New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-11-10
BTTTLPRS PARTY PROGRAMME.

"Many people have called me hard names,
said Gen. Butler once, in an explanatory MOOD,
"but it is a comfort that nobody ever called me
ga foo.r The General was right. We have
often been unable to agree with him on po-
litical matters; and we have been sometimes
grieved at observing that he persisted in re-
garding "a questions of politics what seemed
to us purely and solely questions of public
morals. But we have never ceased to admire
his intellectual fertility and audacity; and have
never failed to cherish for his cOunsels to the
Republican party such regard as his promi-
nence and ability command.
His cOunsels, to be sure, are various. Not
long ago he was certain that the sure panacea
for party, otherwise doomed to speedy death,
was his particular form of the greenback
theory. But the Republican organization de-
clined to practice upon the view that debt,
contracted to be paid in Gold, could equitably
be paid in something other and less valuable
than Cola and, in spite of his fOrebOdlngs,
has still managed to prolong its existence. AT
later period he looked to the Heather Chi
"neen as q source of boundcss trouble. and
would have had legal crusade begun against
the ruthless invasion. AS yet the Republican
party has not found it necessary to adopt
this reversal Of its cardinal principles; and
the necessity therefor Is certainly not growing
any more apparent since the Generals able
speech at Woodstock. One of the Generals
moro recent troubles was about the lack of
Leadership or organization i'll the Republican
party in this State; and it is no secret that
his counsels have since been potential in the
leadership and organization we have enjoyed
during the canvass just ended. Now we have,
from "a source which we know to be authentic,
Gen. Buffers present views upon the danger
and the necessities of the Republican party.
That they are interesting and suggestive we
do not need to say. That there is some truth
In them we readily admit. Without agreeing
wholly with the Generals opinions as to the
present condition of the party, we recognize in
| them an element of justice which cannot be
wisely overlooked But we dissent utterly and
| absolutely from his remedy. We want no
foreign war policy as means OF
constructing popular platform for
| the next Presidential contest. We
have no wish to outrage British national pride,
and insure the gravest trouble by a formal
demand for territory, in settlement of the Ala
bama claims, under threat of war. We want
no province of Canada as the price of peace
and if there is to be any movement for an
nexation, we insist that it shall begin with
the Canadians, and not with us. Until they
want it more than we do, there will be no an
nexation that would not be an injury to us as
well as to them.
| We entrcat Gen. Butler to devote his great
talents to keeping out of rather than getting
us into another war. Bright as is his record
during the rebellion, he can thus achieve. as
Statesman, reputation that will far eclipse 1T.
And we beg him to believe that, in the pres
ent temper of the American people the party
that shall deliberately adopt a foreign
war policy as a means of electing its
Presidential candidate, will be wiped out of
existence. Great as would be the calamity of
the dissolution of the Republican party or
even of its defeat in a national contest the
calamity of a war that might have been hon
orably avoided. with any frst-class foreign
power, would be UNNECESSARILY greater Let
us have Peace!