The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-09-30
The Main Issue.

Iho hepu0ucan parry WILL VIII III JIG
coming election because it deserves to
win. So good cause no other party
ever had, nor did that party ever have
so good cause as it has now In any
other contest. In 1860 it asked that
slavery should be restricted. But In
ali but the name, slavery would be re-
viyed and made National, if Southern
Democracy should get full sway. In
1864 we stood for putting down the
rebellion. But the same disloyal spirit
and purpose grasp to-day for control OF
the Government which they tried to
destroy, and all that brave men fought
for during the war is still at stake.
True men of the North know it; men
of the South who are more candid than
cunning say with Wade Hampton that ?
tn cir cause is now the very sane for
which Lee and jackson fought. 1t
would have been far better had seces-
sion been made victorious, by the
shameful peace which McClellan's
friends wanted in 1864. than that the
mastery of the whole Union should be
given up to the men, the thoughts and
the spirit of secession, at the demand
of Hancock's friends in 1880. Yet,
stranpe as it seems, there are men who
do not see that Hancockism is only a
thin disguise drawn over the gray uni
form of rebelism.
What is the main issue in this con-
testp Whether the South shall rule,
the South made solid by force and
fraud. fired with the same spirit OF hate
toward the North, and spurred on by
keen memories of defeat in war. 1t
tried to rule by means of secession, not
: meaning to get out of the Union, nor
expecting to be resisted, but full OF
faith that beaten Yankees would soon
sue for peace, and consent to such
terms as would make Southern ideas
dominant forever in the land. The war
did not end in that way. Inc Nortn
did not sue for peace, Mcclellan fasn-
ion, on bended knees. Now the same
South, with no change of ideas or feel-
ings, means to get the same results py
other methods if it can.
Was there disloyalty in 1862 There
is now, and the same Democrats are
the disloyal men. What is disloyalty!
Resistance to law by force. The South
has resisted by force, and does resist
every act passed as means OF hoioing
the results of the war. 1t has amped
out negro suffrage with club and shot-
gun and false counts, until there is no
part of the South where loyal majority
| of ten to one can get its votes cast or
| counted. This is not step toward 70
bellion; it is rebellion. Arms are there,
organisation, and open defiance OF law.
| No tax can be raised in the South nor
any law enforced, for the same laWless
Democratic mob which carries elections
there also shoots officials, packs juries,
and scares or kills witnesses. Look
with honest eyes! There is scarcely q
pretense that the vote in Alabama was
free or that the count was true. Inns
sort of thing, done in one voting dlstrlc,
| or ia one county, is an Infamous fraud
Done all over the South, by concert.
with organization, and for the avowed
purpose of defeating the laws, nulldy'
ing the enfranchisement OF the negro
and grasping the Government, it
more than fraud; it is actual rebellion
Go back to 1864, when Lee threaten
ed the Capital on one side and Mcclellan
on the other. Suppose it had then beer
asked: Shall the followers of Lee maxi
the next Presidentp Shall they cast TO
him the solid vote of all the rebel States
Shall they do this in open defiance
lawa Shall they do it by the murder
SO, 600 Union men, by stuffing boxes witt
tissue-ballots, and by counting ballot
never cast, as many as they needP' Wa
there a single loyal man who woul'
then have said .sayep" How is tn
case changed by the change of sixteel
wears in date? The same men to-da.
, make a boast of their deeds with Lee
, strike down any Southern man who wa
loyal then, and show the same spiri
.. which they showed in arms. Th
, change is only in mode of fighting an
in date. The defiance of law is tn
, same, and the refusal to submit to tn
, will of a majority expressed freely an
according to law. The will to rule
ruin is the same. The mean and COW
ardly prescription, the savage intolel
. ance, the quick resort to means tn
= basest, the denial of free speech, al
|, all precisely the same as In 1851
1854. Nothing has changed, unless
I, be the devotion of the North to tn
principles upon which all free govern
! ment is based.
4 Had the North backed down in 18t
. and elected Mcclellan, it would ha,
= reached the same end that vi! now
q reached by electing Hancock, but wou
have saved great loss and much di
grace. We shall see in two nontl
+ whether it means to reach that san
2 end at last, after sixteen years OF va
9 effort to preserve Tree institutions,
I seh-respect and its manhood. IN
ZtibMns.