The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1877-05-17
Peace Has Come.

Peace Has Come.
The lull which has followed the red hot
excitement in the politics of the country
is exceedingly gratifying to every one
who desires the prosperity of the country,
and expects to Intervene his own well
fare with that of the republic. Nobody
will regret it save those who have hoped
to profit by a strife-l pestilent class al
ways. Fair minded Democrats, particu
lmly, should rejoice that justice has at
last been done to the south, and that pa
citication has tol0Wed-no matter even
through an unexpected inStrumcntallty
We are told that "the wrath Of man shall
be made to rraise God" and why should
not Democrats express Il satisfaction that
the head OF the radical party has been led
to give to the South an emancipation the
fulness of which even Mr.. Tilden could
not have exceeded
For our part we fully agree with Il lead
ING Democratic paper Of the west, which
expresses the utmost satisfaction and
says: For the first time in twenty years
the public mind is in q condition of pro-
found repoSe, SO far as national politics
are concerned. From 1856 to 1861 the
anti-slavery agitation distracted North
and South; from 1861 to 1868, we had a
fierce and bloody war, and from 1865 to
lS1!, We We're wrestling with the difficult
and dangerous problem of reconstruction.
All these years the country has been in
hot water of one sort or another, all these
years the people have had something else
to think about besides their legitimate
individual business; all these years honest
fanatics and dishonest demagogues have
had the rest Of the community at their
mercy, and fed the flames of sectional
strife with material which might and
should have been devoted to nobler uses.
At last tanaticisln and demagoguery have
been compelled to suspend operations,
and though the suspension is probably
temporary, Yet these operations are not
likely ever to be renewed on the same
scale or for the same purpose. The bot
tom has been et1ectually knocked out OF
the African agitation tub. and there is no
reason to believe it will ever be renewed.
How much the nation needs rest may
l,n int,Arrnl tinI3 thn wit In
which the political truce has been wei
! coined. In vain do the party organs labor
to revive popular interest in issues which
sixty days ago shook the republic to its
! centre. The people turn a cold shoulder
and Il deaf ear to organ music. They
have danced to it long enough and will
dance no more. They know that the root
from whence sprung all the trouble which
has NcNcd their souls, depleted their
pockets, and Inundated their pride, was
torn up and flung away when South Car
Dina and Louisiana We're released from
carpet-bag bondage. They know that
the region south of the Potomac and the
Ohio will hereafter be as undsturbed It's
the region north, and that the Southern
people like the Northern people will
hencetorth be let alone to manage their
own affairs in their own way. South Car
DINA and Louisiana are no more talked
about or thought about now than Mis-
souri, and Massachusetts and Chamber
lain and Packard, Hampton and Nichols,
are already almost forgotten. If Blaine
makes his promised "blood and thunder"
speech next October, the public will listen
to him as it would to an eXpounder of last
years almanac The Southern mill yields
DO more grists.
1t is scarcely possible to overestimate
the advantages this repose will bring.
During twenty years of turmoil and con-
fusion many important interests, individ-
ual local and material, have been partial
~ or wholly neglected. We now have the
time and the inclination to attend to
them. The eyes 50 long turned SO anx-
iously toward Washington on the one
hand and the South on the other, may
now be directed nearer home. Everybody
can 90 to work with the reasonable pros
pect of enjoying the honest fruits thereof
With a foreign war in progress, which
threatens to involve all Europe and can
not possibly involve us, there is encour-
agement for all branches of industry
Politics are for the present dead, which
makes business alive. The national rest
will be an immense national blessing if
we only appreciate and improve it.