Political Recollections: 1840 to 1872Julian, George Washington
History
Political Recollections: 1840 to 1872
Julian, George Washington
Republican Party (U.S. : 1854- ) -- History; United States -- Politics and government
yet the mob would probably have triumphed but for the presence of
Joseph O. Jones, the post-master of the city, himself a Kentuckian,
but a believer in the right of free speech and the duty of defending
it at all hazards.
The result of this Presidential canvass was a surprise to all
parties. The triumph of the Democrats was anticipated, but it was
far more signal than they expected. Pierce received two hundred
and fifty-four electoral votes, and Scott only forty-two, representing
only four States of the Union. So far as the Whig party was
concerned, the result was overwhelming and final. The party was
buried forever in the grave it had dug for itself. Hale received
a little more than one hundred and fifty-six thousand votes, being
about one-twentieth of the entire popular vote cast at this election;
so that nineteen-twentieths of the people of the United States in
1852, and only a little more than a dozen years before slavery was
swept from the land, voted themselves bound and dumb before this
Moloch of American politics, while only one-twentieth had the
courage to claim their souls as their own. These were very startling
facts after more than a quarter of a century of anti-slavery agitation,
and they were naturally interpreted by the victorious party everywhere
as clearly foreshadowing the complete triumph of the "final
settlement" made by Congress in 1850. Certainly they seemed very
disheartening to anti-slavery men; for, however confidently they
might believe in the final success of their struggle, they could
not fail to see the immense odds and fearful obstacles against
which they would have to contend. The debauched masses who had
been molded and kneaded by the plastic touch of slavery into such
base uses, were the only possible material from which recruits
could be drawn for a great party of the future, which should
regenerate our politics and re-enthrone the love of liberty; and
this should be remembered in estimating the courage and faith of
the men who in that dark hour held aloft the banner of freedom, in
spite of all temptations to go with the multitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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