Lessons From Recent Elections

Bul after two yeta. Poreiu Festu cania Uitu the plaeeof Félix; nd Folix, willing loshuw i [ewi pleasure, li'l'l Paulbouad. AC18 24 27. When Porcius Fostus was sent as üovernor to Judoa in place of Félix, the Jews knew littlo ubout him. All tht they were sure of was thiit he liad a better reputation than Félix, that ho was gentlemau by birth and education, was iiot the son of a slave, and uiight bo uxjjected to be decent in his governineiit, if not wÍ80 or succcssful. They knew that Félix was au nnsorupulouí, rapueioas, falsa and insolen t ruler, eapable of un y iniquity, with some ability, but with moro cunning, and they weru thoronghly disttusted with his administration. His ineasures were all bigU-hauded, ho was the frioud of knaves and villiaus, helping thom to escape frora punishruent ; and corrupt practicea were his highest joy. ïhey had fouud to be truc what the Roman Tacitu8 afterward wrote of the lowlived official, " l'ro oinnem saevitiam et libidinem juk regitim nercili ingenio oxercuit" - " by every sort of cruelty and license he exercised a royal sway in the spirit of a slavo." They had had eiiough of Félix, and no chango could be i'or the worse. Festus raight bo a bad man, too, but be could uot be worse than tho selÜ8h tyraut, mho hated all the patriota. JoBephus tells us in his history, that the country did not gain a great deal by the change. The wickod policy of the unprincipled ruler was continued by his more respectable successor. Tbere were robberies an4 corruptions and villanies under Festus as much as under Felix. The ntíw Goveroor could not settle that question of tho bondman Paul, whom Felix had left iu his chaina. The disorders of the land were too chronic and too obstinate to be allayed by any change of rulers. There was not inuch to choose butweeu the principies of the parties ; one was about as ready to lio, to steal, and to kill, as the other. The patriotic Jews, who wished to get back to the ancient purity and honor, and restore in the State thu law of the Lord, fouud theraselves about as helpless under the conservative gentleman as under the radical freedman. But they could thank God at auy rate that they had got rid of Pelix, even if they were not quite sure about his succt ssor. In sometking of that spirit, multitudes in our land to-day rejoici in the result of the recent elections. What will come of it horeafter, they cannot teil ; but they know that they seern to be rid for the present of what was a plague, a burden, and a sharae. ïbe new oondition of things may be no betterthau the old, but the old was bad enough. They wanted a change ; and the chaiige has come in a very large, swift, and startling way. Not here or there, but every where in the land, uot in the South and West onlyï but in the North and East, froin the States in prosperity as from the States in misery, from the educated peoples as well as frotn the ignorant and sparse settlements, one verdict has come, at which all are surprised, and by which, strangely enough, most seera to be gratifiod. The defeated party appears alinost as well pleased a the victors. Probably no im„nrfunt filtiction has ever occurriid in the land, in which defeat has been bom so amiably or taken so philosophically. Wagers have been lost, but we hear no wailing or gnashing of teeth. In some cases, indeed, the vanquished seeui tobe moro jubilant than the victors. A whole great party irnitates the eccentric nero in Dickens' story, and becomes all the " jollier" in the abundance of what ought to be its woe. If you have read the newspapers in these last weeks, you have observed, no doubt, that the llepublican journals thank God and take courage quite as much as the Democratie, while they acknowledge their defeat. And this feeling is general. Excepting the unfortunatea, who are trembling in the fear that they will lose offices, hardly any one seems to be distressed, hardly any one seems to take the disaster to heart. Perhaps it will be bad ; but was it not bad before, bad to go on as we were going, bad to have corruption intrenched and defiant? One party, as a whole, seems about as happy as the other, and both are more ready than ever to join hands in the work that has been done. It was a joint achievment, in fact, and so the satisfaction is shared. This exhibition is certainly edifying and remarkable. 