Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-25
Vote With Your Eyes Open.
New York Tribune.


New York Tribune.
The estimated increase OF population in
this country is 1900 600 yearly. About
one person in SIX can vote. Thus about
100000 persons yearly become qualified
to vote, so that nearly or quite three
quarters of million voters Will be quail
fed to cast their first vote for President
In $780, Those who will become citizens
by naturalization this year came to this
country long after the war closed. The
young men who come OF age this year
were born only two years before the war
began, and probably can but dimly re-
member the great rejoicings which fol
lowed the surrender OF Lee. OF the three
quarters OF million voters who may cast
their first vote for president this year,
nearly all were either residents of foreign
lands or were boys too young to have much
clear impression of public affairs, when
the war ended. This vast body of new
voters can probably decide the contest.
A third of them, perhaps, are to be found
at the South, and, if their vote could be
freely cast and honestly c, q tied, they
might change the political complexion of
several States. But votes at the South
will not be so cast or counted, If opposed
TO the party of Free Fraud. The re-
mainder, about SOC, 900 new voters, may
turn the scale IN several Northern States.
Any plan of the campaign is detective
that is not aimed especially at the enlist
msnt of this army of recruits.
The Reou bl1can party was irresistible
at the North rs long as the large proper
ton of voters were men who had taken
active part in the great struggle against
rebellion. The men who stayed at home
and isbored and gave, not less than those
who went to the front and fought and shed
their blood, knew the history of that
struggle and what part In 1t had been
taken by the Democratic party. They
knew how perfectly true it was that the
Democratic party lad made the rebellion,
and kept it alive. They knew how the
cry that the war was q failure and the
hope that Mcclellan would be elected
nerved the rebels to fight on for more
than year after the military success of
the rebellion had become impossible.
Knowing these things, the grown men of
that day knew how to vote, for or against
the party by which the war was caused
and prolonged, and its losses and It's costs
vastly increased.
But the new voters of later day have
no such pers )nal knowledge. The DEM
ocratic party appeals to them as if 1t had
never been guilty of treason. Naturally,
it wants to have the past forgotten. By
nominating Gen. Hancock, it Sc aks to Gre
ate the impression that it never was dis
loyal, or that, If disloyal once, it has be-
come loyal now. Unnappily for Demo.
Gratis, their own nomination brings
sharply before new voters that very part
of Democratic history which it is fatal 10
have recalled. If Hancock Is nominated,
at this late day, because of his services in
suppressing a rebellion, new voters are
- ,I,~k, y rn1
and defended and upheld the rebellion,
and for what reason those who fought
against Hancock are now supporting him.
Then rivers of blood are brought to view,
and mounds of dead, and hundreds of
hospitals filled with wounded men, and
prison. pens with all their horrors and in
tamies. The old story must be told again,
in every workshop, by every fireside, on
every farm, until the new voters can fully
understand why it is that the Democratic
party needed a certificate of loyalty, and
why it is that certificate bearing the
name of Hancock is worthless. They
must be made to understand why it is
that no nominations whatever, no prOmi-
ses whatever. no acts whatever, can ever
entitle the Dem ocracy to he considered
loyal party; why it is that an indignant
people spurned that party, even when it
crouched behind late commander of the
Army of the Potomac, and would have
spurned it Just the same if it had been
possible for that party to nominate Abra.
ham Lincoln himself in 1864, or General
Grant In 1868.
The loyal men of this country are not
ready to surrender all that they fought
for That is the lesson which the nomi-
nation of Gen. Hancock will cause thu
new voters to learn The Democratic
party could not have made any more fatal
nomination Tor itself, in that respect It
need not get rid of its war record But it
has dragged that foul and dirty record be.
fore the country once more, by the very
act OF trying to hide it under a Generals
sash and epaulets. Everybody wants to
know why such man was set up by the
men who fought against him. The answer
is fatal to Democracy.
Republicans must be missionaries in
this campaign. From this time to the
close of the contest every Republican who
knows what the Democratic party was
and is ought to make 1t his busin ess to
see that all new voters shall also know.
The main duty this year is TO seek out all
the voters who do not know what the
Democratic party really is, and to tell
them. n OF with epithets; not with wordy
denunciation; but with simple and honest
recital OF lacts, which Tue loyal men OF
1861 know full we'll. Let it be known
that the Democracy is the party of sla-
very, of rebellion, OF treason and Ase sur
render TO treason; and that il does not
change lis nature or spirit when 1t puts
on Mcclellan or Hancock as a mssk
Then, 1t any voter wants to cast his first
vote Tor such party, let him DO 80 with
his eyes open.
Thoughts for the Campaign.
HORACE GREELEY ON HANCOCK