Year: 1874

1t is boldly predicted on one hand that Gov
ernor Dix will be returned to the ofnce De


holds by fifty thousand majority, and on the


other that Mr. Tilden will win by an equally
\ symmetrical and sounding number. For our


part we cannot see that the case Is so aDso-


lutely clear for either candidate as to justify


these predictions. To argue from the TACT


that Governor Dix once carried the State by


such a majority to the consequence that he


will carry it again is to ignore the great dlf-


ferences in his position on the two occasions


and to shut our eyes to the most obvious po-


litcal facts Of the day. and to suppose that


in the face of General Dixs fifty thousand


Mr.. Tilden viii get fifty thousand-that one


hundred thousand votes will change places


is to believe that revolutionary forces can
operate on the political fabric almost withou'


the consciousness Of the people


Are we in the midst of one of those general
changes of popular sentiment and opinion
that. through the agency of the ballot, consti-
tute the silent and bloodless revolutions OF our
political history? Many indications point to
the affirmative here, and the consideration of
this possibility presents the case in an in
structive aspect


Government must necessarily be exercised
by some one in every civilized country, and it
would appear as if also it must necessarily be
exercised in such way as to ultimately OPP
press the people and become guilty of those
very acts Of injustice, robbery, fraud and vio-
lence which it is its function to repress and
prevent In no country known did govern
ments ever yet fail to become the enemies of
plunderers of those they were re-
lied upon to protect, the obstacles to
that remedy for grievances which they
were appointed to secure And the oppres-
sion and injustice have become grievous and
terrible always in proportion to the per-
manency Of the government and to the
strength Of the institutions by which it kept
the people in restraint, kept them within the
drowsy limits of acquiescence in robbery that
was lawful and barbarous and bloody re-
preston Of natural impulses, SO long as
butchery could be made to bear the semblance
Of an official character. Sooner or later, how
ever, the people have always revolted, de-
stroyed the government and made another, or
sometimes destroyed the State, in the full con-
sciousness that it was better to have no State
at ALL to take in the forest and the highway
the general chances Of robbery and murder,
than to have a State in which men were
robbed and murdered and authority only
interfered to prevent them from de-
Tending themselves. In these expressions
Of permanent governments, and in the revolts
of the people against them, are all the horrors
of the chronicle Of nations and these abuses
of government, and the possible abuses of
this natural remedy of the people against
government, received in peculiar degree the
attention of the authors Of our political sys-
tenn. For remedy against both evils at once
they made government temporary in its ma
ture, subjected it to the necessity Of coming
before the people always in given number Of
years to demand the renewal of its authority,
and clothed the people with the power of abb
solutely rejecting their rulers and choosing new
ones They domesticated revolution; made
it periodical, necessary, inevitable; tanned
what had been the wild beast of all political
systems, familiarized the people with it and
taught them TO employ it as their protector


And the people caught the instruction read
lily, and, upon the whole, have acted upon it
with wisdom and discretion. 1t is alleged by the
enemies of this popular power that the people
have used their great weapon too freely; and
no doubt under the influence of the teachings
of demagogues they have frequently changed
their government when it would have been
better to retain the old one, and kept an old
one when change would have been to the
common advantage. But though they have
fallen into minor errors they have, as yet,
never failed to make thorough change and
to call in new men whenever they were
apprehensve that the continuance Of party
in power was inimical to the public welfare;
and that is the great fact the founders sought
to secure. How do the indications as to the
exercise of this great popular power stand
now? They all point to change. Whether
we contemplate in the conduct of the govern
ment those innumerable abuses that should
Justly provoke the people to the exercise of
their prerogative, or whether we observe in
elections recently held the demand of the
people as indicative of the fact that they are
aroused against the misconduct of their
rulers, we must equally find that the party in
power has danger before it.


Within comparatively short period, SO
short as to give the whole result at one view,
the republican party has been on its trial
before the people as to almost every principle
that is important in government. 1t has had
the opportunity TO show by its action in cases
that might have been contrived only to show
this, whether it was for the people or against
the people. 1t has been against the people
every time. 1t has been placed where in view
of the whole country it could prefer liberty
or tyranny, honesty or dishonesty efficient,
vigorous, straightforward discharge of official