New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-09-07
THE MAIN ISSUE.

The Republican party will win in the COM
ing election because it deserves to win. 80
good cause no other party ever had, MOI
did that party ever have so good cause as 1t
has now in any other contest. In 1860 IL
asked that slavery should be restricted. But
in all but the name slavery would be revived,
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 today 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 secession
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 1850. Yet, strange as
il seems there are men who do not see that
IIancOcksm Is only thin disguise drawn
over the gray uniform of rebelism.
What is the main issue in this contest
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. Il tried to rule by means Of secession,
not meaning to get out of the Union, nor ex-
pecinc 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 fashion, on
Blended knees. Now the same South. with no
change of ideas or feelings. means to get the
same results by other methods if it can.
Was there disloyalty in 1861 There is
now and the same Democrats are the disloyal
men, What is disOyalty! Resistance to law
by force Tie South has resisted by force,
and does resist, every act passed as means
of holding the results of the war. 1t has
stamped out negro suffrage with club and
shotgun 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 a step toward
rebellion; it is rebellion. Arms are
there, organization, and open defiance of law.
No tax can be raised In the South nor any
law enforced. for the same lawless Demo-
cratic mob which carries elections there also
shoots officials, packs juries, and scares or
kills witnesses. Look with honest eyes There
is scarcely pretence that the vote IN Ala
bama was free or that the count was true.
This sort of thing, done in one voting district
or III one county, is an infamous fraud. Done
all over the South by concert, with Organiza-
ton and for the avowed purpose of defeat
ing the laws, multiplying the reimbursement
of the negro, and grasping the Government,
it is more than fraud it Is actual rebellion.
Go back to 1864, when Lee threatened the
CAPITAL on one side and Mcclellan on the
other. Suppose it had then been asked I:
"Shall the followers of Lee make the next
PRESIDENT Shall they cast for him the
"solid vote Of all the rebel Statesf Shall
"they do this in open defiance OF lawf Shall
"they do it by the murder Of 10000 Union
"men, by stufhng boxes with tissue ballots,
and by counting ballots never cast, as many
cas- they needf' Was there n single loyal
man who would then have said "aye"l
How is the case changed by the change of
sixteen years In date 7 The same men to-day
make boast of their deeds with Lee, strike
uOWn any ooutheIu HAL wiz was ioJ"' 'hch'
| and show the same spirit which they showed
in arms The change Is only in mode of fight
| ing and in date. The defiance of law Is the
same, and the refusal to submit to the will of
majority expressed freely and according to
law. The will to rule or ruin Is the same.
The mean and cowardly prescription, the saw
age intolerance, the quick resort to means the
basest. the denial of free speech, are all pre-
| cisey the same as in 1861 or 1864. Nothing
| has changed, unless it DO the devotion of the
North to the principles upon which all free
| government is based.
! Had the North backed down in 1864 and
| elected Mcclellan, it would have reached the
same end that will now be reached by elect
| ing Hancock, but would have saved great loss