In the management of party, nothing is so difficult as to procure and maintain harmony. The rivalries of ambitious men are often for the moment disposed of in conventions of the party, by the law of the majority; but in such a way as not to secure harmony. For the past few years the Republican party in Illinois, and particularly in this city, has suffered defeats that might easily have been prevented by some attention to the plain conditions of success. We Republicans are not all American born; we do not all belong to anti-beer societies; we are not all Sabbath-keepers after the manner of the Puritans, and hence we cannot all agree to work in the party when these non-political trivialties are allowed to be obtruded for the benefit of demagogues or fanatics. The Republican party was founded on principle. It has won its great victories on principle. To principle must be credited its achievements that are rightly called immortal. This centennial year will witness a political conflict as important as any in our history. The parties to this conflict are fast putting themselves in array. A principle, vital to all that is worth having in Government, is at stake. The conviction that the Republicans out-number the Confederates, have greater skill in management, and vaster resources, make it certain that Republicans will carry the day-with one condition; they must be united.

The most of the Republicans losses and defeats, the past two or three years, were been owing to the dissatisfaction and separation from the party of the Germans. This dissatisfaction was not with the political objects of the party. They separated from their old associates with painful reluctance, on grounds which I will not here discuss, because I trust they are forever removed.

The whole country, at the election last fall in Ohio, the Germans in a body come back to the party standards, when a sound currency was assailed, and the Confederates held up to Uncle Sam their disgusting "rag baby." The first Republican victories in the days of the struggles with slavery, were obtained with the aid of the Germans, and no victory of much account has been achieved since without them. Whether as voters or soldiers, they have never wavered or faltered when Republican principles were to be defended or applied. In Illinois, when the Germans come over to the Republican side, the Republicans began to win victories.

In this city, the Germans were Republicans all through the war, and generally we had order and good government. Certainly in all matters of party interest in the large sense, the Germans have ever been liberal and effective co-workers. The question has been anxiously asked by thousands, can the Germans be relied upon in the fight of this year? The sole fear of possible disaster has arisen through a doubt on this point. That anxious inquiry is answered. The fear is dispelled. No man, be he a politician or intelligent observer, but knows the situation today. The gratifying declarations of the great organ, the Staats-Zeitung, of preference for the Hon. E. B. Washburne for Governor;-foremost Republican as he is,-remove all doubts as to where our old and powerful ally will be found in the coming struggle. It so happens that the first of the Germans is also the first choice of most Republicans of American birth (at any rate in this city) and so harmony is to be had on easy terms. if it were of sufficient consequence, I should congratulate the Staats-Zeitung, and the Republican party, on this renewal of relations, boding so much good to the cause of right principle and just government.