St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-01-12

President Seelye himself, that there
never was time when this great Gov
ernment was so economically admins
tered as to-day or when corrupt men
in power were so few or so mercilessly
ferreted out and punished by members
of the ascendant party. There are two
things, for blinking which the Repub-
lican party has richly merited defeat
defeat not however at the hands of any
party likely to succeed it, but at the
hands of the Judge of all the earth !;
and they both of them relate to the
rights of humanity. Knowing three
years ago that the colOred voter in all
the reconstructed states, could he have
any show of protection, would instinc
lively stand by its great fundamental
principles-thee equality of all men in
rights and privileges this party, which
elected Abraham Lincoln, which carried
the nation through the war, which gave
the bondman his freedom and then the
ballot, was diverted from the pivotal
point, from the main issue, from the
national question, by the secondary
issues of third term and paper currency,
and civil-service reform, the importance
of every one of which | freely admit !;
by this time we have got back to the
main question, and God brought us
there.
When the last Republican Congress
adjourned without providing for the
protection at the ballot box of the
humblest cOlOred voter of the South
which they well knew could not be
secured without farther legislatiOn-it
was virtual abandonment of their first
great principle. 1t was thought to be
wise, but is has proved penny wisdom.
What if the nation were weary of the
whole question of reconstruction. Of
course they were they wanted to make
money. What if the little dogs and all,
Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart, were
barking at them for interfering with
Southern affairs. Of course they were,
for tits their nature to. What if GER
tain sly New York lawyer, of whom we
have since heard not a little, as coun-
selOr to Oakes Ames, had succeeded in
enticing certain silly Republican insects
to set their feet in the delectable treacle
called Credit MObilier. What if the
East was crying for hard money and
the West was crying for soft money ;
was not the main question still: Shall
our brOther-man, whom God has made
in his own image; who has fought the
battle of freedom, shoulder to shoulder
with us; whom we have invested with
the rights of American citizenship; and
who needs the elevating influence of
the sense of Christian manhood and
Christian brotherhood which such in
stitutions as ours can give him shall
he, with all his past injuries and pa
tience, with his present loyalty, be left
to the tender mercies of Southern bar
barismP And that Republican Con-
gress said: Eyes, we are tired of the
whole subject; we must attend now to
the Presidential election )" oblivious all
the while that the divine element in the
coming canvass must be found right
there, and not knowing, as we do now,
that if saved at all, it would be as by
the skin of their teeth, and by this very
abandoned colOred voter!
But ought not to dismiss this dis,
cussion without some allusion to the
grave exigencies of the present hour
The final summings-up of the recent
election, whatever mistakes were made
in the canvass, whatever durable or in
curable frauds may have been perpe
trated in it, whatever results in tn,
future may hang upon it, have not ye
been made known to us. | am one o
those who would rather a hundredfol(
be honestly unsuccessful than dishOn
estly successful; | would rather fai
with the cause of truth than triumph
by the arts of the devil. Believing, al
| do, that the ballot is an appeal to tn,
God of nations, to the God who, il
exile and in dangers, taught our father
the great principles of civil and re
| ligiOus liberty on other shores the Coz
who, hundred years ago, gave us tb,
victory in our Revolutionary struggle
and who, eleven years since, brOugh
us safely through our civil war; be
lievine that He judges parties and men
as well as nations, it seems to me tina
to seat any man wrongfully in tn
Presidential chair, to seat him there b,
blood of innocent men that calls up t,
heaven for vengeance, by ostracisin!
and starving His own poor, by cheatin!
this great free people of their homes
right in His selection, would he to pro
woke His vengeance to descend upOl
the nation herself. want no partici
patton in such an act as that.
And yet, if this should be done, if b.
massing the two most dangerous ele
ments in Our civilization, the men VIII
have already taken up arms against tn
sacredness of the ballot, striking thu
at the nations life, and assassinate'
one of our chief executives; and tn
| 81
great cities, led to the polls in platoon
by their chnrch- guides if by outrage
against humanity, and the God of hu
manity, such as will make the Who'll
civilized world cry out with horror;
by purchase of mems manhood if b.
threats of starvation and death if b.
fraudulent swelling of fictitious majori
ties, this thing should be done, let u
remember that vengeance is not our
but Gods; let us possess our souls i
patience let us cry day and night unit
Him for deliverance let us rest in tn
Lord and wait patiently for Him le
us cease from anger and forsake wrath
let us not fret ourselves in any wise t
do evil ; for yet little while, and III
that shall come will come and not tarry
The men that snail so desecrate tn
sacred prerogatives of American citizen
ship, that shall so trifle with the right
of man and the judgments of God, tha
shall so cast themselves across the patti
way of human progress, we may safel
leave them to. the Judge of all th
earth.
REFUSED TO DEAL WITH A CoRPsl
"A scapegrace, who had left his father
house in New York under cloud an
had exhausted his credit in Virgini
City, New, telegraphed recently to HI
father to this effect: 'fyonr son Waite
was killed in the Consolidated Virgini
this morning nv q falling CAGE Whs