The Struggle of '72

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THE Republican party of the United States has been entrusted with the management of the national affairs since 1861I-a period of nearly three successive Presidential terms. During that period this party has had to meet and overcome, at almost every step of its progress, political difficulties more serious than any which the nation has ever known before since its birth; and it has met them with a success which has won the admiration of the world. And so completely has the world identified the Republican party with the stability and dignity of the nation, that the prospects of its success or defeat in pending elections have regulated the upward or downward tendencies of the national securities, and such other indices as serve to show the estimation in which a country is held abroad.

During the most of the years referred to, the Republican party has enjoyed a complete and undisputed supremacy in all the branches of the government-a condition of things very trying to the virtue of a political party. It is now threatened with a serious schism, brought about by men, some of whom have been reckoned among our best statesmen and publicists, and sympathized in by a considerable portion of the thoughtful and conservative classes of the population, the avowed object of this schism being the reformation of serious abuses alleged to exist in the administration of the government and the theories of legislation.

Is there sufficient cause to be found in the existing condi

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tion of things for the overthrow of the Republican party, and the installation of a new dynasty, to be built chiefly of the material of the long-dishonored Democratic party-founded, however, upon principles, or at least upon platforms, furnished by the disaffected Republicans? To answer this question, or rather to furnish the reader with material with which to answer it for himself, is the purpose of the present volume. In the pages which follow, the reader will find, among other things, a HISTORY OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY with the issues it has made and the positions which it has taken, from its origin to the present time; also a HISTory of the DeMOCRATIC PARTY, particularly during the years when its history has been contemporaneous with that of the Republican party; also sketches of the life and character of the several CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT; also, since the main question of next November is whether or not we shall have another term of President Grant's administration, a brief, though we trust an acceptably comprehensive view of the salient points of his first term, so far as it is past; also many other facts and ideas pertinent to the present exciting canvass, and such as the voter will naturally like to peruse, and lay away for reference. In short, it has been the aim of the author (or compiler, if you please) of this book, to furnish a useful compendium of facts and points for the campaign. Though the reader may discover in the manner of putting things a bias in favor of that which now is, he will not, it is hoped, encounter any misstatement of fact. The book is illustrated with portraits and cartoons, which have their own peculiar momentary interest, and for which the artist alone must have the credit, whatever it may be.

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