National Republican., 1880-12-07
Peace i'm the party.

Ihcre Is no reason why we should mol
have Il season of political quiet. The
Democratic party has suffered the proper
penalty for its misdeeds in the fact of its
defeat. The past has refused to come
forth from its tomb at the bidding of
Democratic magicians. The people rest
secure in the knowledge that as often as
the wrong side of the civil war seeks to
be vindicated they can overwhelm it, and
drive it again to its last ditch. We are
never TO be ruled by party having for
its nucleus the unreconclcd portion of the
late confederates keeping step to dirge
over the Lost Cause. We are not TO pay
for the emanci 1ated slaves, nor the mil
lions of losses sustained through the raw
ages of war. All these dangers are past.
The nation is strong, the people hopeful
and more prosperous than any other; and
progressive ideas will surely draw to their
support many who have until now been
welded to old things. And then we have
substantial harmony among Republicans.
The bitter factional contests which have
distracted our party for the past ten years
ulC NlihCu. lllJ IuCollpllo oil Niiicii Nv
publicans fought each other so much
more savagely than they did the common
enemy no longer thrust themselves up at
the gatherings of the party. Whatever
variety of opinions there has been here
tofore, all were united this year, not
only in desiring and laboring for
Republican success, but mainly for
the same reasons. Politicians and
business men were equally impressed
with the importance of defeating the
Solid South, both on business and on
political grounds. The men who had
thought the Administration too easy with
some elements of the Opposition found
the members of the Cabinet decorated
with Democratic abuse for their partisan
speeches during the canvass. Grant, whose
defeat at Chicago had so greatly disap-
pointed the stalwart thousands of his fol-
lowers, sounded the blast from his bugle-
horn which stirred them to action, while
Conkling and Blaine were both found in
the thickest of the fight, adding to the
canvass a momentum which no power
could resist. In the healthful uplift
which all generous action gives to the
actors, small differences were forgotten.
The nomination of Garfield gave no fac
ton cause for exultation over another,
and the peril through which the party,
and with it the country, has just passed,
must long be warning against party
divisions on non-essentials. Men
ask each other: "Will the Admin
istration be stalwart ?" The answer
is, that all Republicans are stall
wart now, as they would have been in
the past had they understood, as they do
now, the utter uselessness of leaving to
the Democratic sense of fair play the con-
troll of elections where many of the voters
are black. What folly would be for us
now to wranglc as to exactly whatamount
of evidence was necessary to establish this.
So as to all other questions. Who is going
to revive the passions of last winter and
spring, when the struggle was being made
for the possession of the National Conven.
ton? There are now no "anti" men
The energies of Republican combativeness
are no longer to be expended on Republi.
cans. The men who labored this year in
the party ranks have all equally done
their duty, and there is no such thing as
caste or rank to be thought of The
times are auspicious for hearty agree,
ment on some general propositions of ma
tional importance, and for long era Of
good feeling.