The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-10-24

i tleS, no less tudu nave AiSh0'
How plainly facts show that the party
triumphant for a score of years Is
corpse to day.
1t is dead in respect to the leading idea
which gave it life The Republican party
was born of the sublime thought that
gave birth to the Revolutionary party
under Adams and Otis, to the Democratic
party under Jefferson, that all men have
equal political rights. Under that cry
Samuel Adams created the first Ameri-
can party, and after twenty years of agi-
tation and eight of war saw it successful.
Under that cry Jefferson created the
second American party, and after ten
years of agitation saw it established in
power, which was unshaken for nearly
sixty years. But the Jeffersonian, party
failed to apply the Jeffersonian idea. 1t
refused to confer on all men equal po!iti
cal rights. 1t joined itself to those who
would not only deprive millions Of Amer
leans of political, but of civil social, hu-
man rights. After twenty years of po-
litical agitation against the party Of the
freedom and equality of man, which had
become the party Of the slavery and sale
of man (for it was just twenty years from
the first national ballot cast tor liberty to
the election of Abraham Lincoln), pre-
ceded by ten years of agitation that was
not organically political but morally so,
and followed by four years of blood and
death, the last expression of the Ameri
can idea triumphed, and equal political
rights to all was decreed at Appomattox,
as they had been first settled at York
town. Washington jefferson, Grant
were the three exponents of this Ameri,
can success: 1888, 1901, 1865, the three
years in which America took the new
departure
But, as when Washington failed to see
the full import Of the Revolution he had
conducted to a successful issue, and lent
himself to partial equality, the author
of the first sentence of the National
DeclaIation nearly twenty years after
that Declaration had been acknowledged
by the Mother Country, became the po-
litical Savior Of the nation, as Washing
ton had been its military. He had the
honor of carrying out the principles of
his own great sentence. Had he not
limited it by color lines, our emancipa
tion would have been completed under
his direct influence AS it was, his indi-
rect influence was greater than that of all
his compeeIs John Brown and Abra-
ham Lincoln alike acknowledged their
Indebtedness to Thomas Jefferson "The
Sermon on the Mount and The Declare
ton of independence are my guides !"
exclaimed the great American martyr.
And letter of Lincoln's written to
Warrington" to attend a Republican
celebration of Jefferson's birthday hu-
morously acknowledges himself as Jeffer-
sons political heir
But nations no more than nature can
stand still
Beneath the solemn arch
Naught reStetb or stands still"
Parties which are the expression of the
life of nations must 60 forward or get
out of the way. The London policemans
order to a crowd, Move on" is the
Lords order, the head of nations and
parties, to every political body. 1t must
be dispersed if it do not move on after
his and its own idea.
Washington moved back from the
equality of the Declaration to a limited
franchise and inequality Of right Jeffer.
son moved back from his battle cry of
equal rights for all to the criminal and
fatal addition, white men" Has the
Republican party moved back from its
organic idea? If it has, its disasters are
natural, are inevitable, are speedy, and
will, unless it repent, end in a sudden
and complete destruction. How slowly
it crept up to its duties under that idea
Limitations of slavery to where it is, the
first cry, was joined to protection Of
slavery where it is Seward and Lincoln
did not oppose the Crittenden Compro
mise of preventing national interference
with slavery in the states that possessed
it-or rather that it possessed-by an
amendment to the Constitution, Charles
Francis Adams, as Stewards representa-
tive in Congress, favored it. Had the
Slave Power accepted it, Republican
Congress would have enacted it and Re
publican legislatures approved the same.
The first amendment proposed to the
Constitution by the party created to de
stroy slavery was one to establish and |
confirm it forever. The next step, slowly |
taken, with many contrary vote, was to
abolish it in the District of Columbia, and |
only the disaster of Bull Run secured |
that vote. The next step, slowlier taken
was to declare all captured slaves contra |
band of war, and only his sagacity who |
found a road or made one to Washington !
and who captured Baltimore, against the
orders of both President and commander |
in-chief, opened the way of the slow Gov
ernment to that successful step was to |
offer compensated emancipation; the
next, to decree without compensation
the next, the arming of men of color;
the next, enrolling them as Soldiers
Five soldiers of q Massachusetts regi |
ment were shot, by the signature of the
President, because that they, having en-
listed as soldiers refused to fight as ser
wants at nine dollars month. Grant |
first gave the order, before he started for |
Richmond. that their pay should be the |
same as all other soldiers. That made !
him couqueror. The next step was their |
enfranchisement.
Every one of these steps was taken by |
slow degrees, against great opposition. |
When Charles Sumner urged the arm
ing of slaves, in the Worcester State Con
vention, the Boston Advertiser raised |
hue and cry against him, and denied the |
correctness of his classical allusion to
Marius, as if that incorrectness was the
greater crime. A paper was sent it the |
next day confirming by quotations from |
the original Summers declarations. 1t |
was refused admittance to the columns |
On being called for, the venerable editor
in chief said "If we should publish that
article, we should be blown up by mob
before to morrow morning"
Against such odds we marched stead
lily up to the high place of perfect politi-
cal equality. That hight was reached.
The.party rested. 1t has rested ever
since. 1t has retrograded ever since
For ten years it has sank back and back
and BACK, until III Is Where IL Is 10 DAY.
If it does not arise and go forward, it will
become like all parties and powers be
fore it that have ceased to work the work
given them to do. Now that which de
cayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish
away" In what way did this great party
show the change that has brought it now
to the brink OF dissolution Not in its
President. He who saved it and its
idea, who by the sword brought to all the
people placid quiet under liberty never