Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-08-12
The Party of Action.

EcSICtS OfCi Wudt HntO oOOh@
avail it nothing. Inaction or indecision in
the present crisis, whatever be its charac-
ter, will be fatal alike to its present and its
future and in this country especially pol
itcal parties, that are once dead, do not
live again. For party that goes to fail
ure and defeat, through its own faults and
follies, there is no resurrection. Common
sense or sound philosophy would teach us
these truths, but experience has taught
them with all needed emphasis. The Re-
publican party, still dominant in this ma
ton, stands just now in specia need of be-
ing reminded of these truths. forgetfulness
or neglect of which, will bring it speedily
and surely to the close of its record as a
party of success.
The one great, positive, vital fact of our
political history, for the last quarter of a
century, is the work of the Republican
party. Strike that out of the record, if it
were possible, and there would be left on
ly barren negations and stupendous fail
ures. Why has the Republican party
of substantial and beneficent progress,
within the last decade, than was ever
achieved before by, or for any nation, in
century? Because, it has been, in the
best sense, party of action, and will be
known in history and be judged rather by
what it has done, than by what it has said,
or what may have been said of it, Be-
cause, to the clearness, correctness and
strength of its moral convictions and its
positive affirmation of principles, it has
added the ready and resolute carrying out
of these convictions and principles ir pos
tive deeds. Let the Republican party
lose either of these correlatlve elements Of
strength and it will die, and die not to live
again. In this direction, and this only,
lies its danger. 1t is fatal political blum
der for any party, or administration, how
ever strong or securely entrenched in the
possession of present power, to presume
that it can live on a do nothing policy
and vacillation or hesitation, when the mo-
ment 70. action comes, is as fatal as total
inaction. There is inevitable political
death in either.
We need not 60 far to find ample illus
tration and proof of this. Our own polit-
ical history will furnish both. Why have
those parties that were fond Of styling
themselves conservative, been thrown up,
and left so many stranded wrecks, to rot
and moulder to decay, along the shores of
the stormy sea of American politics? Be-
| cause they lacked conscience, courage, con-
sistency, and more than ALL resolute sa-
gacity. They were afraid even of the ne
cessity, which is, in this world and for all,
ever recurring, of finding out or using any
new truth. They shrank away, bat-like,
from every added ray Of light. They re-
coiled, with shivering dread, from every
thing that looked like innovation or prog
ress, insisted that nothing could be better
than it already was, and gone quite mad
| with the insanity Of conservatism, they
CROPPED among the tombs, cutting them
| selves with the stones; and if the voice
of one proclaimng a newer or a better Cos
| pei fell on their shrinking ears, they cried
out, in mingled wrath and terror-''let US
alone; why have ye come to torment us
before our time ?" Has any one forgotten
how many of these gibbering imbeciles
stood by the way side, croaking and whln-
ing, when the first tramp, tramp" of the
Union soldiers moving southwark was
heard, and how they were finally swept
out of the way by the tide of patriotism
that rolled from the north upon the rebel
| lion cursed fields of the south ? In that
hour, it was because the Republican party
was the party of action, that the Republic
was saved. 1t first learned itself, and
then taught the nation, the needed lesson
Of what a party may become and achieve
by daring to do, and by doing the thing
which ought to be done, caring less for the
immediate consequences, than for the as
surance that the step is right and necessary
to be taken. Resolute and bold measul es
always characterize the party of action
1t must be so, because in it's forward
movement it will come upon obstacles,
new and unforeseen, that will not yield to
ordinary appliances; it will find itself con-
fronted by yawning chasms, on the brink
of which to pause is ruin, yet which to
span and overlap requires strength and
skill hitherto untried. OF these expcrien-
ces the Republican party has had more
than enough, to prove that its safe. and
wise course lies always in the path of
prompt, resolute action, of assuming re-
sponsbilities without fear, and executing
its resolves without hesitation. We are
now in the midst of peace, not war, in
prosperity, not in poverty or peril. Yet
the necessity for action has not passed by,
nor will it ever. Is the Republican party,
is it's administration, acting with knowl-
edge Of this fact, and as wisely as in the
past? The way in which the question Of
Cuban independence has been met, avoided,
postponed and finally left with nothing
done, does not look like it. The long,
confused and confusing wranglings over
the questions of taxations of tariff,
currency, and the funding of the
debt. with little positive action taken, do
not look like it, The unsettled relations
with the indians do not look like it. The
failure to call England to account for her
piratical destruction of our commerce on
the high seas does not look like it. FL
! nally, the changing, shifting, irresolute,
i and cratic management of the party pat
ronage, and of civil appointments does not
look like it. The Republican party can
not live and thrive and grow on the
achievements or glories of the past. Its
vitality and its strength must be of to day.
The people will not ask, what has it done,
but what is it doing? Are the leaders of
the Republican party prepared to answer
/ this question, and to abide the popular
verdict on that answer.-E'rchGnge.