The Portland daily press., 1880-08-10
What Republican Victory Now
Means.
lStewart L. Woodford.l

lStewart l.. Woodford.l
There is one sentence in the Democratic plat
form o. which 1 approve most earnestly, and
that is the one wherein they declare that the
right to free ballot is the right preservatiye
OF all rights. This is good statement of Re-
publican doctrine. L remembered the Ham,
burg massacre, and / read it again. recalled
the wholesale naturalization frauds of 1868 in
Democratic New York city, and read it again.
The doctrine is sound, but the place and the
preacher seem queer. The prophecy is the
prophecy of Balaam, but they into whose
startled ears it fell were indeed the princes aud
armies of Moab. Had the Southern Democrats
believed this truth in 1860 we should have
been spared the horrors and untold sufferings
of the war. Did they believe it to-day, and
would they act upon it to-day, at least five
Southern States would vote for Garfield next
November by great and decisive maiorities.
The honest acceptance and practice Of this
truth by all Democrats North and South
would be not only the sure defeat, but the final
dissolution, of the Democratic party. Here
are found the real lines of the pending polti.
cal contest. When the ballot shall be as free
in all the South as it is in all the North, it will
be in order for Vermont to seriously consider
the propriety of honoring Mr.. Phelps with an
election to her Governorship, but so long as
the Democracy enters Presidential canvass
with the unfair antuniust advantage of 13s
solid electoral notes.-the vote of the entiro
South made solid by force and fraud, by the
shotgun and the tissue ballot aud false count
so long Vermont has neither the moral right
nor political excuse for faltering in her course
Her place and duty are still at the front of the
Republican Presidential column. She took
that leadership in 1856. For nearly quarter
of century her star has led the way and
guided our people, first, to the restriction of
slavery and the freedom Of the territories, then
to the preservation Of our Union then to the
enfranchisement of the blacks, then to the
maintenance of the national credit and the
payment OF the national debt, and last to the re-
establishment of industry, of labor, of business,
and of property, upon the firm basis Of fnan-
cial honesty. Why should Vermont falter
now, when we are fighting the last battle that
can ever be fought in this country on old is
sues If we are only victorious now? Republi-
can defeat now may turn back the hands on
the clock for 10 years, because Republican de-
feat now invites and means a solid South for
years to come; but Republican victory now
means that the solid South will be split, and
split forever, before the Congressional election
"a an8 Suas % AND 4iS oa sla
NAL and natural condition of politics, when
men of like judgments, of like instincts and of
like hopes, North and South, can act together
wisely, patriotically, and as citizens Of COM
mon country. We stand to-day in politics
where our armies stood in military affairs six
months before Richmond fell and Lee sur
rendered. The capture of Richmond COM
PEELED the surrender of Lee and ended the
confederacy. So the Democracy is almost at
the last ditch now. The defeat of the Democ-
racy to-day means the final surrender of the
solid South and forever ends its dream of po-
litical power and rule. When the solid South
disbands there will be no call, no need for q
solid North, but ON the ruins Of sectional con-
test We may build and have a solid nation,
based on mutual interests, strengthened
by mutual respect and kept by mutual affee-
tion