1. And in enuineratiug reasons for thankfulneas in the results of the recent elections, we mention the evidence that they give of wide dissatisfaction of the people, their indignation and disgust at so many wrongs and abuses nnpunished. Wa had almost reached the conviotion that the public mind had become callous to these offences, reconciled to these wrougs, willing to tako them as matters of course, and let them go on indefin itely that the mass of the people were subjugated to the dominion of the knaves and demagogues, and were helplessly resigned to a power that seemed iutrenched in impunity and insolence. " What are you going to do about it V" was the soornful answer of the thieves when their knavery was brought to light ; and to many it seemed that nothing could be dbne, and that the public heart had been hardened and the public conscience depraved. But now the votes declare that the people are tired of these abominations, that they will not sit patiënt under thia shame, that their protest is not hypocrisy, and that their threat has meaning. They will not let thia thing go on. ïhey wiil utter a word about it which caunot be mistaken a word that ahall be heard in high places, and shall uiake wrong doers tremble. It is false that, beoause they have borne villainy so long, they hayo come to honor it, or even to tolerato it. This voice of the ballot utters tho feeling of wrath and shame which has for months and years been stirring in the hearta of the people. It concentrates the fsense which has been every where waiting for expression, latent, but living for all that. The politicinus had begun to doubt whether there were any public conscience reinaining, whetheT ingenious crime might not win victories against all traditiona of honeaty or honor. The maxima were that " every man has his price and nan be bouüht ; " put your money where it will do the most good ;" " trust to the managers." ïhose maxima are set aside by this ballot, cortainly for the present." Now if nothing more should come of it, if the abuses should return in a little time, if we ahould aee more Congreasional stealing, more railway joba, land grants, ring manoeuvres, it ia still cause for thankfulness that we have this largo national protest ag-.iinat thein, this proof that the public couscience is no wholly seared and destroyed. It Í8 impossible to miatako thia mcaningïn the late eloctions. No mere local issuea, no chango of opinión on one or another questiona of policy, no personal spite or offence, can account for such wide and simultineoua oxpreasion of uneasinesa at existing things. A movement so large, and so unaccountable on merely political grounds, must of necesaity be a moral inovement. It says to the party in power, " We have waited long enough. We have watched and longed to see you do your duty, livo up to youi profeasions, purge yourself of basenes and uncleanness, ahako off your incumbrances, and work for the true intereat of the country. We have waited in vain. You have promi8ed, but have not performed. You nomínate again the very men who have brought diagraoe upon your name. You evade the half-righteous laws which you were forced to pass, and try to repeal or nullify the laws that you pretend to inake. You are afraid to trust juatice and righteousnoss. We cannot wait any longer. We shall not boar any more this foolery, this pretenco of morit, whioh would shift off the sins of the party now by rehearsing its excellent deeds in the former years, would niake its patriotism in the wartime an excuse for crimes in the peaoe We have cause to be thankful that the public reason has not been boguiled by this moral BOpbirtry, this adroit shifting of the question, this dust thrown into the oyes of the people by the jiarty orators ; thttt the people have saidsoemphatieally, " We will not trust men who aie pioved to lie bad bicause tlioy wcre gord onoe, will not let their past stuud tut their pieseut. We will see in as it ia to-day, no matter what virtui! we can seo in thci yoars past under tlio saiue naiai; " What honest man will not bo glad to have the people assert their hatreu of wiong, their senso of the need of purging out ïniquitiesr Surely, no one will be sorry when the poople say thut tho publio virtue Tioeds new affirination, and tho public vice must bo checked. tëome bad men may have buen chosen, iu the place possibly of better men. But who will not rejoice that so many who provod themselves untrustworthy have. hoard that the pooplo want them no longer, havo no farthor need of thoir servioe 't Ir' thoro wore nothing more, this proof of a living moral Benso iu the nation, would be encouraging 2. Anothur reason for thankfulness in tho result of the olections, is their evidence that the people are breakiny auay f rom their nlavinh devotian to party, are throwing off the trummels of the caucus system, and are resolved to act acoording to convictions, without regurd to the diotation of " regular nomintitions," as they are alraost ironicülly called. For years wo have heard this maxim iterated as a fundamental political principie, that men 11 must stand by their purty," accept tho uominations, and vote for "the whole ticket." Here the right to private judgmeut was deuied, "boltiug" was the worst of heresies, prejudices must be waived, and the faithful inust accept tha situation, whether