Year: 1872

| THE WAR CONTENTION


Those politicians simple, if not pure, who
wish to degrade the next Presidential election
into personal scramble and squabble, need
to be reminded that the main business OF the
people upon this important occasion will be
the consolidation of the Union, with the re-
vival of that fraternal sentiment upon which
it was originally based and without which
another rupture will always be imminent. The
Philadelphia Convention behaved precisely as
if it had been brought together to celebrate
the surrender of Gen. Lee; or perhaps we may
more properly say that it acted as II the war
were still furiOusy waging. Delegates seemed
TO miss altogether the point to be set
1 tled-whether we are Tin the language
| of the Address of the Cincinnati ConYentlon)
d" to keep alive the passions and resentments
of the late Civil War; for the personal
benefit of the partisans of the Administration
| If q genuine union of the States be an impOs-
sibilty, a thing not to be hoped for, and
political dream, the past is as dreary as the
prospect is disheartening. Yet it was to this
past, as if it were present and as If 1t were to
| be perpetuated, that the rhetOricians OF Phlla-
delphia pertinaciOusly alluded. Such war as
ours was, so wasteful of life, and in all ways
so costly, was nothing better than butchery
and ravage, nothing but barbarous and pas
sionate mistake if, by virtue of our sacrifice and
| our suffering, we have gained nothing but
physical victory; if we have missed the
moral reward of a Federal Union more secure
in the hearts of the whole people than ever.
The Philadelphia Convention forgot that the
| ID oI,r
cences. We understand that both at the North
and the South there are wounds not yet tho
roughly healed, and that for another genera
ton at least we cannot expect the old ami
mosties to be entirely abated. But they need
not continue to be the rule as the Administra-
ton trumpeters seem to desire-they need not
forever disturb the public peace, distract or
degrade the operations of the Government,
and give to legislation the fatal features of
stiffness and uncertainty. It's the duty of the
North TO appeal to the better instincts and
" latent patriotism of the South" How is this
to be done with the best chances of success
Is it by forcing upon that South Presiden-
tial candidate specially distasteful to it


The feeling of the Southern people toward
Gen. Grant we do not regard as a reasonable
|
natural. The General, as President, has done
nothing to allay it. 1t may have been impOs-
sible for him, as a soldier, to consider his old
antagonists as other than conquered people,
for it is doubtful whether he has much of that
magnanimity which belongs to the highest
type of the solderly character. He cannot see
the danger of trying to preserve the peace
by permanent military occupation. He re-
fuses to trust even the most pacifcally dis
posed of the Southern population, and begs
for fresh Ku-Klux law in the midst of pro-
found peace. 1t is easy for delegates to a
National Convention to forget that it is a
National Convention and to howl themselves
hoarse in honor of a President who thinks it
best to govern by the grace of gunpOwder
but pleasing as are such political amusements,
and sweet to the ofice-holding heart as are
such diversions, it can scarcely be said with
truth that they have a pacific and healing
tendency. If this manufactured enthusiasm
thoroughly untimely and artificial as it is, is
to reelect Gen. Grant, it must be mainly by
Northern votes, with the prospect of four years
more of quarresome shifts and combative ex-
pedents. On the other hand, Democratic
candidate, put forward distinctly as such, could
win the battle if at all only by solid Southern
vote, with barely Northern States enough to
render it effective and so he might widen the
gap by raising hopes in the Southern mind which
it would be found impossible to crafty, and by
kindling sectional expectations which would
know no limits. 1t is needless to inquire
whether victory strictly Democratic would be
to all intents and purposes, popular con-
demnation of the war for the Union but it il
reasonably certain that not only at the
South, but at the North, it would so be
regarded and that in this way great injustice
would be done to the sentiments of many
really patriotic Democrats who thoroughly anC
honestly acquiesce in the results of the war
and who, perhaps, stood fast by the Union
through all the vicissitudes of the struggle
We might for four years longer have nothing
better than the old contentious, both in Con
gress and among the people, with much, il
not all, the old work to do over again. IL
there any lover of social peace, is there any
voter anxious for the efficiency and safety OF
the Government who can look forward will
equanimity to a continuance OF all the mis-
understandings, to a revival of all the passions
which have darkened the seven years just
past


No! the exigencies of the Republic at this
moment require something better and wiser
than the mere triumph of party. Such i.
the belief of large body of voters in both
sections of the country every day rapidly in-
creasing Concession upon either side is not