Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-10-23
The Old Abolition Party.

A great deal is said nowadays, by
the Prohibition third party speakers,
about the leaders of the Abolition move
ment of quarter of q century ago;
and young men earnest in the temper
ance cause, are urged to emulate those
so-called abolition leaders who pre-
pared the way for the emancipation of
the slaves To young men who are
not conversant with the. history of politi-
cal parties and political movements of
that time, their statements and their
arguments are misleading. These So
called "Abolition leaders, who organ
lied third party to assist the Demo-
cratic party to defeat the Republicans,
were as impracticabie as are the third
party leaders of the present time. The
Republican party in its platform de-
clared slavery ga relict of barbarism, y
committed the party to the repeal of
the Fugitive Slave Law, to the non-ex-
tension of slavery, and to everything in
opposition to that accursed institution
which wise craftsmanship and public
sentiment in this country would then
sanction and sustain. Because the Re-
publican party would not court certain
defeat, by allowing these impracticable
fanatics to dictate their platform, there
was mo difference between Republic
cans and Democrats in their estima-
ton; and they organized third party
to assist the Democrats. The Republic
can party triumphed in spite of them;
and then came Secession, and these
simpletons said ''let the South go.n
But the party was no more ready to lis
ten to these long-haired fanatics then,
than it had been in the conven-
tons. The Union must and shall be
preserved was adopted as the motto
of the Republican party. Public
sentiment was gradually educated up to
higher plane where it would sustain
the abolition OF slavery, and that dam
nable institution was wiped out forever.
and the Union preserved. This, the
grandest accomplishment of any politi-
cal organization that ever had an exist
ence since the world began, was accom-
plished by the Republican party, which
up to the time of the completion of its
grand record, was opposed by the third
party men, who then commenced to pose
before the country as martyrs who pre-
pared the way for the emancipation of
the slaves Not one of these fanatics
became conspicuous upon the battle
field or in the Halls of Congress during
1.-THE times that tried mems souls, p"
when the chains were stricken from the
limbs of three million of slaves, and
they were clothed with the rights of
citizenship by the Republican party.
bad the Republican party allowed itself
to be dictated to by this handful of
impracticable fanatics, our government
would have been destroyed, and slavery
would be existing in this country to-day
IL is full time that the press and our
public speakers placed these sham
martyrs where they belong, and that
young men, honest. earnest and sincere
in their motives and their zeal in good
cause, should no longer be misled in
regard to facts in the political history
of parties in this country in the last
thirty years. Emulating the third-party
Abolition leaders of 1856 and 1860, in
deed! Young man, do not do it, unless
you are seeking political oblivion; for
rest assured that History will place such
political pretenders where they belong.