The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-11-11
The Victory of the Ballot,
From The Baltimore Gasete.

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Now that the smoke Of the battle is rolling
away and we begin to see plainly the full ex-.
tent Of Tuesday victory, the vast Importance
and significance of the triumph can in some
degree be estimated We do not think that
the great peril through which the nation pass
ed in safety was fully appreciated even by
those who, by their patriotic action strove to
| avert it. This was not because they were at
| all insensible or lacked any interest in the
contes. A truer, more honest, more devoted
band never before gathered together to de-
fend an imperiled country. But the real ex-
tent Of the danger was never clearly Sem by
the people. They knew that Grant and his
party were utterly faithless. They knew
| that corruption stalked abroad in the high
places of the government They knew that
thieves and scoundrels were daily plundering
the treasury, and that its chosen guardians
were applauding and approving the monstrous
| crime. They Knew that in the Republican
household honor was dead, and that from its
portals honesty and purity were exiled. They
knew that the vilest and most abandoned
criminals were taken by the hand and fondly
Rugged to its bosom by the central despotism
at Washington, But they never knew how
near the republic came to empire, and how
| SNlAll anu ouItiN vi ueSpOllC
power were treading in the pathway of Amer
lean freedom.
The illegal and unconstitutional employ.
ment of federal bayonets to carry the election
in the Southern States was only the entering
wedge to future and grosser usurpations, and
this dark conspiracy against the rights and
liberties of the sovereign people will stand out
in all time to come as the master crime of the
age, and stamp its wretched authors with
everlasting infamy. We freely acknowledge
that the hour of triumph should be the hour
of magnanimity but while we earnestly pray
to Almighty God that from this day forth
peace and reconciliation and fraternal affec-
| ton may prevail unbroken and undisturbed
| from the icy waters of the Aristook to the
| golden sands OF the Sacramento, we can never
forget, nor will the country ever forget, the
great criminals of the land who basely at.
tempted to steal away the liberties of a nation,
and who on account of their shameless acts
of wiekedness and usurpation will be forever
execrated by the American people.
But, as We wrote yesterday morning as the
dawn was breaking, and in the midst of the
wild shouts of exultant freemen who filed our
streets, we do not claim this victory as mere
partisan triumph. 1t belongs to the sover.
eign people. Thousands Of independent vo.
tiers outside of party affiliations came to the
rescue of the standard of reform. Thousands
of conscientious Republicans threw off their
shackles and stood side by side with the ma
tional Democracy, "Not that they loved
Cesar less, but Rome morel' All honor to
them! In no way and by no act of the new
administration will the bright hopes they have
formed of their country's future be disap-
pointed. The election Of Mr.. Tilden will re-
ats -.
purity and peace. No more able or honest
statesman lives to-day, His whole life has
been increasingly devoted to the cause Of good
government and reform. From his first en-.
trance into public life until the present mo.
ment he has been the fearless champion of
the peoples rights, and the unrelenting foe of
corruption in every form. At the head of the
government he will exert all his splendid abil.
tiles to restore the republic to what its fra
mers meant it should be. Again will north.
ern industry crown the people with its richest
blessings. Again will the oppressed and
down -trodden South, true to the Union and
the Constitution, rise from the ruins which
surround it, and add its share to the increas.
ing wealth Of the nation. Again will the
stricken heart of the workingman be filled
with joy at his safe deiverance from the body
OF this death. Again will the once more uni.
ted freemen Of the republic long estranged,
but all children of the same dear mother
unite in the closest feelings of brotherhood
and love, and proclaim to all the world that
on these western shores, where liberty was
planted one hundred years ago, there is still
but one country, one constitution, one DIES.
tiny. The victory for Tilden and Reform is
one for freemen to rejoice in-for nations to
ponder at-a victory, mot of a day, but for
all time |"