Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1873 — What do the People Expect ? [ARTICLE]

What do the People Expect ?

BY HON. HENRY WILSON.

The recent Presidential canvass and election afford lessons that should be heeded by both press and politicians. For never were the teachings of the one and the voices of the other so impotent, as never was the will of the people so potential. Journals of immense circulation and believed to be'of commanding-influ-ence with the masses, public men of long and large experience and of hitherto unquestioned influence, were never more sharply rebuked or more signally defeated. Nor was the great victory achieved by the personal influence of individual loves or hates. It was the fiat of the people’s. voice, the result of popular determination and purpose, in the interests of a patriotic endeavor to serve and save the country. Whatever m*y be the personal aspirations and purposes of public men, in national elections the people thinK but of the country, and labor only, or mainly, at least, for its advancement and safety. In the election of 1860 their great purpose was to resist the further extension of slavery in the Territories, and to put it in process of ultimate extinction in the States themselves, through moral and political influences; to overthrow the continued domination of the Slave Power; and to place men in office who believed in the Declaration of Independence and in the doctrines of human rights. Before, however, such action could be taken the Rebellion arose. Not only was the extension of slavery arrested, but its very existence was denied and its destructiondecreed by the Proclamation of Emancipation and by the Thirteenth Amendment. The Slave Power, too, was dethroned, and the throne itself went down in the fire and blood of civil war. In the election of 1864 the popular purpose in the re-election of Mr. Lincoln was the suppression of the Rebellion and the completion of the work of Emancipation. That purpose was accomplished, the Rebellion was suppressed, the work of reconstruction was commenced, and that of enfranchisement begun. In 1868 the purpose was greatly enlarged. To complete the work of reconstruction on the basis of the largest liberty, to define and guard the rights of citizenship, to extend suffrage, vindicate and establish civil rights, honestly collect the revenues, reduce the national debt, and appreciate the value of currency—these were the great objects had in view and persistently pursued. By the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments civil right-sand suffrage were secured—the revenues were more honestly collected, the current, expenses of the Government were reduced, the national debt was largely diminished, and the currency greatly appreciated. All this has been accomplished in' the space of twelve years, in obedience to the popular demand, sustained by the popular support, and In spite of the vacillation and weakness often exhibited by leading presses and public men. But what were the desires, purposes, and hopes of the people in the election of 1872? They were told by presses they were accustomed to trust, by public men they were wont to follow, that the Republican party had accomplished its work, fulfilled its mission, and that it should now retire from the field on which its great results had been secured and its grand victories had been achieved, to make room for a new organization, with wiser aims, broader and better considered purposes, and purer men. Thej were told that their old antagonists had taken a neW departure, had experienced a change of heart, had resolved to pursue “a passive policy," whatever that may mean, and that it was safer to trust them than those to whom they had confided and to whom they still proposed to confide the government of the country. But, notwithstanding that these clamors and claims filled the air, and were dinned into

the popular ear by press and speech, from the forum and the stump, the great body who had stood by the organization for-twelve years remained firm in their integrity to the party that had achieved so much. Not that the arguments of its assailants made no impression, not that they were altogether satisfied and saw no defects; but, with clearer vision than that of these leaders', blinded by passion, ambition, wounded vanity, or self-inter-est, hundreds of thousands of pure, patriotic, and •progressive men saw that it was neither shfe to forsake a party with such a redordforone in whose rank and file so many had been traitorous, or, at best, unpatriotic, and whose leaders, if honest themselves, had no authority to vouch for the honesty of-their followers. With some—many perhaps—it was but a choice of evils; but they did not dare to forsake the Republican flag. By so doing, and with such motives, they aided in' securing the greatest; political triumph recorded in American history.. , ■- But they who have been thus sustained must not commit the grave mistake that this is a -.personal victory, or that, because they are continued in power, they are more loved and honored than others. They must seek for the reason that they are still entrusted with the administration of the Government for another four years in those popular aspirations and purposes which regard “principles, not men,” and which prefer the honor and welfare of the country to any man, however revered, to any names, however imposing. They must recognize the fact, much as has been done during the past four years, that there are hundreds of thousands who are not fully satisfle even with what has been so signally and gloriously achieved ; but who feel that much remains to be accomplished before the grpat work entrusted to the party by the heeds of the country and the providences of God can be regarded aS complete. A grind begirinrhg has been made; but the end is not yet reached. 1 There are tens

of thousands who, though not altogether satisfied with the party and its management, have resisted all appeals to leave it, and are looking for a marked improvement during the next four years. Nor will their disappointment and chagrin be small if these years be not marked by purification ana reform, by errors corrected and by wrongs redressed, by the elevation of good and competent men to office, and by the general improvement of the public service. Both the Constitution and the Republican platform are in harmony with the Declaration of Independence and with the great doctrines of human rights. The “star-spangled banner,” no longer a “flaunting lie,” waves now in truth “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.” After the terrible struggle, these great truths have been vindicated, and the nation has in this election placed the seal of its emphatic endorsement upon them. The work now in hand is mainly administrative, and what is wanted is an administration and administrators in harmony with these principles and worthy to stand upon this elevated platform. And this is what thd people expect. They to whom power has been entrusted by such immense majorities have now an opportunity for usefulness and glory seldom accorded to public men. By personal purity and integrity of character, by wise and sagacious, firm but conciliatory counsels, they have it in their power, in both their domestic and foreign policy, to advance the national and moral, the educational and social interests of the nation beyond all former precedent. They may rid the Administration of everything calculated to disturb or disgrace; they may give it an elevation and purity of tone and purpose that shall defy criticism, silence detraction, and command the confidence and admiration of the nation; They deserve not the name, much less the honors of the Republican party who* will not strive for this result.— A. K Independent.