Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-10-01

now.-EJchaRge
What is the Real Issue in the Pending
COntesti
The Republican party will win in the
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
all but the name, slavery would be re-
vived 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
their cause is now the very same 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,
strange 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. The North
did not sue for peace, Mcclellan fash
ion, on bended knees. Now the same
South, with no change of ideas or feel
ings, means to get the same results by
other methods il it can.
Was there disloyalty in 1862 There
is now, and the same Democrats are
the disloyal men. What is disloyaltyP
Resistance to law by force. The South
has resisted by force, and does resist,
every act passed as a means of holding
the results of the war. 1t has amped
out negro suffrage with club and shot
gun and false counts, until there is nc
part of the South where loyal ma ajority
of ten to one can get its votes cast OF
counted. This is not step toward re-
bellion; 1t is rebellion. Arms are there,
organization, and open defiance of law.
No tax can be raised in the South mol
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. Thi:
sort of thing, done in one voting district
or in one county, is an infamous fraud
Done all over the South, by concert
with organization, and for the avoweC
purpose of defeating the laws, nullify
ing the Acknowledgement of the negro
and grasping the Government, it Il
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 PRESIDENT Shall they cast fo
him the solid vote Of all the rebel States
. Shall they do this in open defiance o
lawP Shall they do 1t by the murder o
10000 Union men, by stuiiing boxes witt
tissue-ballots, and by counting ballot
never cast, asmany as they needP' Wa
there a single loyal man who woulC
then have said "aye" How is thu
case changed by the change OF siXteel
years in datep 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 ant
In date. The defiance of law is tn,
same, and the refusal to submit to tht
viii of a majority expressed freely ant
according to law. The will to rule o
ruin is the same. The mean and COW
ardly prescription, the savage intOler
Rnoe, the quick resort to means tn
bRsest, the denial Of free speech, ar
all precisely the same as in 1861 I,
1861 Nothing has changed, unless /
, be the devotion of the North to tn
principles upon which all free govern
ment is based.
, Had the North backed down in 1856
, and elected Mcclellan, it would hay
( reached the same end that will now b
I reached by electing Hancock, but woul
have saved great loss and much dis
| grace. We shall see in two month
whether it means to reach that sam
, end at last, after sixteen years of val
5 effort to preserve free institutions, II
4 self-respect and its manhood, M ]
Tribune.