Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1880 — ROBERT C. WINTHROP ON SEC TIONALISM. [ARTICLE]

ROBERT C. WINTHROP ON SEC TIONALISM.

[From the Chicago Times. ] It is a significant circumstance that radical New England, which first began the political warfare against the South, and whose natural sagacity earliest foresaw that the conflict between the sections was inevitable, should be the first to incline to relinquish the sectional warfare. The disposition in New England to abandon the sectional issue has been observed elsewhere than in Maine this year, and the movement toward reconciliation will be greatly strengthened by the declaration of Robert C. Winthrop, which is printed herewith : Boston, Oct. 2. Robert C. Winthrop writes to the Post, stating that his name was used without his consent among tbe list of Vice Presidents at the Democratic rally Wednesday night. Mr. Winthrop says that for many years he has been an independent voter, and finally confesses that be is opposed to “ any concerted array of solid Norths against solid Souths. The sectional antagonism and contentions are worthy of all reprobation, and never more so than when fomented and kept alive on the one side or too other for the purpose of prolonging party power. They brought on the war, and they st ill interfere with the best fruits of peace. The condition of the freedmen themselves, their prospects of education, and their secure enjoyment of all the privileges of citizenship would, in my judgment, be far more hopeful if the pressure of a solid North were taken off from the Southern States, and if they could cease to feel, whether reasonably or unreasonably, that they were under the dominion of conquerors.” After saying that lie has no desire to vote on what the Electoral Commission did, or to find fault, with President Hayes’ administration, he concludes as follows : ‘‘ Let me only add that I am not one of those who foresee dangers to our institutions or to the general prosperity of the country in the success of the Democratic party, nor, in view of the great uncertainties of the result, does it seem worsq,to create a panic in advance by exaggerated partisan predictions. In my opinion there has never been a moment since the. war ended when it would have been safer to intrust the Government to such a man as Gen. Hancock, with the assurance that it would bo administered upon principles as broad as the constitution and as comprehensive as the Union.” Mr. Winthrop, while refusing to be counted as a member of the Democratjc organization, gives it as his deliberate judgment that the Presidential office can not only be trusted safely to the hands of Gen. Hancock, but that Hancock’s election will greatly benefit all sections of the country. The very language bf Mr. Winthrop’s declaration is absolute proof of its calmness, deliberation, wisdom, and freedom from all party bias. It is an indication that the best minds of New England arc turning with disgust from the sectional buncombe upon which the Republican party is putting its main reliance in this campaign, and that, while they have no sympathy with the reactionary sentiments of a considerable portion of the opposite party, they see in Gen. Hancock’s candidacy an escape from the extreme tendencies of both parties. With Gen. Hancock in the Presidential chair there will come, as they feel, a relief from the dead weight of a perennial sectional conflict, while at the same time there will be no danger that a brake will be put on the wheels of the nation’s political, social and material progress.

There is a quaint story told us about a Texan preacher who had a falling out with his congregation. While the congregation and pastor were at daggers’ points, the latter received an appoint* ment as chaplain of a penitentiary. When he came to preach his farewell he took the following verse for his text’: “I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am ye may be also.”— Cfalccstoa News. * for the execution of Hale," said Thurlow Weed, in 1879, “ Washington would not have executed Andre. So said Lafayette. That declaration I heard from his own lips.”