The Conduct of the Campaign.

Now that the election is over, it may be proper for us to glance at the conduct of the campaign, and see whether it has been carried on in that spirit which we, as a people, and especially that portion of us who claim to be the educated people, can approve.

We are willing to acknowledge that there was much in the principles for which the various parties were striving, much in the peculiarly hostile attitude of the different sections of the country, to arouse malevolent and angry feeling. But the true question is precisely this is there anything in party obligations which should make a man forget the common courtesies of life, and the instincts of a gentleman? If so, let all party obligations be shaken off, and let us go forth free and untrameled ready to follow out the dictates of our better natures.

In the political campaign through which we have just passed, there is no question but that the virulence and malignity of party spirit have been suffered to exceed all bounds. We had never before supposed that a person was responsible for anything but his own actions; that by these he must be judged, and his true position assigned. It seems, however, that this is not sufficient. Should any of our readers ever be so unfortunate as to become a candidate for the Presidency of this free and enlightened people, let such a one look well to his antecedents

His own life may be pure and spotless as the driven snow, but if any of his relatives, or persons, not of kin, bearing the same name, have ever been derelict in the slightest degree, the unhappy candidate is alone responsible. Upon his devoted head are visited the sins of his race, and he is made the scape-goat for their infirmities. Above all, let him preserve his mother's certificate, and abundant evidence of the date and place of his own birth, for nothing is too low for party purposes, no tie so sacred, or circle so private, but that the prurient eye and greedy ear of the petty politician will invade its sacredness. The good name of woman, and the honor of man, are alike soiled by low insinuations and

covert sneers.

With shame we confess that there is a portion of our people whom such ribaldry might fairly be expected to delight. We should anticipate that the pot-house politician and his half-inebriated audience would gloat over fictions which ministered to their baser passions. But that intelligent men, and those holding high position, should condescend to employ these stories, which they do not believe themselves, merely to inflame and aggravate public sentiment, seems totally inexcusable, and deserving of the severest censure; and, though we can pardon somewhat to the heat of passion, we cannot excuse him who deliberately writes and utters such libels.

The power of a free press can never be exaggerated. Thrown on the side of Right it becomes a worker of good such as the world has never before seen. It is a Samson, grasping with mighty strength the pillars which uphold oppression. But it also has a terrible power for evil, and, in the hands of unscrupulous men, becomes an instrument of darkness and moral death. We would by no means object to a free, fair, and candid discussion of any subject, or even of the personal claims of any candidate for office. Nothing is more likely to eliminate truth and merit. It sifts the pure gold from the sand and mud of party prejudice. But there has been anything but a fair discussion in the contest just ended. The rule has rather been to seize hold of every nefarious project and plausible lie which was presented. Contradictions and exposures were alike unheeded. The generosity which retracts a base and baseless imputation was forgotten, and a sneaking success was the only object kept in view. Is this a style of political controversy we can ask the world to admire? Can we, who call ourselves the "foremost nation in the files of Time," call upon all men to witness the purity of our politics, and the magnanimity of our political action? We claim

that we are superior to all other nations as being a Republic, as the

only nation where the people directly assert their will at the polls,but how many elections, like this last, will suffice to convince the other nations of the globe of the superior advantages of a popular elective franchise?

If falsehood and corruption, riot and bloodshed are to be the constant attendants of popular elections, we apprehend that soon the approach of the great quadrennial strife will be viewed with anything but sentiments of pleasure. Instead of being looked upon as a time when the sublime spectacle is to be presented of a great people fully and freely expressing their sovereignty without fear or favor, it will rather be anticipated as a season of rampant fraud and daring dishonesty; when not the unbiassed voice of a people, but the tricky politics of demagogues shall rule the day; when all the baser principles shall be called into action, and a broad love of country, a pure patriotism, give way to party passion and strife for sectional success.

Another danger is also to be apprehended. It cannot be expected that the best men will come forward and expose themselves to all the attacks that wanton calumny can frame, or an evil invention suggest. And when such assaults become the necessary accompaniments of candidacy, then a person with common sensitiveness will shrink from running the gauntlet for office, and our government gradually fall into the hands of scheming politicians, who have no character to lose.

We have heard but one reason why this bitter invective, and coarse demonstration should be used. Persons will say that they dislike this mode of political discussion as much as any one, but there is no other resource left. "If," they say, "you are attacked with a club by a villain, you do not wait until you can secure a polished sword before you defend yourself, but lay your hands upon whatever means of defense lies nearest, even if it should be covered with mud and dirt." But the analogy fails, because it takes for granted that just and proper instruments of attack or defense are in the hands of every speaker and writer. The contrary is the fact. Keen irony, polished sarcasm, and unsparing ridicule may be used by every one without necessarily degenerating into wicked malignity, coarse buffoonery, or gross personality. We would not complain if there was no choice of weapons; but it shocks us to see men who could use with so much power these higher methods of argument and invective descend to the level of blackguardism and slang. There should be as much difference between the two as between the tournament of old, and the brutalities of a modern prizefight; and the bully of the political ring should be made to feel that a

knightly lance reached farther and pierced deeper than his shillalah. And it is this we most strongly condemn, that in the late national strife, the combatants, of all ranks, seemed to choose the grosser weapons of abuse and personality.

We have drawn a dark picture, but the events of the past two months have forced it upon us. We make no particular application to any party or press, as all have sinned in some degree, though some far less than others. We write down these few thoughts because they have been painfully impressed upon us, and now seemed the fittest time for their utterance. The remedy of this evil lies with us who are soon to constitute a part of the educated manhood of the nation. Let us resolve that no heat of political controversy shall ever cause us to forget that generous courtesy which is the crowning grace of manliness.

G. P.

YALE LITERARY PRIZE ESSAY.

Reform in the Reformer.

BY AUGUSTUS H. STRONG, ROCHESTER, N. Y.

ASTRONOMERS tell us that near the horizon, the stars, pale-shining through the thick air, its earthy vapors and changing currents, are warped from their true place in the sky, but as we lift our glass to the zenith, the light of far-off suns comes straight and clear from heaven. It is so with the ideas of men, bent from the truth while they cling to earth-forever sure only when they rest at last on realities above. Our vision seldom pierces that upper air. We contemplate action through the dimness of perverted affections-opinions in the light of an obscured intellect. Lowsighted because low-fallen, we own a tendency to false ideas, coeval with the race and subtly mingling with all human thought. Against these false ideas, seeds of all human ills, God fights, and so fight all good men. Here is the discipline of man on earth. It is the possibility of evil that gives the good its moral value. It is the presence of temptation that glorifies the pure in heart. It is the power of doing wrong that makes it godlike to do right. Glorious discipline-a discipline that alone discovers the truest men of history,-that by struggle and sacrifice and hope sublime, forms "great and matchless men, dear to God, and famous to all ages."