they liked it or not. The ballot mustbe " clean," not in the sense that all tho naoiea upon it are the namea of good raen, pure men, competent men, but in the sense that no ñames are erased of those first printed upon it, that no new ñames are inserted, that ït is juat whitt the caucus agreed upou. The regular noniinatiuns, ,no mattor who the men are, - this, all of this, and nothing but this, - has been the rule of sound political faith and practico. No one could be a good citizen, unless ho votod with his parí y through and through. Agaiust that arrogant and immoral dogma, the recent elections are a loud protest. Probably at no election in our history as a nation, have the voters exurcised so extremo a hberty of choice, and voted according to personal preference more than from party dictation. Myriada of men chose to erasa from the ballots whioh they put in, soine names which were obnoxous, and to subatitute for these the names of men not of their party. The decroea of the knot of managers in their primary meetings, aBsuming to speak tor the party and arrange the scheme, were never so boldly rejected, or so bravely despised. The skillful politiciana stand aghast at the proof that so many who had been trusted as good partisans, dare to have minds of their own, and to say that they were men before they were partisans ; to find, moreover, thia revolt among the humbler class, who ought to obey their leaders, as well as among the cultivated and thoughtful class. This is a year in whioh common men, in tha workshops and on the farms, have ventured to have a will of their own, and have without shaiae followed the example of the fearlesa New England preaoher, who a year or two ago was denounced us a whiuisical fanatic because he vindioated the sacred right of " bolting " Tho caucus systein has certainly not been abolished by this tiuiely protest. It is so convenient, and so natural, not to say necessary in a great country like ours, that it will survive a great many shocks and rebuffs. Demagogues and ofiioe-seekers will continue to look out for the priruary meetings, to prepare the buinesB and to have the wires in good order. But it is, nevertheless, fortúnate that they get an oocasional uheok, and learn that thoir arts are understood, and aro not to be iinplioitly trusted. It ia well that they learn that citizans, - aud great numbers of them, too, - are willing and ready to throw off their party ties, when the party will not do the work whioh they expect from it. It is well that officials should learn, Senators aud Congressnieu, Governors and Sheriffs, that allegiance to party cannot always be depended on, aud may BOinetimes be forgotten in a very uncereraonious way : and that their own plea of work done for tho party will not always be allowed as a valid claim, when great national interests are in question. And many timid men, who veutured secretly to break away from their party in thoir vote, hardly daring to teil it to their own intímate friends lest they should be accused as apostates, must have been cheered in heart, wheu the reports came in of how great and goodly a company had " done likewise," A great many who do not care to see a noble party break to pieoes and go to ruin, are glad to welcome any sign that its tyranny is rebukeS, and that the people are not again to be treated as its vassala and ita tools. This is an excellent lesson of the hour, ana a Iossoh whioh no honorable man of any party will deprécate Who will defend the claim that party is greater than juatice ? Who will not be glad in every sign that consoience asserts au emineut domain in the souls of the people? Let us be thankful that ao many have ahown by their act how indifferent they are to the false ery that they are traitors to their duty aud to their country, if they do not support every contrivance and intrigue which parades itself as the policy of the party. This assertion was needed. It ought to have boen made long ago. If it had been made beforc, we might have been spared some of the shaine and loss that has fallen on the.fauie of our nation. 3. Another reason for thankfulness in the elections is that they seeui to be a cali of the people upon their rulera that some gooi, work shaü be done for the public weal aid some relief given to thepuUic need. The nation is suffering from grievous taxes, from slack work, from dull traffia ; and men have waited to see some wise plan proposed and carried out for a better condition. Again and again, the Congress has come together, promising bravely but perforraing very little, doing notbing to eaae the publio ruind or bring back the former proaperity. Instead of legislating for the public good, the time has been spent in wraugling about private schemea oí speculators ana greeay compnies, passing bilis for iucrease ot' debts more than for inorease of revenue, in neglecting