eX-
cited persons, some of whom, we regret
to observe, are directing the editorial
columns OF Democratic newspapers OF
more or less influence, that on one 9TH
er occasion within the memory of this
generation similar threats were heard
from the same quarter, and that the at
tempt was made on a very grand and
stupendous scale to carry them into ex-
ecutiOn. The people of this country
are not so far away from the period in
which that happened that they do not
recall, almost invOluntarily, the scenes
aid circumstances, so like those to day,
with which that bloody drama opened.
Who is there to-day that goes brawling
about Gov. Hayes having received a
minority of the popular vote? For
every one such there were hundred d
sixteen years ago who said the same OF
Mr.. Lincoln. Who is there that threat.
ems in drunken fury that Hayes shall
not be inaugurated They or their
prototypes experienced just such fren-
zy in 1860, and with greater and more
passionate energy swore that Lincoln
should not be inaugurated. We ali
know what came of it. Have these
men learned nothing in all these costly
years-these years of sacrifice of treas
ure and Of human life, with their con-
tinuing legacy of distress and debt =?
They say majority of the people have
voted against-Gov. Hayes, and they
will not have him President. So a
majority voted against Mr.. Lincoln,
but majority of the electoral votes
OF the States, under the rule, of which
they are so fond, which exalts State
sovereignty and gives the choice of the
President to the States and not the peo-
pie were cast for Mr.. Lincoln, and he
was both elected and inapgurated.
Under similar circumstances Gov.
Hayes, if he has received an honest
majority of the electoral votes, no mat.
ter how small, and no matter if he has
received only minority of the popu-
lar vote, will be declared elected, and
will be inaugurated. Anything else
would be revolution. Is this Demo-
cratic party prepared to resort to revo-
luton twice in sixteen years? Is not
the experience of one sufficient?
We call attention also to one other
historic parallel, which it seems to US
may well be needed as a warning by
those who to-day are repeating the
madness of 1861. The supporters of
Mr.. Lincoln were as quiet and undem-
onstrative through all the boisterous
demonstrations, the bullying, and
threatening, ami attempted terrorizing
of the opposition, as the supporters of
Gov. Hayes are to-day. They made
no response in kind did not answer
threat with threat; were not noisy or
even talkative. Their serious mood
and slOwness to anger were mistaken
for craven spirit. They were differ
entity and more righteously interpreted
later on. The great mass of the party
which is talking of violence to-day is
the same as sixteen years ago; the great
mass of the party opposed to it is the
same as then. Whether these quiet
men who voted for Hayes, judge right
ly or not, they honestly believe the
question of present politics is but the
continuance OF the issue, and that it has
lost none of its momentous Importance.
They are peaceable and law abiding,
and, however the event may turn, will
accept the result as the present solution
of The question by the will of the ma.
jority. That they can bear defeat with
conpOSure and witness with equani
nifty the triumph of their opponents
was clearly shown on the day follow.
ing the late election, when, upon the
supposition that Gov. Tilden had been
elected, the Republican press generally
not OILY acquiesced in the result, but
expressed the hope that he would give
the country wise and successful adj
minislratiOn. More than this: so soon
as it appeared that the election was not
settled, but that the resnlt Was still in
doubt, and the clamor of Democratic
sources began that there would be an
attempt to count in the Republican
candidates, the voice of the Republican
press of the country was unanimous
against anything that might justify the |
suspicion of tampering with ballots or
returns.
The honest and sincere masses of the
Republican party are not by any means
unmoved by the dangers which they
believe may be justly apprehended
from Gov. Tilden's election. Their
fears of what may happen from the
supremacy of solid South, and the re-
turn to political power ofthe party and
the leaders that have once undertaken
the destruction of the Government and
been baked of their design at such
cost, have been increased
rather than allayed by recent events.
They view the future under a Demo-
cratic Administration with anxiety and
alarm. We are not now saying that
there is any good reason for such ap
only that they exist and
are honestly entertained. With all
this there is, we are confident, no dis
position on the part of those who enter
tain them to take any unfair advantage
OF opponents, or reverse by any fraud Il
or trickery the legal verdict of the
They do not want Gov.
Hayes inaugurated unless he has been
elected. IF he has been hon.
estly elected they will see that he is in
augurated, and that no threats or bully
ing or buster prevent it.-N Y. Til
bune.
THE President has pardoned Avery
and Mckee; the former has returned
% his home in Washington, and the