Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1880-07-19
A RECORD TO BE PROUD OF.

Now, as heretofore, the Republican
party relies for public confidence mainly
upon great services actually rendered.
1t has given the country:prosperity and
never before witnessed. No
other claim to popular support can be
greater. 1t has overcome obstacles
deemed insuperable. Difficulties and
dangers which, to many at home as we'll
as to nearly all abroad, seemed certain
to overwhelm the Republic, have been
met and vanquished by the Republican
party. 1t has earned this vast advan-
tage over every competitor; it does not
need to rely upon its promises alone,
but can point to its deeds as its best
vindication. Twenty years it has
marched on unfaltering. Almost all
the world believed that disunion was
inevitable. The Republican party re-
sisted and conquered. Even close to the
end of the war, the Democratic party
solemnly resolved, as observers else
where began to fear, that the war was
failure; but the Republican party
persisted until rebellion was crushed.
The problem of reconstruction seemed
insoluble to many, and there were wise
men who predicted fifty years of anarchy
and guerilla warfare but the Republi-
can party found means to force con-
quered and sullen South to take an
active part in the Government which it
had tried to destroy. Never before,
since Governments were instituted
among men, had nation managed to
restore the value of an irredeemable
paper currency. But the Republican
party undertook that task also, and fin
ished it. The collapse of imitation
caused tremendous losses, and the strug-
gle for resumption caused immense sac
ri6ces. Never before had any. party,
in free Government, dared to propose
such struggles and sacrifices without
submitting to temporary defeat. Yet
the Republican party led the nation on
ward to financial honor and prosperity,
and never lost the power to carry out
its measures.
This woodworking party. for which
no task has yet proved too difficult, has
the right to point to the present condi-
ton of the country as proof of its fidel-
ity, courage, and wisdom. When dan
gers have thickened, the party has
dared to do right and to trust the peo-
Pile. and they have never failed to meet
trust with trust. Where would the
country be, politically, financially, OF
industrially, if disunion had prevailed
1t is for the Democrats to say. Where
would it have been if Democratic recon.
struction had been permitted to grow
into guerilla warfare? What would
have been the condition of business now
If the Democrats, led by Mr.. Pendleton
had been able to pay the bonds in green
backs, as they proposed to do in 1872
What would now be the state of the
public credit, if the solemnly-promiseG
resumption had been defeated by Dem
ocratic success in 1876? Every CAPT
talist and every workingman in tn,
country knows what grand prosperit,
has resulted from the resumption o
specie payments eighteen months ago
is there single one who wishes tina
Democratic hostility to resumption hal
prevailed at the last election -? Ho,
many of our mills and factories, hoy
many of our furnaces and mines, woul
now be in operation, if the blind hostil
ity of the Democrats to the present forr
of tariff had succeeded in causing sue
den, radical, and sweeping change, thre
years ago? What the country is to-da
the Republican party has made i
What sane man is sorry that the RepuI
lican party has conquered for twent
years, ard SO has had the power to max
the country what it is?
Virtually, that is the question fl
{ 1880; is the country sorry that it hs
, attained the wonderful prosperity whic
f it enjoys? Mistakes are to be foun
| on every hand, as in all human Govern
! ments, and errors in the record of ever
year. But the country knows that j
e all the greater matters it owes its pre-
r ent condition to the courage, wisdom
and fidelity of the Republican part,
and 1T will hesitate long before it d.
cides to change. Any other party ca