Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-09-18

What sOldiery are they leading? There
is not rebel in the South who would not
ring out hallelujahs over their triumph,
and proclaim it as a Vindication of the
doctrine of State rights and secession.
Their affiliations now are with rebels.
Harper's Weekly.
The Political Situation.
The elections of this year before those
of next year are like the action of Quatre
Bras before Waterloo. The allies, after
a desperate struggle. won at Quatre Bras,
and they destroyed Napoleon at Waterloo.
Should the Republicans succeed this year,
there is little doubt that they will elect
their President next year, and great po-
litical changes must necessarily follow.
The present administration is Republi-
can. The question of the election will
be, therefore, whether, upon the whole
the country is satisfied with the general
character and policy of the administra-
ton, or whether it thinks that Demo-
cratic ascendency would promise more
satisfactory condition of affairs. It is
true that for some time the administra-
ton and large, if not the larger, part
of the party were not in accord. But
there is now no doubt of the substantial
agreement of the party and the admins
tratiOn upon the issues which the Demo-
cratic party have chosen to present to the
country. If the Democratic chiefs had
been wiser they would not have healed
the breach in the Republican line. They
did not, indeed, mean to do it, but they
overreached themselves in trying to
widen it. They counted upon the Presi-
dents approval of measures which his
party in Congress opposed, and upon the
consequent party schism. This attempt
of theirs at once brought into view some
thing which the Democrats do not com
prehend, and at which they always sneer
the moral principle of the Republican
party. The strength of that party has
always been that in plain, simple ques-
ton of justice it was on the right side.
The weakness of the Democratic party
for two generations has been that it has
attempted to substitute legal fiction for
the instinct of justice.
The Democratic attempt to divide the
Republicans involved the voluntary sur
render by them of the last vestige of ma
tional defense of the colored citizens Of
the Southern States against acknowledged
oppression and Injustice, and a surren-
der upon the ground of State sovereignty.
This proposition at once brought out in
Congress admirable and conclusive de-
fenses of the constitutionality of the Re
publican position, and a trenchant state
ment of it in the vetOes of the President,
which commended themselves at once to
the sympathy and support of the 'sloyaP'
country. As the next and most signifi-
cant immediate result, the &C stalWart''
conventions of Pennsylvania and Iowa
and Maine-the east the west and the cen
tre-unqualifiedly approved the course
of the President and of Congress. The
persuasion that the Democratic cry of
national interference was but pretense
to secure immunity for the suppression
of the colored vote, and the usurpation
of the governments by that means aroused
the old feeling of the anti-slavery days,
| and it is upon that feeling that the Re
publican party, by the action of the
Democrats, is now united.
| For what reason, then, should the coun-
| try anticipate greater peace and pros
| perity by substituting Democratic for
Republican administration The ques-
ton cannot be argued upon the merits or
demerits of the Grant administrations,
the Credit Mobilier, the San Domingo
affair, the whisky rings, the Indian
! frauds or anything else of the kind that
may be alleged. It is not by some other
administration, it is by this, that the Re-
publican party must be tried. Is the
country satisfied with this? Is it salts
fled with it's signal and unquestioned
purity, ability and patriotic fidelity? Is
it satisfied with its financial soundness
and success, and with its undeniable i'm
provement of the system of appointments
in the civil service? Does it believe that
any Democratic administration would be
more absolutely free from every kind of
scandal, or of sounder financial views or
policy, or more efficient in reforming adj
ministrative abuses? If not, what is to
be gained by overthrow of the party
| which is responsible for the administra-
ton, alFd which, by the principle of pOpu-
lar government is rightfnlly to be judged
by its administration? Passing to other
considerations, is the case changed? The
inane ''fraud issue' we discuss elsewhere.
If in regard to other questions the cleo
tion is to be decided by the general views
declared by party conventions and by
party presses and orators, is the Demo-
cratic party to be more trusted than the
Republican not to meddle with the cur
rency or to try financial experiments
Business is reviving, and every industrial
interest requires that politicians shall
keep hands off. Which is the more likely
to do so-the Republicans, under whose
auspices specie payments have been re-
sumed, and who have steadily resisted
tampering with the finances, or the
Democrats, who have nominated an in
: tiation leader as their candidate in what
J they believe to be the test State of tht
years elections? Or is there so danger.
Gus theory of national power upon the
Republican side as to require Democratic
success as party of just State rights
The Republican doctrine of national
| power Is SGdGeu ny Tie IFeSlu0uG III nls
; veto messages. It is that national au
thority may protect the exercise of th'
: right of suffrage for members of Con
gress which the Constitution confers upor
: certain class of State voters. Are tht
] consequences of this doctrine more dan
gerous to the common welfare than ac
4 Quiescence in forcible usurpation of tn
government? Is there anything fatal,
2 consolidating or centralizing in such
simple constitutional position? On tn
e other hand, is not the Democratic asser
: ton that the United States must helplessl
: see the rights which they have conferred
o outraged, mOnstrOus and intelerabl
y proposition? Such are the broad an
: general aspects of the Situation as be
tween the two parties. Would Demo
e cratic success promise more satisfactor
q condition of affairs? Would industry G
: every kind feel surer of the continuatio
o of the good time that is now beginning
; Would justice and peace be more probabl
II in the Southern States? Would there b
II greater certainty of upright and able an
q progressive administration
Eli Ice was Union soldier, who riske
% his life for his country. During the wa
" while on guard, he shot and killed a arebe