Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1874 — Republican Reverses of 1862 and 1874. [ARTICLE]

Republican Reverses of 1862 and 1874.

The Republican reverses at the recent elections in various parts of the country bring to mind with startling vividness the returns of the fall elections of 1862. Then, as now, there was a general political revulsion—almost a revolution. The Republicans lost- States and Congressmen, and, being the second year of the war, .it was feared that the adverse results meant copperhead rule and the dissolution of the Union. But, fortunately, it was not so bad as that. In 1862. New York, Illinois and other important States, after having given large Republican majorities two years previously, returned to the Democratic wallow. Horatio Seymour was-elected Governor of New York that year, and “Jim” Allen Cengressman-at-Large from Illinois. Congressmen dropped away from us “here, tnere and everywhere,” and there was danger that the Administration of Mr. Lincoln had really lost Congress, and that thus the Government, besides having the rebels to fight in the front, also had the sympathize/s of the rebels to annoy, harass and embarrass it in the National Capital. It was a dark and lowering day in current political history—that November morning after the election which gave the country the tidings of Republican defeats, apparently involving the nation in new and unlooked-for perils and dangers, at the very moment when the clouds of war were full of lightning and thunder, and patriots looked forward with dread in anticipation of the worst. But the political gloom of that day soon dispersed. It was not as bad as it seemed. It was not the doom of the Republic, nor of Republicanism. Nay, rather it was the dawning of a new political era. The Democratic victories had a marvelous effect upon the Republican masses, who, instead of falling into the dumps, were instantly, as if by magic, shocked into a -realizing sense of the grave danger of permitting the Northern States and the Federal Government to glide into the control of the po litical party whose leaders were disposed to look with tenderness, if not with sympathy, upon the secessionists. The effect was that, not only were the successful Derifocrats deterred from openly giving aid and comfort to the rebels, hut at the next general election, two years subsequently, the masses turned out to a man all over the country and E plied the biggest Republican vote ever nown in. the Northern States. The Republican catise was reassured, the Republican strongholds newly fortified, and Democracy, rendered temporarily hopeful by its successes in 1862, was completely overwhelmed everywhere. In short, the Republican disasters of the “off year,” 1862, aroused the Republicans to such an earnest and determined effort in 1864 that more than full amends were made for their apathy and folly two years previous. May we not hope that the unfavorable result of the recent elections will have the same effect now, and that by the time of the next Presidential election the patriotic people, many of whom have neglected their duty, will have become thoroughly aroused to the danger of placing the affairs of the Government in the hands of the Democracy and turn out en masse to reassert their faith in Republicanism and their determination that the affairs of the preserved Republic can and shall be intrusted only to those who were truly and actively loyal to it in its days and years of imminent peril?— Chicago Journal.

HTThe Democrats at Washington came boldly forth from their lurking places oh Wednesday evening, burned a number of tar barrels, roared awhile under Senator Thurman’s window, and jubilated generally. The affair being over, bills were presented by the people from whom accommodations had been (Nasby-like) gotten on trust, which bills the jubilants openly repudiate and set at naught, “The whole affair,” says our Washington special, ‘‘seemed to be chiefly m the hands of a set of gentlemen who went into retirement when the last company of rebels crossed the long bridge in 1881,” and of lobbyists and that ilk who have hung about the capital for years without.visible means of support other than their legs. There is to b< “ a newdeal.” Noble army of dead-beats, to the front?— Chicago Inter-Ocean. ’ * ~