The Portland daily press., 1880-08-28
SATURDAY MORNING, AUGUST %.
[St. Louis Globe-Democratl
The Campaign.

Senator Blaine recently summed up the Re-
publican campaign in an epigram which he
telegraphed to the Chairman of the Vermont
Republican State Committee, "You are hav-
ing a splendid dress parade in Vermont; in
Maine the fight is actual and bitter" AS far
as the practical work of the campaign is con-
cerned, every State in the North is either
Maine or Vermont; the Southern States are so
many funerals where the dead may safely be
left TO bury the dead, while the question for
the living is whether they will devote them
selves to Vermont dress parades or REINFORCE
the fighting men in bitter Maine contests.
curious discussion is going on in the East
ern papers as to whether it would be better for
the National Committee to provide for send
ing colored orators or white ones through the
Southern States. We have already expressed
the opinion that it would be better not to send
any at all, and we still fail to understand the
policy of wasting time at funerals. All the
talk about Republican organization in the
Southern States and fixed purpose of the Ad-
ministration to enforce the election laws does
not amount to row of pins in face of the fact
that the Brigadiers have control of the cleo
ton machinery including the Dixie Patent
Calculating Machine, warranted to turn up
any majority that may be required before the
ballots are counted. All the eloquence of all
the orators since the birth of time would have
no more effect on the fixed purpose of the
Brigadiers than a Sunday School tract would
have ON Sitting Bull. 1t would be like argu-
ing case before Ring Judge who had his
decision written out beforehand and lying
rolled up in his desk to be read as soon as the
arguments were over.
1t would not be merely loss of time and
energy to attempt any appeal to the Southern
sense of Justice; it would be a positive detri-
ment to the Republican cause to call attention
to the foreordained failure which awaits SO
vain an appeal The best plan is to give the
Brigadiers all the rope they want, and to en-
courage them to use it. Politically the South
is an Ephraim: welded to its idols let it go.
This is probably the last time that the country
will be Inundated by an issue squarely put
between two sections, the last time that the
Union sentiment of the country will be chal-
lenged on sectional issue and forced to de-
fend itself against so unworthy an assault. All
that Republicanism needs is to win this time,
and it can win only in the North.
All the work of the campaign is to be done
in the North, and in only four or five of the
Northern States. Leaving out of sight the
Vermont dress parades, and taking heed only
of Maine backgrounds, there are only four or
five States in which the campaign need be
fought, but in these we want to go in with our
coats off and our shirt-sleeves rolled up. We
would commend to the National Committee,
as suggestive study, the perusal of the great
Napoleon's first campaign in Italy. He had
but little army of brave men, while the over
whelming hosts Of Austria occupied both sides
OF the Alps and the cities and fortresseS from
sea to sea- But the victory belonged to the
man who kept his forces together, who never
wasted day in dress parade, and who, when
ever he str1ck the enemy, struck for all he
was worth, and at that point in the line where
his battalions were the strongest, and so had
heaven on their side.
To-day one vote gained in Indiana is worth
ten votes gained in Ohio; one vote in Maine is
worth a hundred added majority in Vermont.
Instead of scattering its forces and making
brilliant display, the Republican party wants
to mass its forces and do solid work. 1t wants
no dress parades no blank cartridges nor qua
ker guns, but close and stubborn fighting We
may add that instead of having any orators to
spare in the South, the party has hardly ora
tors enough to go around in Indiana between
now and election day. The brilliant rhetoric
of Summer, the shrewd persuasion of Chan
dler, the clear analysis of Morton, and the
fierce energy of old Thad. Stevens have not
been replaced The orators of the Republican
party are mere handful, and while it might
be well, by way Of experiment, to test the
question as to whether the South is yet ready
for free speech, there is much to be done with
scant time to do it in the States which are the
battle-felds of the national campaign.