Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-08-25

of which attempted to destroy the Union,
and whose controlling minds would inevi-
tably be the men who led in disuniOn and
rebellion; and have not changed their
ideas Of The relations of the States and the
Nation, Is to be intrusted just yet with the
administration of the Government. If
this is a sectional issue, 1t IS made by the
Democratic Party, and the Republicans
are challenged to meet 1t. They accept the
challenge They are not quite ready to
admit that the nomination of Gen. Han
cock makes of the exConfederates and
hide bound Bourbons of the South the
only genuine and Simon Pure Union party
of the country.
sections, but party of ideas and of poll
cies. The vital question is not what Sec
ton is to have predominating influence
in the Administration, but what ideas of
government, what principles, are to be
carried out. It Is not the South as ter
rltorlal domain that is to be regarded, but
the character and purposes of the men
who are seeking to obtain control. They
say that their States are part of the
Union, coeQual with other States, and
that they accept the Union, with the re-
suits OF the struggle through which it
was saved. They are not class apart to
be feared more than the citizens of any
other section of equal extent. But, I'm.
happily, they are class apart, and their
section IL certain respects stands isolated.
Their action in 1860 and the years follow
ing separate them by line, indelible
while they live, from the mass of Ameri.
can citizenship. Their conduct then may
| be forgiven, and they might, if they would
or If they could, coalesce with the people
n P1t a;t hor
can not or will not. They proclaim tn cir
adherence TO the destructive principles of
1860, giving up only the purposes of that
time. Their political methods give them
character peculiarly their own. They
| keep their section apart, solid in its char
acter and purposes. 1t is a section where
| IGNORANCE largely prevails, where spirit
oil relentless intolerance is kept up, where
| liberty is crushed, and one political party
| is forced into subsection, not by votes,
but by force and fraud. Now the ques.
| ton is plainly presented whether this
section, with it's history, known of all the
world, and it's present character, exhibited
clearly to the people Of this country, is
not simply to have its fair and proportion
ate share in the conduct of the Govern.
ment, but is absolutely to control and use
| it according to whatever designs it may
| maroon. lnls question Is presented TO the
people of the other % States who fought
to maintain the Union, who bore the
labor and expense of its restoration, and
who believe in the principles of liberty
and progress. Are they to admit that the
party of the ex-Confederates and their
allies in the North, the same allies they
always had there, is the party of the
Union, and that unless they surrender to
it the control of the Government without
resistance or demur, they are to be set
down as reviving sectional issues and
keeping up policy of hate? The ques-
ton Is not sectional one; it Is national
one. 1t is the party of the Nation and
the ideas of nationality vindlcated by the
war, against section which persists in
isolating itself and maintaining charac-
ter peculiar to itself. Shall nationality
prevail and keep control of the Govern.
ment, or shall 1t be subjected to sectional
ism of the kind that is now striving to
obtain control?