and oostponing work instead of doing it. The people have suffered this long enough, and they say by their votes that if one set of men will not do the work that they are set to do, if thia aet aro too timid or too aelfiah or too indolent to make wise laws, they will try another set of men. The new set raay be as Black and as selfish as the old ; but they cannot be inore negligont. The country wants law makers who will attend to their law-making, and not morely to their own popularity or thoir private gain. The voice of the people cries out for a more efficiënt service, for more attention to the publio business, for release from this wrecked suspense ; - " let us know what the polioy is to bc, what we have to expect ; let us see the beginning of some good works instead of these sterile debates, which end in nothing, and leave matters just where they were ! Let us get out of this wrotohod uncertainty, wbich hampers enterprise, and destroys confidence, and keeps all the people in foar of coming disaster ! Lot us seo some earnest effort to meet the crisis, and not be put off any longer with vague promises of something to be done, while the abusos thrive !" The shrewd public servants have been busily adding ffve talents and ton talents on thoir own private account, and have buried the oue talent of their master in the ground ; and now the master informa theni in a very storn, but very peromptory way, that they are slothful, wicked, and unprofitable servants, and that they shall bo cast into the outer darkness. They have not only as the prayer book declares, done the things they ought not to have done, but they have left undone the things that thoy ought to have dono ; -and it is added, too, that thore is " no health in them." This public feeling may have been exaggerated. Perhaps in the divided state of opinión, tha Congress has attended to itsduty us wel! iis eould reasonably havo boen uxpuct;d. Undoubtedly, much gnorl work has bet'ii dono which has not beon widely undorntood or appreciated. But the most important interests of the nation have certaiuly buen neglected. The money of the country is still a fraud, and is left ut the mercy of gamblers upon the exchange. An unequal tariff is still llowed to burden industry, and to opress the many tor the benefit of the fow. 'he legal checks upon waste and extravagauco in all the Departinents of Governuient are very slow in coming to action ; and tho rulers try, almost as soon as gooc things are done, to undo them. lf th fianking privilege is abolished, almost im mediately they sook to evade it, and to d indirectly what they caunot do directly Not only is legislation iusufficient, but great deal of it, in State legislatures, es pecially, is insincere, - the law makers do not mean what they say, do not believe in the laws whicb they deciee. The votes of the people are a demand tor sincere laws as well as wise laws, for frankness and truthfulness in legislation. And certainly this deinand of the pie 18 to be welcoraed and applauded. Even if the new men do no more than , the oíd, it is reason for congratulatiou that the people want men who will do soniething for the country and not Rpend all their time in contrivance for themsolves or in rontrivance for the party. It is an admirable sign of the time that all partiea in such a city as Boston nomínate the same m:u for Mayor, not because they agree with his general politics, not merely becauae they recognise his commanding ability or his grace of speech, but because they know him to bean honest magistrate, seeking only what ought to be done, and then setting himself with all earnestness and fidelity to do this. Practical statesmen the nation wants; and we may be thankful that this want is so emphatically declared ; and that the word has so strongly gone out against dreamers and schemers. Practical statesmon, men who attond to their business, the country will have, even if they gain their purposes only after many trials, and by a succes9ion of political revolutions. 4. And there is peculiar satisfaction in the fact that the elections have baffled the 8chemers and broken the power of some conspicuously had men, men notorious for their reek'essnesg, their shamelessness, their disregard for truth and honor. Especially will every son of Massachuaetts rejoice that the bold leader, who has so long disgraced that Coramonwealth by his effrontery, his demagogueiam, hia insults to tha refined and noble sons of illustrious ancestors, - the man who more than any man in this generation has demoralized politics and depraved the moral sentiment of the public asaemblies, who had an assurauce which could frighten good men into his support, and compel men who abhorred his charaoter and his measures to follow him as their guide, - that this man has been suddenly cheoked in his course, and deposed, for the time