Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-07-14
Your First Vote.

Next 10 courtshlp ana marriage,
one of the most interesting events in
the life of a young man is the act of
casting his first vote. Choosing a
wife isa pleasant but serious business.
The choice once made, it is not al
ways easy to make change, even in
Indiana or Chicago. The ballot is
different A man may change his
political views with each recurring
opportunity for expressing them.-
Some men would change their wives
with equal facility if that were pos
sible, but they would not gain any
thing in public esteem by such a
course. In only less degree is the
public estimate Of the man who is a
political trimmer-a weathercock,
changing with every whiff of public
opinion, the creature of circumstance,
the servant of each shifting event.
Force of character exhibits itself at
the ballot box as we'll as IN the count
ing room, and 1T becomes every
young man, in assuming the duties
Of the citizen, to consider we'll the
part he is to play. A man without
any political opinion at all is a non
entity. The man who affects to
eschew politics occupies too lofty a
plane to be of any practical use in a
government Of the people and for the
people. Every American citizen
owes something to the republic; an
intelligent vote in times of peace
and a musket in time of war. As
well might young man be in doubt
as to whether he owes allegiance to
his country as to whether he sustains
relations to it that demand his in.
telligent action as voter.
Each year brings with it new ad-
ditions to the list of voters, mainly
recruited from the ranks of young
men who have attained their maiori-
ty. This year will add the usual
number, and as this is Centennial
year, more than ordinary interest
attaches to this first political step of
the young men of the republic which
now celebrates its hundredth ami
versary. 1t behooves every young
man to ponder we'll his debut upon
the political stage. 1t is auspicious
to begin right. Can any intelligent
young man in this progressive age
afford to cast his influence and his
ballot with a retrogressive party?-
Is any loyal man willing to cooper
ate with the same political organiza-
ton, and practically the same politi-
cal leaders, who only twelve years
ago in National Convention declared
that "aftcr four years of failure to
restore the Union," the public well
fare demand "that immediate efforts
be made for cessation of hostilities,"
this declaration being made in the
face of an enemy struggling to over
throw the Union? Not only are the
same leaders now dominant in the
Democratic party, who shaped its
utterances in 1864, but side by side
with them stand the men who were
in armed rebellion at that time and
striving by every means in their pow
er to make true the craven declara-
ton of the peace Democracy in those
terrible days Of the nations struggle
for life. What young man can at
ford to shoulder such load of igno-
miny as that, or tarnish his patriotism
with such an inglorious record as
that? 1t is true, the crafty chief
tains of the party will seek to cover
over the hideousness of that declara-
ton which was SO signally rebuked
by the loyal American people, but it
is part Of history, and the animus
Of that open proposition to comprom-
ise with the rebels and surrender all
that the Union forces fought for
still permeates their veins. The
purpose is there; it only lacks oppor-
tunity. Bourbonism forgets nothing
and learns nothing. 1t is the same
to-day it was when it aided and abet-
ted the rebellion. 1t embodies the
spirit of retrogressiveness, and al
though it may not again attempt
armed rebelllon-it was too badly
whipped for that it will not cease
to oppose itself most stubbornly to
every progressive movement of the
10th century. Can any thoughtful
young man afford by his vote to at
tempt the turning back of the dial of
this age?