The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-10-01

human. Measures are often experimental
sometimes choice of evils. A party must be
judged by the results of its policy. To say
that the Democratic party would have improved
on this magnificent result, the grandest in civil
history, is to insult common sense and libel
common honesty. It has stood as a party of
obstruction. 1t has stood as a prophet of
evil, intent on making its predictions good.
1t has proposed no great measure, it has cham
pioned no great idea, it has uttered no broad
catholic truth. Whatever has been achieved
for human progress, national stability, personal
freedom, has been accomplished in its despite
! 1t is even driven to the necessity of making a
merit Of acquiescing in what it was power
| less to prevent and is impotent to re-
verse. Twelve years ago it denounced the
| Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
| amendments of the constitution as revo-
! lutlonary and void. To-day it comedies they
are part of the organic law. 1t has taken the
party twelve years to discover what all the world
| knew. Gen. Hancock, in his letter of accept
| ance, says these amendments must be main
tanned. read that part OF his letter with de-
light, and half expected to find the logical Sc
quence-that he would advise everybody to
support Garfield. who had assisted in their adop-
ton. But there is a difference between lip
service and heart-service between creed and
faith between the letter which lilleth and the
spirit which maketh alive. THERE'S difference
between accepting a situation as hard necessi-
ty, and embracing it as a joyful opportunity
The Republican party achieved its principles in
tribulation and trial. 1t chung to them When it
was treading the wine-press it bore them amid
the fires of battle; in the darkness of defeat it
would not part with them washed in the blood
of the faithful, it flung them to the broad light
in the triumphant glory of victory. Come veal
or come woe, come joy or sorrow, they are a part
of its history forever.
If must refer to facts which are but too
Iiop II 10 Of +ba
onstrating proposition which ought to be evil
dent from its statement.
| In the course of an elaborate speech in the
Senate, on the 10th of May, 1879, Senator Hill.
of Georgia, said: "No, my good Northern
Democratic brethren, you saved the country at
last you saved the Union in the hour OF its
peril--not the Republican party ~ The al1-
dacity of this declaration is unequaled in the
oratory of ancient or modern times. If Dan
tons definition of oratory and leadership be
correct, Ldoddce, PGItddce, Ell tOujOu1's rdtGdce
the Senator from Georgia, in one sentence,
made Cicero babbler, and Demosthenes
clown made Cesar camp-follower, and Ma
| poleon sutler.
Let us make every concession that is consist.
emit with truth let us state the case at its best
for the Democratic party of the North let us
admit that war was inevitable, that it was
! conflict of moral forces, old as time, strong as
4 death, for which craftsmanship had no solu-
| ton, peace no arbtrament. If, when war could
no longer be postponed, it was not a thing to be
dreaded but to be met if, then, the Democratic
| party of the North had made one authoritative
declaration for the maintenance of the Union,
the war would have been short and decisive,
and would have filled but few pages of his
tory. At that crisis, when every instinct of
patriotism called aloud for action, the Demo-
cratic pqrty of the North stood with folded
arms and dumb lips. Silence then is an aecuser
now. For the long continuance of the war we
nave chapters, volumes of desolation; for heca-
tombs of heroic lives, history will hold that
party responsible. The stain of blood is on its
hands 80 deep not the ocean of time can wash
| it out. 1t would "the multitudinous seas in
carnadine, making the green ones red"
The war went on for weary months and
years. It's murky clouds were seldom illumined
for us save when victory flashed from the
sword of Grant. The Democratic party had
utterly failed to meet the question of union or
disunion
There came another time of trial 1t had an
other great opportunity to redeem its past.
There came time when the exigencies of war
demanded the emancipation of the slaves The
choice was between emancipation and victory,
slavery and defeat. The word was spoken, the
bond were made free. AS a mere war measure
the proclamation of emancipation was more
than the sword of Gideon more than the
sword of Michael; it was the sword of Truth
from the armory of the God Of justice. But it
was far more than war measure 1t con-
cerned universal humanity and all time to
come. 1t was one of the great events of his
tory. As we recede from it in the perspective
of the ages, it will rise above Pyramids above
the Himalayas, above the stars. Then the
clock of time struck H. Then, if ever, the
morning stars sang together, and the sons of
God shouted for Joy. In this jubilee of hui
mainly there was one note of dscord; one
voice of lamentation. To the Democratic party
the light was darkness. No wonder that in its
counsels the war was failure What to it was
the Union without slavery?
In this great chapter of events, which makes
our age heroic, ask what patriotic act or ut
terance can rightly be ascribed to the Demo
cratic party? There were Democrats who were
patriots, but their patriotism found voice and
action outside the party. The more they were
patriots the less they were Democrats
Why go back? How can the spirit, tendency
of party, its moral force, direction ard pur-
pose be judged but by its history? These are
not changed in an hour, by resolution, or by
setting up fgure-head for Office. charge
that the Democratic party has been false to the
Union, false to freedom, false to humanity. Its
claim to administer the Government which it
was willing to abandon or eager to destroy is
mon trous-a satire on patriotism, reason and
sense. Nothing i'll its life would become it like
the leaving of it,
Why go back? The Democratic party itself
gives the challenge. 1t invites no statute of
limitations. 1t comes into this canvass flaunt-
ing its traditions, proud of its identity. 1t APP
peals to its followers as "The old Democrat
party!' The distinguished gentleman who
presided at its late National Convention con-
graduated that body because it contained SO
many men who were in the convention of SO,
which nominated James Buchanan, and took
hope that the party would again succeed and
restore the administration of the Government
to Democratic principles. Think of that The
administration of the Government of the United
States brought back to the point where James
Buchanan left it