at ny rate, of his power to rule and to browboat. To have defeated this mail is more than compenaation for many loases. To have thrown off such a load is a better chance of recovery from inany severe wouuds. Others of his school have shared his fate, but iu the downfali of Beelzebub, the chief, all true sons of Israel must rejoice. While this man was a party dictator, there was small hope of any purifioation to come from within the party. The overturn of this man removes the shadow of that upas tree, which sent out on every side its deadly influence. Thousands of voters, and wives of voters, too, in that Old Bay State and in all the country, thank God with new courage, that this satrap of corruption has lost his power to charm and destroy, - rejoice with exceeding joy in the language of the hymn, that one curse of the land is removed, and as they trust, - perhaps too fondly, - is finally removed, not to appear again in public life. Here there saems to be a fine consent, and a forgetfulness of party lines. The honorable men of all parties, who keep their müuls clear and their hearts clean, are glad in the signal defeat of the Massachusetts demagogue, after he had laid his plans so well, packed all the caucuses, drilled all his subordinates, and even, as it is said, prepared the cannon to fire for his victory. It is not easy to say which party are happier in the blessed riddanoe. It is not merely a vindictive feeling of personal antipathy, gratiried in the pain of an enemy, but a deop sense of tho danger to the country in the triumph of this kind of man, of the nullification of moral and religious pleading in the suocess of such a gogue. What can all the preaching of the Churches accomplish, whea such an example shows ambitious young meu the way of gain as nny where but in the way of godliness ? What use in iterating those words of Jesus about God's righteousness, when office and pelf were set in ihe control of those who unbluahingly spurn the Divine Law ? It had come to that pass that preachers of the Gospel had alinost been brought to doubt the valae of honesty and purity, in the suocess of the prophets of the Gospel of mammom and Belial. But now their bouIs are eased, and the elders among them can say as Simeón in the Temple, " Lord, now now lettest thou thy servant depart iu peace, for mine eyes have seon thy salvation." 5. And there is still another reason for thankfulness in the results of the elections, that they are lïkély to aid, if they do not restore, the harmony belween the different sectioiu of the people, the friendly feeling of which the return has been so much desired and longed for. It is a good thing that a botter spirit has come in the South, that they have more confidence in their future, that they are encouraged to drop their threateninfc, and to restrain the sad remainder of their wrath. The wise here may have sonie doubtful forebodings, and may foar that the " rebel element," as it is called, may yet come to the front, may stir up new strife, and may press intolerable claimB. But at present the words are more of peace and reconciliation. When one note of hatred comes to us trom the Southern voices, five notes of good will and grutitude come, which are pleasant to hear. Who will not rejoice that the leaders of "the lost cause," now that they seein to find a sense of justice in the North towards them, express so openly their regret for the past, and their resolves in the future to be loyal citizens ? If the elections havo brougbt hope oí peace and brotherly courtesy, if not of brotherly love, so far they are a souroe of gladuess. If they havo done anything to reoouoile the reluctant sufferera to their hard lot, and turn off their thought from the past inisfortune to a brighter time to ooine, so far they have done good ; - shall we not all agree in that I Are auy so suspioious and so unbelieving that they would have tbis latent hatred of the South to the North endure, this smothered fire remain, would have this ahanie of subjugation kept up by constant national interference in looal issues ? Whatever may come by and by, it is clear gain that our Southern brethren feel better now, and that our anxiety about their affairs is for the time relieved. For it is boyond denial, that every just man in the North bas boen grieved and mortified at the wrong done in some of these Southern States by the National Govemment, in upholding plunderers, in outraging public rights, in suppressing by unnecessary violence what might better have been left to die out. The wrong in these last yeara has by no means been wholly on the side of the defeated rebels. The viotors have not been " inagnanimous" in following up their victory by protecting knavery and oppression, and adiling new burdens to the already hard trial and burden. Certainly on a Thanksgiving which is " national," and is