The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-11-28


the Republican Party.
With the return Of peace comes the crisis to
the republican party. II is crisis Of life
or death, perpetuity or dissolution. This
party has carried the government successfully
through the most stupendous and perilous civil
war from which any government has survived.
The people Of the loyal States poured out their
treasures Of men and money for the war with
out stint; but in the absence Of able generals
to command our armies, and without an eff
cient War Department to furnish the needful
supplies and reinforcements in every quarter,
all the sacrifices of the people would have
come to nothing. The republicans in power
provided able generals, the greatest general Of
the age at the head of them, and provided
war minister whose energy was equal to all
emergencies, and who knew mo such word as
fail" The grand result is the complete triumph
of the Union cause.
But, as the war party, the republicans had
all the advantages of the popular side of the
question of Union or disunion. They stood be-
fore the country upon the single and all-ab-
sorbing issue Of the suppression Of the rebel
lion by force Of arms, and upon this ground
the cause of the Union party and the cause Of
the Union were regarded by the people of the
great North as one. But that is all over now.
The republican party, victorious from the war,
is now called to the practical work Of govern
ment, to the difficult business of repairing dam
ages, including the restoration Of the Southern
States and Southern whites and blacks on the
new basis of universal liberty; the regulation
of our national finances, tariffs, taxes, &C., and
the rectification Of our unsettled balances with
foreign Powers. In graphing with these deli
cate and momcntous questions the republican
party may succeed and continue to flourish in
power, or it may fail and fall to pieces For
the instruction of the republican leaders let us
briefly call their attention to the blunders of
the democratic party and the consequences
In 1924 the old republican party of Jeffer
son, which was more inclined to red than
black, collapsed in the squabble Of the poll
ticians for the Presidency. In the scrub race
of that year General Jackson first came into
full view as the man of the people, and as the
man under whom to resuscitate with new blood
the old effete Jeffersonian party. In 1928 ac-
cordingly the late national democratic party,
with the first election of Jackson to the Presi-
dency, rallied around him. 1t held the govern
ment without break for twelve years, when,
under Van Buren,, it was in 1910 swept from
power as by resistless tornado. Under Polk,
ton, to be turned out again in 1848. In 1852, on
the platform Of Henry Clay's great peace meas
ures of 1850, the party carried the country,
North and South, by an overwhelming electoral
and popular vote In 1856 the party narrowly
escaped defeat. II Was saved only through the
assistance of Fillmore as q second opposition
candidate. In 1860. through its own dissen-
sions. the great national democratic party with
the Presidency in its grasp, was broken up
and dissolved.
Now what was the secret Of these misfor-
tunes to the old democracy! We need not
travel far to find it. The.party was controlled
by radical sectional clique Of managing poll
ticans--s naughty, imperious Southern clique,
full Of ultra Southern ideas, and setting them
selves up as the rightful masters OF the coun-
try and the rightful dictators of democratic
principles and measures. General Jackson was
too strong for this clique, but 1t proved too
much for Van Buren,. II ruled him out of the
Baltimore National Convention Of 1874, al
though it thus opened the way, in Van Buren's
revenge Of 1885, 'sfree soil, free speech and free
men," for the now dominant republican party.
Van Buren, was ousted, but he delivered the
first damaging blow to the democratic slave
holding oligarchy of the South in his fall.
This party oligarchy next succeeded in in
ficting upon the country its pcrnicious dog
mas, principles and policy with poor Pierce
and Buchanan, and with all the disastrous
consequences which have followed to- ali con-
cerned. This Southern ruling democratic Junia6
next tried The coercion Of Douglas, but Doug
las faced them, and at Charleston pushed
them to their own destruction. True, the demo-
cratic party was thus scattered to the winds;
but, with the rebellion, the old slaveholding
democratic oligarchy has gone down TO rise no
more.
The republican party is in the same danger
OF ruling radical sectional clique. What the
Virginia and South Carolina managing poll
ticians were TO the democracy the Massachu-
sets and Ohio leaders threaten to be to the
republicans, with their contracted ideas and
their pretensions Of authority. Hero lies The
danger most to be avoided. If the republican
majority Of the coming Congress are wise they
will avoid this danger, and shape their course
by the safe maps and charts laid before them
by President johnson. His policy is broad
and national, like that Of Jackson, while the
teachings Of such false lights as Chase, Sumner
and Wilson lead to disasters like those of poor
Pierce and Buchanan. Looking to these les
sons Of experience, let the republicans profit
by them, and, adhering closely to the safe and
popular programme Of the administration, let
them push forward in the work before them.