Marshall County Republican

Political.
The Republican Association of
Washington to the Republicans
of the United States.

The Presidential contest is over, and
at last we have some materials to enable
us to form a judgment of the results.
Seldom have two parties emerged from
a conflict with less of joy to the victors
—more of hope to the vanquished. The
Pro Slavery party has elected its Presi-
dential candidate, only, however, by the
votes of the minority, and that of such a
character as to stamp the victory as the
offspring of sectionalism and temporary
causes. The Republicans, however, able
to present clearly to the public the real
issues of the canvass—Slavery Extension
or Slavery Restriction—have carried the
People with them by unprecedented ma-
jorities—almost breaking up in some
States the organization of their adver-
saries. A sudden gathering together of
the people alarmed at the inroads of the
Slave Power, rather than a well organized
party, with but a few months to attend to
the complicated details of party
warfare, obstructed by a secret Order.
which had pre-occupied the field, and
obtained a stronghold of the national and
religious prejudices of the masses; opposed
to an old party, commencing the canvass
with the united support of a pow-
erful section, hardened by long party
drill, accustomed to victory, and wielding
the whole power of the Federal Ad-
ministration—a party which only four
years ago carried all but one of the
States, and a majority of the popular
vote—still under all these adverse cir-
cumstances, they have triumphed in ele-
ven, if not twelve, of the Free States.
pre-eminent for enterprise and general
intelligence, and containing one half of
the white population of the country; giv-
en to their Presidential candidate near-
ly three times as many electoral votes as
were cast by the Whig party in 1852.
and this day control the Governments of
fourteen of the most powerful States of
the Union.

Well may our adversaries tremble in
the hour of their victory.
"The Demo-
cratic and Black Republican parties."
they say "grow nearly balanced in regard
to power." The former was victorious
in the recent struggle, but success was
hardly won, with the aid of important,
accidental advantages. The latter has
abated nothing of its zeal, and has suffered
no pause in its preparations for another
battle.

With such numerical force, such zeal,
intelligence and harmony in counsel;
with so many great States, and more than
a million voters rallied to their standard
by the efforts of a few months. why may
not the Republicans confidently expect
victory in the next contest? The necessity
for their organization
still exists in all its force. Mr. Buch-
ana has always proved true to the de-
mands of his party. He fully accepted
the Cincinnati platform, and pledged
himself to its policy of filibustering and
slave propagandism at home.
Prominent and controlling among his
supporters are men committed, by word
and deed, to that policy, and what is
there in his character his antecedents,
or in the expectation that he will
have the nature of his Northern support, to
disregard their will? Nothing will be so
likely to restrain him, and counteract
their extreme measures, as a vigorous and
growing Republican Organization,
nothing would be more necessary to save
the cause of Freedom and the Union.
should he, as we have every reason to
believe, continue the Pro Slavery policy
of the present incumbent. Let us be
ware of folding our arms and waiting to
see what he will do. We know the am-
bition, the necessities, the schemes of the
Slave Power, Its policy of extension
and aggrandizement and universal empire,
is the law of its being, not an accident
—is settled, not fluctuating—covert
open, moderate or extreme, according to
circumstances, it never changes its spirit
or aim. With Mr. Buchanan, the elect
of a party controlled by this policy, ad-
ministering the Government, the safety
of the country, and of free institutions
must rest in the organization of the Re-
publican party.

What, then, is the duty before us?-
Organization, vigilance, action, action on
the rostrum, through the press, at the
ballot-box, in State, county, city, and
town elections; everywhere, at all times.
in every election, making Republicanism,
or loyalty to the policy or principles of
its advocates the sole political test. No
primary or municipal election should be
suffered to go by default. The party
that would succeed Nationally, must tri-
umph in the States—and triumph in State
elections must be prepared by municipal
success.

Next to retaining power in the States
already under the control, let the Repub-
licans devote themselves to the work of
disseminating their principles and imita-
ting the true course of political action in
the States which have decided the elec-
tion against them. This time we failed
for reasons, nearly all of which may be
removed by proper effort. Many thous-
and honest, but not well informed voters,
who supported Mr. Buchanan under the
delusive impression that he would favor
the cause of Free Kansas, will soon learn
their mistake, and be anxious to correct
it. The timid policy of the Republicans
in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indi-
ana in postponing their independent ac-
tion, and temporizing with a party got
up for purposes not in harmony with
their own, the conduct of Mr. Fillmore's
friends, in either voting or Mr. Buchan-
an or dividing the opposition by a separate ticket, can hardly be repeated again.
The true course of the Republicans is,
to organize promptly, boldly, and honestly upon their own principles so clearly
set forth in the Philadelphia Platform
and avoiding coalitions with other
Parties, appeal directly to the masses of
all Parties to ignore all organizations
and issues which would divert the Pub-
lic Mind from the one danger that now
threatens the honor and stability of the
Union, Slavery Propagandism allied with
Disunionism.

Let us not forget that it is not the
want of generous sentiments, but of suf-
ficient information, that prevents the
American people from being united in
action against the aggressive policy of the
Slave power, Were these simple ques-
tions submitted to-day to the people of
the United States:—Are you in favor of
the extension of slavery?—Are you in
favor of such extension by the aid or
connivance of the Federal Government?—
—and could they be permitted to record
their votes in response, without embar-
rassment, without restraint of any kind,
nineteen-twentieths of the people of the
Free States and perhaps more than half
of the people of the Slave States would
return a decided negative to both.

Let us have faith in the People, Let
us believe that at heart they are hostile
to the extension of slavery, desirous that
the Territories of the Union be consecra-
ted to Free Labor and Free institutions;
and that they require only enlightenment
as to the most effectual means of secu-
ring this end, to convert their cherished
sentiment into a fixed principle of
action.

The times are pregnant with warning.
That a Disunion Party exists in the South
no longer admits of a doubt. It accepts
the election of Mr. Buchanan as afford-
ing time and means to consolidate its
strength and mature its plans, which will
comprehend not only the enslavement of
Kansas, and the recognition of slave-
ry in all Territory of the United States.
but the conversion of the lower half of
California into a Slave State, the organ-
ization of a new Slave Territory in the
Gadsden purchase, the future annexation
of Nicaragua and subjugation of Central
America and the acquisition
of
Cuba:
and, as the Free States are not expected
to submit to all this, ultimate dismember-
meat of the Union and the formation of
a great Slave-holding
Confederacy, With
foreign alliances with Brazil and Russia.
It assumes at first a moderate tone
to prevent sudden alienation of its North.
ern allies; it may delay the development
of its plot, as it did under the Pierce Ad.
ministration; but the repeal of the Mis.
souri Compromise came at last and so
will come upon the country inevitably
the first acts of dark conspiracy. When
that hour shall have come, then will the
honest Democrats of the Free States be
driven into our ranks, and the men of the
Slave States who prefer the Republic of
Washington, Adams, Jefferson—a repub.
lic of law, order and liberty—to an oli-
garchy of slave-holders and slavery prop-
pagandists, governed by Wise, Atchison,
Soule, and Walker, founded in fraud and
violence, and seeking aggrandizement by
the spoliation of nations, will bid God
speed to the labors to the Republican
Party to preserve Liberty and the Union.
one and inseparable, perpetual and all-
powerful.

Republican Rooms, Washington, No-
vember, 27. '56.