Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-12-03
What the Election Has Shown.

Nhat the Election Has Shown.
The recent Presidential election has
shown that there is an invincible reason
why the Democratic party can never
win a National victory. 1t is that the
youth of this Republic is not Demo-
cratic. The SONS of Democratic fathers
have grown up Republicans.
So long as slavery and the war linger
within the memory of Americans, the
youth of the Republic will continue to
grow up Republicans; and slavery and
the war will be remembered as long as
the public school system exists. The
public schools have slain the Democratic
| party with the textbooks.
| 1t is vain for statesmen to declare that
there were as many Democrats as Re-
publicans in the Union army. 1t is vain
| TO affirm that the war for the preserva-
ton of the Union could not have been
carried to a successful close without the
assistance of the Democratic party. 1t
is idle for philanthropy to suggest that
| the attitude of that party toward the
war in the beginning was a humane
one; that it was inspired by the higher
and better wish that the cause of the
conflict should be peaceably removed.
brothers hands avoided. The Demo-
cratic party has been ideally identified
with slavery and slavehOlding. The
Republican party is ideally identified
with emancipation and the war. There
fore is the youth of the country incapa-
BILE of being Democratic. Therefore
the Democratic party can never win
| National victory. Its old men are dying
/ Nhn ky,,r rh., Ia, l.,
that fall from their stifiened hands are
Republicans.
This fact cannot be denied. It will
do no good to quarrel with it. All
other causes which have operated TO
diminish the number of Democrats and
| increase the number of Republicans are
insignificant beside this one tremen-,
| dous and inyincible fact The curse of
slavery has poisoned the blood and
rotted the bone of the Democratic party.
The malediction of the war has palsied
| its brain.
The young wife who held the babe up
to kiss the father as he hurried to the
tap of his departing regiment has not
suckled Democrat The weary foot
of the gray grandmother who watched
the children while the wife was busy
has not rocked the cradle of Democrats.
The chair that the soldier father never
came back TO ill has not beon climbed
upon BY Democrats Tho old blue coat
that his comrades carried back was cut
up for little jackets, but not one in
closed the heart of Democrat. The
ratified musket that fell from him with
his last shot became the thoughtless toy
OF his boys; but not hand that played
with it was the hand Of Democrat.
The babe he kissed crowed and crowed
for his return, and its unwilling and
unanswered notes we've not from the
throat of Democrat. The tear-soiled
camp letters which the mother read
aloud in the long, bitter evenings while
the boys clustered at her knees did not
fall upon Democratic ears. The girls
sobs, blending with the mothers weep
ing, did not make Democrats of their
brothers. Perhaps the father had been
a Democrat all his life!
The children go to school. There is
not Democrat on its benches. The
first reader contains the portrait of
Abraham Lincoln kind and sturdy
face mover made Democrat. On its
simple pages, In words of one or two
syllables, is told the story of his birth
and death. That story never made q
Democrat, In the pranks of the play
ground the name silences the frolicsome
and makes the jolliest grave. That
name never made Democrat In the
pictures that light up the geography
are the tirlngon Fort Sumter and the
death OF ELLSWORTH Those pictures
make no Deihocrats. The Arst page Of
the history contains a representation of
the surrender Of Lee at Appomattox.
No boy gazes on that and ever after
avows himself Democrat.
In the higher grades the same subtle
and unresisted influence Is at work.
The textbooks contain extracts from
patriots speeches during the war.
Those speeches make no Democrats.
The great battles are briefly described;
the narrative has no Democratic listen-
ers. The strain Of marshal music runs
through the. readers, and that music
makes no Democrats. Sketches Of the
great Generals are given; their brave
deeds arouse the enthusiasm of the lads,
but there is no Democrat among them.
The horrors and suffering OF the slaves
are told; the maddened blood that
mounts the boys cheeks is not Demo-
cratic blood The curse of slavery has
pursued the Democratic party, and has
bounded il to its death. Therefore let
1t die; and no lip win be found to say
a prayer over the grass on its grave.
The late defeat need not be attrlb-
utedlto any other CAUSE Other calses
were at work-but thoy WeIe only mob
dental The tariff was one. Sectional
ism was second. "Let well enough
alone" was a third. The October fail
ure in Indiana ARas q fourth But all
these were trivial sad tOg6ther cDpld
not have accomplished the result.
The result was accomplished be-
cause the youth OF the Republic Is not
Ia ,eioest MAJ, Il, r. ii Aah