appointed by the President for the men of every part of the land, from Maine to Texas and to Oregon, for the poor as for tbe proaperous, we ought to be glad in any source of national harmony, in any event which may tend ;o restore this harmony and to biing all he people at one ; in any thing which ubdues the harsh voioes of discord to a i rofession of' trust and good will i ;ween brethren of the same nation and blood. Theae evidtmceH given in the recent elections ; of dissatisfactiou wilh the exïating state of things ; of rerolt from the :yianny of party ; of deinand for practical service from public men ; of the rejection of corrupt leaders ; and of the growth of a better feeling ; are eert aiu ly results in which all may be glad, in which there will be no difference of opinión, ïhey are not all the good results that might be cited. Some would rojoice in the rebuke given to sutuptuary legislation and fanatical zeal in moral I causes. But in theso there is difference of opinión, and what will seem to aomo happy resulta, will seem to others very lamentable. And it cannot be denied that some of the resulta of the voting have a disaatroua prophecy. If some demagogues have been defeated, others have been cal led back into place and power. Many have been chosen who may vote to débase the cutrency, and to deny the public obligation. The pro8pect is not wholly bright ; but, on the whole, more good thau evil will probably come out of what so many think tobe the beginning ot sorrows. in a land like ours, politioal revolutions purify the atinosphere, and cleanse the house. It is not well for any party to hold sway too long, or to stay in office after ita work has been t'airly done. And the change that seeras to have come is not by any means a retrograde movement, but is rather an advanco to a more enlightened policy. We are not sent back to the state of things befoie the war. The Constitutional amenduients solmnly accepted will not be annulled or repealed. No attempt to inorease the public debt by paying the defeated for their lossea in slaves or in treasure has any rtasonable hope of success. We are mach lesa likely to have a war of races than before. And in the matter of national honesty and sound financial policy, we are quite as sure to go right with the followers of Jeffersou for leaders as with the men who have tried 30 hard to begnile the people to increase proinises to pay, which have no solid coin to Rustain them. Tho country is not ruined, and the feeling of men everywhere is more buoyant and cheerful than it was a few months ago. Even those who are disappointed that some cause on which they had set their hearts, has failed to prevail, that the vote haa not been givea to woinen, that judgea must etill be starved in their service, that power of corporations haa not been ourtailed, must confesa that some alleviations come to thair regret. The election of the year 1874 will be memorable in our history as bringing, along with an almost unprecedented political vevolution, no great grief to the defeated party, and no extravagant joy to the victors. The tear3 are not copious on the one side, and the shouts are subdued on tbe other. Indeed, it is not yet quite certain who are the vanquished and who are the victors. Only íuture legislation can show that. In these days, political as well as religious naruea are very vague, and you cannot tell what ideas and principies they stand for. A Unitarian luay be orthodox, and a Presbyterian may be a rationalist; and there are Univeralists iu all the Churches. So it is in politics. Men who have changed their name have not changed their principies, and a tried radical is not all at once a narrow conservative, because for special reasons he has found it expedient this time to vote with tho conservativo party. These uncertain mimes may cause confusión for a while, but the work dona will prove what they roally mean and stan1 for. The way of ruling will show whether the apparent change is salutiry, and whether Festus is a better ruler thau Félix. We know of no one whom the ' tidal wave" struek that has been as sick as the editor of the Flint Globe. He has done nothing but throw off bile since, judging from the tone of bis editoriala. We do no believo he has eaten a square meal for the past nionth. Why he should feel so we do not understand. He has a snug little ofllco whioh Bagley gave hitn and which he can have for two years yet, and if he does not hold it as long, and get as rich as some of his predecessors have out of it, he should be reconciled, and remember, good pious man as he is, " How bard it is for those that have riohes to get into the Kingdom." Chandler should send hiin a bottle'of soothing syrup, and BagLEY a box of cigars to quiet his nerves, and settle his disordered stomach. The faithful should pray for him ; his case is indeed a sad one.