Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1876-10-05
ADvE / TIsI NG RATES
MILTON BARNES.
A Look Backward and Forward

1
A Look Backward and Forward
The campaign nears- its final stage.
> 1t is three months, almost to a day,
: since the latest of the Presidential nom
nations Was made, aud in a fortnight
the first great struggl', probably the
decisive struggle, will be over. Thus
; far certainly all the o:nens are with the
: Republicans. The retrospect of the
campaign is q lengthened line Of DEM
tocratic blunders and mishaps. The
Il Democrats have caught up mask after
mask only to find that it did not fit,
and the lions skin of reform in which
the party that stole the City of New
York poor has psraded before the
American people never could drown its
voice or disguise its visage.
Its misfortunes began with its good
fortune. The Democratic House, which
was to overturn the Administration
with the lever of its own misdeeds.
msde such partisan riot Of its investiga-
ltions that the country wondered more
at the men who exposed wrongs than
at the men whocommittedth them. The
nomination of Hendricks and the sur
render Of the chief of the hard-money
statesmen repelied the great mass of in
dependents whose ears had been tickled
with the promise that what Democrats
had accomplished in reform in one
State under coercion, they would do in
all States OF their own accord. These
were ohense5 against good morals; the
blunders in tactics came after. A
crazy infiatiOnist was put at the head
OF the ticket in Illinois and the CHEAP
est OF cheap deinagogueS was nominal
cd In Indiana. These slips of sincerity
were followed by the nomination in
New York of a man who was the can
didate of frepudiatiOnistsi in 1867 and the
tiinOrous friend of rioters in 1858; and
the same convention made happy
showing of Democratic consistency by
choosing In his place man who is his
opposite in almost every line of his po-
iitical record. Then there was the in
come tax charge, which came with
crushing force, because it went so long
a time unanswered, and when answer
ed was found not to have been answer
ed at all. And now the heat of the
battle breeds bad blood in the South.
There are outbreaks and conflicts, in
which the blacks are Usually the weak
er, and always the worsted party.
Stories come North of attempted In.
timidation of the negIo, which, parti-
san as they may be, highten the dis.
trust that the Northern Republican
still feels of the safety of the Southern
black in the hands of the Southern
white. Here and there botheaded
fellow blurts out, as Mr.. Zebulon B.
Vance did the other day, what many
cooler. headed man doubtless cherishes
the full warmth of his old Rebel feel.
ing. In all this they were playing the
same old empty trick of trying to mask
what was with what ought to be. The
mask did not. and would not fit. In
truth, there has been too much premed-
itatiOn and pretence about the whole
Democratic campaign, too much ma
chinery, and too much of il visible.
The voter who respects himself does
not prefer the party which adapts its
principles to its circumstances, and does
prefer the candidate whose virtues are
not published in paid advertisements
al so mucn q line.
The Republican canvass, on the other
hand, grows in vigor every day. There
have been no surrenders of principle,
and the missteps of the campaign have
been speedily retraced. The Republi-
can candidates are so pure that they
cannot be lied about. and yet they have
met the least tangible charges with q
that left no room even for
partisan suspicion. Nevertheless, the
battle is by no means won. The still
hunt is in stealthy progress, and the
Democratic mole is as busy burrowing
IS ever. In Ohio and indiana both
parties are working their hardest, the
Democrats under ground, the Republi-
ANS above it. 1t is the duty of the Re-
Dublicans OF those States to make their
victory 80 decisive that it shall deserve
he name; and it is equally the duty of
he Republicans of ali other States to
i'd them to the uttermost in these last
trenuous exertions of the campaign.
Whatever danger there might have
'een from the neiseless Democratic
has passed, now that the
have discovered their de-
ices and are fighting in open field.
hey have the aggressiveness of genu.
ne principles, and their opponents can
ot stand before them. But they must
ot stop fighting.-[N. Y. Tribune.