Holmes County Farmer

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer October 14]

The Election—The Defeat of the Democracy—Reflections Upon the Results.

After an heroic and gallant struggle—after a campaign of unexampled length and bitterness, the friends of civil liberty were overthrown yesterday, and the apologists of the Administration obtained a temporary and what will prove, we have no doubt, an immaterial and fleeting triumph. It will be so, because error, folly and crime are never in the end successful, and always receive their just desert and punishment. To doubt this is to spurn the uniform lessons of history, and is to ignore the fact that a just and beneficent Providence presides over the destinies of this world:

'Truth crushed to earth will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;
While error writhing sinks in pain,
And dies among her worshippers.'

The policy of this Administration is wrong, and it so violates every principle of justice and morality, and the spirit of the Jacobinical faction by which it is supported is so devoid of sense and wisdom that it is certain to be followed by a terrible retribution. The longer it is delayed the severer it will be, the more tremendous the wrath of a deceived and outraged people. Therefore on this morning of defeat and disaster we look confidently to a not distant political revolution, when the star of Democracy will rise in all the glory of a final victory, while that of our bitter and intolerant opponents will sink, to rise no more, behind the clouds of irreparable disaster.

We now bow, however, to the expression of the sovereign will, and accept it for a season as a verdict from which there is no appeal. If the people want further trial—a further experiment of the policy of the Administration, by all means let us have it. If they want more battles and more carnage—more conscriptions, more taxes, further deprivation of personal liberty, of the right of the habeas corpus—far be it from us to oppose, except in argument, such an expression of their decrees. It is through the ballot-box we learn their wishes, and we can not go behind.

Personally, we have great regret at the defeat of our candidates, for never did we have a better and more worthy men upon our ticket. The struggle of Vallandigham and Pugh in behalf of personal liberty in this canvass is worthy of comparison with that of Hampden and Sidney in England; with that made by our Revolutionary Fathers; their names will rival the most glorious friends of freedom in antiquity, and will shine with luster through all future ages. In a dark hour for liberty they bore with unpassed heroism and courage, and eloquence and devotion, its banner, and though it has fallen in their hands from an overwhelming pressure, let eternal honor be given them. They are men whom every Democrat will hereafter accept as leading and representative characters, and for whom we will cherish the most ardent and enthusiastic admiration, akin to that which he feels for Jefferson and Jackson. From Maine to Minnesota the eyes of a million and a half of Democrats are now directed to a patriot exile, and to the chivalrous, the bold and eloquent Pugh, and upon them they are anxious to bestow the highest honors of the country.

The election just past, like that of 1800, constitutes an era and epoch in the history of the country and the party. Men will look back with pride and pleasure to the vote they gave for Vallandigham and Pugh, as they now remember that which was then given to Thomas Jefferson. It is a proud record, ever to be a glory and a boast.

We now trust that the political waters which have been lashed into such violent turbulence, will quietly subside, and that a calm more conducive to reflection will follow. The Republicans have got their victory; they will enjoy it with their accustomed enthusiasm, while the Democracy, now quiescent, will look forward to the future, when they will roll back defeat and obtain in its place a substantial and permanent triumph. To our Democratic friends we say, then, be up and doing: while you submit to the will of the people, you can look forward with confidence to the sober second thought which will succeed the deliriousness of passion that has just spent its force, and upon its correct wisdom the fabric of Democratic ascendency will be built. The Democratic party is only obscured by a temporary cloud, and will soon blaze out with refulgent luster. You have polled a vote throughout the State that is enormous—by far the largest you ever gave—and in that fact, and by your firm, compact and solid organization, you have won the respect, if not the fear, of your opponents. When two hundred thousand citizens of Ohio march in solid column to the ballot-box and deposit their votes for Mr. Vallandigham, it is high time that venal and unscrupulous men should cease their clamor about traitors and treason. If they keep it up after that demonstration, they will simply expose themselves to contempt and derision.