Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1874 — To the People of Jasper. [ARTICLE]

To the People of Jasper.

It is amusing, instructive, and in some instances, saddening, to observe the effect produced upon different individuals by the late election. Those who have resorted to the barbarous customs of the early times (when education was not so general as now, when it was well known by politicians that sensationals were the political food of the vulgar rabble) and have appealed to the sordid passions of the ignorant, have used unsparingly falsehood, slauder, misrepresentation and distortion, have bolted from their plighted faith to their own nominations, dealt in covert thrusts and base innuendoes at and against men who are among and of our very best citizens—those who have done all these and more,-counsel persons whose election was brought about by such base means to be gentle in their demonstrations so as to spare the feelings of the beaten candidates, and at the same time calling their success a grand victory over “corruption,” “rings,” “cliques,” “salary-grabbers,” etc. They affect to be wonderfully magnanimous, recollecting, perhaps, that the slain upon the battlefield arc not of the foe alone. They are prolific in their sympathies and generous in their advice to the tried and true. When virtue is to be found only in the regions of Pluto, we may be thankful for their advice—not before. Time for people to take a second thought and get ashamed of such leaders, aud*euth questionable victories will be all that is needed for such men as these.

There is another class of whom it is as yet undecided whether their interest in Republican principles goes any father than to hold office at the hands of Republicans and reap the personal benefits of Republican victory or not. Such men, the number of whom, we are happy to say is small, appear to be getting ready to stake off claims in the country of the barbarians should the reports of the independent spies in the Republican Canaan be credited a little farther. We are sad in contemplating the state of mind of these men. Time is short, life is fleeting and they debating as to how a right course—the only course that commends itself to their consciences—will effect themselves. Watching to “catch the under-current of popular feeling” to waft themselves into ajJesirablc, but temporary place. For such we have this word of caution and cheer. Don’t think that every breeze that blows is going to be a gale; that every cloud is the matrix of a tempest ; that every reverse of an army or political party is a premonition of its down-fall and ruin. Remember that “•Right is right, since God is God,” and “truth crushed to earth, will rise again.” Stand for the right, if it should be a little unpopular, and see how manly it will make you feel. If dastards become bold and threaten destruction to the noble work of the Republican party —a work accomplished in tears and blood—don’t stop to think of little diminutive self, but let honor and true patriotism assert itself; throw yourself into the breach and stand or fall by the side of truth. For your own sake and for the sake of hamanity, don’t adopt the Buchanan policy ; that it is wrong for demagogues and poltroons to attempt the destruction of the Republican party, but if they choose to destroy it, there is no power under the Constitution and the free flag of America to prevent it. There is another class, many in numbers, that do very little thinking and reasoning for themselves. The strong arm of the law must be thrown around them to protect them from coming in contact with grab-bags and confidence men, for their cupidity is certain to make them victims to such operators every chance they have to meet them. These men are fond of thinking that every man is a rascal. That the higher a man gets into office, the greater scoundrel he becomes; hence they are lovers of scandal and sensational dispatches, that flow in reeking streams of corruption from too many newspaper offices, and retailed from the lying lips of perambulating grog-shops in the campaigns preceding an election. Every country contains a large number of this class of men, and there is but one remedy. Education must be made more universal and effective. The common school system must be revised and improved. While the government is sending peace commissioners to the Indians, let it take measures to send peace commissioners instead of wire-pulling politician and slimy and smoo th-tongued clectioneerers to the school offices. Let us have compulsory education, and let learning drift out a little more from the textbooks. Let the methods be changed a great deal more from the cramming of memory to the reasoning from principle. Let the benevolent and social organizations turn their attention especially to the spread of universal information and the development of good sound practical sense. When this is done, the grab-bag and confidence operator’s occupation will and electioneering scandal will be at a discount.