The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1876-11-02
q few solitary thinkers prappled with the

few solitary thinkers grappled with the
actual situation as earnestly and erect
ually as nearly all the Southern politI-
| clans did, when these thinkers looked be-
You'd professions to actual encroach-
ments, and beyond temporary make
| shifts to the inevitable outcome OF all
such expedients, and when they applied
the plain principles of Republican free
dom and equality to the politics of their
| day--they were denounced as "agitators,
"alarmsts, "incendiaries, revolution
ists," and such like. These were the cpl
thets freely applied, not merely to Gar,
rison and Phillips, but to Seward and
Chase and Sumner and Greeley and Gid
dings.
They had to undergo many years OF the
sort of persecution which eXcels in in
gcnuity of torture anything devised for
the old Inquisition,-by SO much as torture
of sensitive soul is more trying than
torture of delicate body-betofc they
could get merchants to turn from their
ledgers, lawyers from their briefs and lit.
| erary men from their books, to consider
by what stcalthy methods and open ad-
vances the Slave Power was getting the
nation by the throat, while the best brains
of the North were asleep to the perils of
the situation. Of the mlddle-aged men
who heard or read Mr.. Evarts' mastery
eulogium of Seward, there is no one who
cannot recollect when the same philoso-
phica! statesman, who died a "Conserva-
| tive" was maligned, ridiculed, black
guarded, and TO some extent ostraclsed,
| because he saw little further into events
| than most of his fellows, and saw that
there could be no otlterpolitics than ''Por-
Slavery" or "Anti-Slavcry, until one set
IL ., al, ri
Had every Northern man given enough
! attention to the political situation as it
stood in 1861, and acted as the great ma
joritv of Mort. ern men acted when South
ern politics ripened after their kind, there
| would have been no secession aud no war.
The South would have seen that neither
secession nor war could succeed. what
Southern politicians did see, was such q
prevailing indifference and apathy in the
North, to the real scope and nature of
their designs such fawning servllity
among Northern politicians and such
absorption, by the North, in the develop
ment of its material resources-that they
believed there was neither manhood nor
fight in US. 1t was not until the echoes
of the shots fired on Sumter awoEe the
North out of its long sleep, that these
astute and reckless politicians found out
what a tremendous amount OF reserved
manly force was awaiting the match that
set it free
For the years when the real politics of
the county were discussed through the
mouths of cannon and musketS, the party
of Lincoln and Seward and Sumner and
Greeley conducted the controversy with a
vigor that was cffeCtual, but after the cX-
ctemcnt of this contention was over, the
North again turned from politics to work
and play The Southern politicians Meth
er worked nor played, but took up their
old game, when encouraged thereto by
Andrew johnson. They have been at it
ever since. Some of them are as frank
and reckless now as Toombs and Rhctt
and Yancey were, before the war. Others
are more astute and prudent. But they
are, for the most part, playing the same
game, and for the same stakes. They
mean to recover by the ballot what they
lost by the bullet. They depend with
certainty on the cooperation and obedi-
ence of precisely the same Democratic
politicians who encouraged them TO rebel
And not one of these latter has to-day
any the less influence with his party
because he encouraged rebellion and SYM
pathzed with its prosecutors. We need
not go outside of our own State for a flag
rant illustration of this fact. At Mr..
Tilden's Saratoga Convention the only
name which excited any genuine enthusl
asm was that of Horatio Seymour. The
assembled Democracy regarded Mr.. Til
den with GOODNESS, and his reform" can
didates with aversion. They revealed the
fact that they realized that "Tilden and
Reform" was only the mask under cover
of which they meant to capture the
spoils," and restore the old regime, of
which Seymour is the truest representa-,
tivcs. And if Seymour had come into the
Convention, ana made over again the
same reasonable speech which he made
at Tweddle Hall, in 1861, to the Demo
cratic State Convention of that year, the
shouts of applause would have endanger-
ed every pane of glass in the windows
that let light in on the dark and tumultu-
Gus proceedings at Saratoga.
While we are giving our attention to
the Presidential candidates, We must not
overlook the fact that there is also
State, Il Congressional, judicial and
County Ticket in the field. Mr.. G. j.
Stevens, candidate for Clerk of the Courts
and Mr.. J. B. NJ. Bishop, candidate for
County Recorder, are both the presentin in
they have given perfect satisfaction to
the public the past two years is simply
stating what everybody knows to be a
fact, and that they will be reelected by
Il large ajority no one doubts. Mr.. II. II.
Wilmington, candidate for Supervisor, is
large and prosperous farmer of Crystal
township, a man of practical, sound COM
mon sense, and one who will attend to
the duties devolving upon him with hon
esty and impartiality.