John Harrison Wilson, The life of Charles Henry Dana

[390] the people, so far from revolting, would feel rather relieved by the consciousness that no change could let loose upon them a more hungry swarm of vampires. If the majority of Northern electors should regard the condemnation of Mr. Johnson as not justified by the law and the facts of the case, or the administration of Mr. Wade as inopportune or proscriptive, they will redress the wrongs of the former and punish the offences of the latter, not by violence, but through the irresistible yet peaceful energies of the ballot-box.

If, after a sharp struggle, Mr. Pendleton should be deputed to lift up the official scourge and drive the Republicans from the public crib, so far from raising the sword against him, they would be much more apt to hoist their sails for a profitable voyage on that ocean of greenbacks wherewith he proposes to enrich the country. If, on the other hand, General Grant should be sent to the Executive Mansion for the next four years, we should look for a reign of peace and prosperity both in the North and in the South. The North would turn from its ordinary pursuits barely long enough to read the returns of the election, while the South would cease its resistance to the inevitable sequences of the Rebellion, complete the reconstruction of its shattered States, and devote its energies to reviving its depressed industry and educating its ignorant populace.

The North American race is not prone to revolution any more than its Anglo-Saxon progenitor. After many years of civil commotion, accompanied with an occasional crossing of bayonets, England got rid of the Stuarts. She shed but little blood; but even that has sufficed for nearly two centuries. After twenty-five years of political strife, followed by four years of terrible war, the United States has destroyed slavery, and its legitimate offspring, secession. Our taste for fighting is satiated. For a century to come the American remedy for the redress of grievances will be a peaceful resort to the ballot-box.

Three days later, in an editorial on reconstruction, Dana referred to the elections already held and soon to