Year: 1870

Oh the marcn were tahiu8 tn'nSo o"oF ""p"
some little immediate purpose of each was
more in thought than the great purpose of all
| when groups were down to rest in shady places


by the roadside and parties were off across the


neighboring fields for fresh water, while others


made domiciary visits to points that promised


chickens, eggs, butter or the tasty corn cake,
| or plunged into the secret recesses Of barns
and corn cribs when, indeed, the whole line
was scattered and loose, at such moment the
word to ''close up" passed down company by
company, from the head Of the column, was a


piece of magic that brought every man to his


place, one hardly saw how. Its hint Of some


thing in front, its whisper Of suddenly seen


necessity, its intimation Of a reason related to


the great general purpose compacted the whole


line, brought all together and gave the shoul-


der-to-shoulder unity, the tone force and cohe-


sion that moment before might have seemed


impossible. So it is now with those that ad-


here to the great leader in the new way. Once


more they seem to have heard the familiar


word all down the line, and still as ever it


gathers and consolidates the force and puts


aside the discursive disposition.


Within short time it has appeared to the


enemies of the republican party as if there
was no possible point of unity in it. Nay, it's
friends have not been altogether confident of
the contrary to this AS a party it was GER
tainly composed of many elements naturally


hostile and antagonistic one to the other-ele-


ments tending to different courses If once


freed from the harmony Of action forced upon


them by the great national crisis and necessity


in which the party arose. There were the


protectionists and the free traders side by side.


How could men differ more widely than these?


And how few are the topics that take more


intimate hold of mems whole lives than those


in dispute between them. With what bitter


ness and tenacity the protectionist denounces
as mischievous errors every point in the creed
of the free trader, and how calmly the free
trader could consign the protectionist to the


of this opposition it was not unreasonable to


regard it as great danger when, on the one


hand, it was imperiously demanded that pro-


lection should have place in the platform,


and on the other it was urged to make free
trade the necessary sequence to free
labor in party founded and origi-
mating in crusade against slavery, which,
after all, was only kind of monopoly.
Just as this opposition ragged within the lines
of the republican party, so there were others
scarcely less threatening on the questions of the
banks, taxation and several subjects. Within
a few days even subject came up that was
scarcely counted before as disintegrating
force-our foreign relations. With the bril-
liant buncombe with which the friends of Cuba
splurged and snorted, it certainly seemed as
if something must be broken, and as if the
bond of unity that kept republicans together
would snap like the green withes that were
made into bracelets for Samson.


1t was perhaps not unnatural to doubt, in
view of an agitation so likely to test a party.
If is divided on the question offree trade, the
constitution of banks, the propriety of many
taxes, and even on an idea that has so much |
stirred the people Of this country as our rela
tions with the small republics, our neighbors,
and with their European oppressors-if the |
republican party is divided upon all |
these points what is there to hold |
it together? Was it not war party, and
is not the war over? Was not the saving of
the country its great mission, and is not that
mission fulfilled? What, then, is left to give
this party vital power? 1t may be said that
the war is not over. The fighting, to be sure,
is done with, and the country is no longer in
any danger from the armies of secession, but
there remain the consequences of the great
exertions to which this party was obliged
to force the country that the fighting
might be brought to a triumphant
close. The present administration has been
charged by the country with sacred trust-a
legacy of the war. Its mission is to restore
us to that happy condition we were in before
the great necessity came-when the American
people hardly knew what taxes were-when
there was no national debt-when the citizens
of the United states were more comfortable
and easy in their circumstances than the citi-
zens Of any other nation on the earth. It's
mission is to reduce taxes, to pay the debt,
to develop the resources of the nation, and
in an administration thus entrusted with a
great duty growing out of the war the repub-
lican party has bond of union only less
potent than the war itself.


In the case of Cuba we saw the President
declare what he conceived to be the only policy
consistent with the performance of his duty to
the country, and we saw the party, with only as
many stragglers as battle always causes,
oaaont to his declaration and rallv tn aunnort
him in it. Every such contest consolidates
party, casts out by natural process those
who cannot accept the will of majority and
gives the remainder greater strength, in virtue
of greater unity of sentiment and purpose; and
in such contests this party-the only possible
party in our present condtion-will move on,
gaining power as it goes, to make its present