Year: 1879

Our Democratic friends claim to have


formulated the issues for 1880 out of the
results of the called sessions, and to be
contented with their work. For their
contentment with it, we apprehend they


are very much in the situation described


by the Dutchman, who in reply to an


inquiry concerning his lately deceased


wife, said "Resigned2 Mein Gott she


had to be-" At any rate there is the


work, and they must make the best of it.


Their opponents certainly are satisfied
and will meet them cheerfully upon the
points in dispute. The Democrats have
condensed and epitomized the whole


controversy in the demand which they


propose to fling out upon their banners


for Free Elections" 1t is perhaps as


terse statement as could be made; has


a good sound impresses into party SER


vice qualifying word which they have


had no stomach for since Free Soil' first


began to win victories and is, upon the


whole, as good for the next as Reform"


was for the last campaign. The Republi-
cans are quite willing to give them their
way; to let the case be docketed for the
court of last resort, and the verdict of the
people. as an appeal for Free" against
Honest" elections and on that take tes.
timony and hear arguments.


The grievance they bring forward is
Federal interference at the polls; and
under this general head they specifically
allege that Republican policy has station
ed soldiers with bayonets, and United
States Marshals with orders of arrest, at
the ballot-boxes. Grant it. But the
honest voter, who sees no bayonet actu-
ally at the polls, and fears no arrest in
the discharge of his right and duty, will
inquire as to the bayonet business when
it began what caused it when it ceased,
and why; and what are the dangers to
be apprehended Such inquiries lead
him back into the history of Democrat
ic attempt to use the Army at the polls,
twenty-five years ago, to force slavery on
free territory; of Democratic rebellion;
of its suppression; of the necessity for
garrisons in captured towns, and of their
continuance to uphold an emancipated
race in the exercise of the rights of citi-
zenship; of their final withdrawal, and
the silencing of the voice and vote of the
oppressed race from that moment; and
at last of the Democratic demand that
the National Government should-not
withdraw the bayonets; they had long
been withdrawn-abdicate its own su-
premacy, and surrender the principle
upon which it had fought and won a
costly war. The Republican party is
quite willing to let the voter go to the
record on that appeal.


The honest voter, who, contemplating
no crime, fears no arrest, when appealed
to on behalf of Free Elections" to regis
ter his protest against Federal supervis-
ion, will be very likely also to ask the
reason for it. The inquiry takes him
back upon the record, and lands him
plump upon the transactions of the
Democratic party in 1868, which disclosed
the necessity for some measures to pre-
vent the repetition of gigantic frauds
AS Republicans, we are willing he should
decide between the two parties on that
showing. Or if he asks why the repeal
of the Federal Supervisors law is demand
ed by Democrats, and is answered by the
latter that it is an infringement of the
rights of the States, as is their claim, we
can well afford to leave him to the use of
his own intelligence, and the exercise of
his own reasoning powers, to find out
the effect of that concession upon the
stability credit and permanence of the
Government. The argument does not
need even to be outlined. 1t suggests
tself to every intelligent voter. The
Democratic demand for Free Elections"
ends the voter back to the history Of the
Democratic party, and the Republican
answer "Give US Honest Elections rath-
IT p makes sharp and clear the contrast
between the records of the two parties as
will as between their aims and purposes.