Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1870-12-09
The Situation.

.'' &-e-~
The Situation.
The elections Of this autumn were pecu
liarly interesting because they We're a.
answer to the inquiry whether the Reput
| lican party had fulfilled its mission. TIL
Democrats upon one side, and Mr. Wendell
Phillips upon the other loudly sneere
that the Republican party numbered th
ground. They insisted that it was organ
lied to Withstand slavery, and that, SLAYER,
being utterly abolished, the party was su
perfluous. Had the political situation beel
as simple as they represented, they woul'
have been quite correct. The party woul,
be superhuous, and would be discarded b,
the country. But as it is not dis
carded, as it will control the mex
Congress by some sixty majority, a
the Democratic majority in New Yorl
is not increased, Notwithstanding the Re
publican feuds, as Mr. Phillips vote fall
far below what had been anticipated by hi
friends, and as, in word, the Republican
line is virtually unbroken, it may possibly
occur to the Democratic orators and to Mr.
Phillips that they are mistaken, and tha
there is some reason for the steadfast sup
port which the Republican party receives
| from the people of the United States.
| This reason is evident enough Upor
questions of general policy both parties are
divided. For instance, the Republican
party, as such, is not prOtectionist party,
nor IS the Democratic, as such, free trade
party Both parties demand reduced taxa
ton. The foreign policy of neither is bel
ligerent. The doctrinaires can please them
selves as much upon the one side as upon
the other. But the Republican party, be-
ing in power, is criticised at every point.
Its mistakes are magnifed by party spirit,
and they chill or even ALLEVIATE many of its
own friends. 1t is full Of the suspicious,
jealousies, and hostilities that attend sue
cess. Its continued ascendency, despite all
these considerations, is due to the deep
distrust of the Democratic party felt
by the country, and by the pro-
found confidence, even of the impatient
and critical, that the great measures of real
progress are to be expected from party of
the history and composition of the Repuh-
lican. A self-respecting and truly wise
foreign policy, reform in the domestic civil
service, and a practical dealing with the
danger of electoral corruption, are to be
expected from the Republican, and not
from the Democratic party.
This feeling that Democratic ascendency
would fatally disturb the peace of the
country is founded upon the fact that the
had subordinated every interest in the
country to the extension of slavery that
in 1861 it counseled submission to revo-
lutionary faction; that in 1864 it urged
surrender to the same faction that in 1868
it advocated reputation and remuneration
of the political results of the war; that it
has been for ten years disorganizing
party and, above all, that its spirit and
purpose and leadership remain unchanged
to-day. 1t sneers at the war, it sighs for
the old days of the slavery despOtism, it
hates the negro, it denies the validity OF
the amendments, and it would repudiate
the debt. Mere passive opposition to q
party so radically destructive and revOlu-
tionary would be enough to hold the Re
publican party together; and, in view OF
the facts, the support by some Republi
cans of certain Democratic candidates, be-
cause of some special measures which they
are supposed to favor, is as much betray
al Of the great interests of the country as
| if a Prussian company should shoot theil
own officers in the back because they
ancied that some of the French officers
were better soldiers. h i
That this is the real situation, and that
this well founded and most serious dis
trust is the explanation of the unyielding
Republican strength is felt by the Demo
have not been defeated in New York, but
they are too shrewd not to understand the
significance of the whole result. So on
no n aft J,o# OH
clear that their hope of a threatening
minority, if not of an actual majority, in
Congress was utterly baffled, the New
| York, World began to implore its party to
understand the situation. The Democratic
intention is known. Tammany Hall, the
most powerful and unscrupulous oTganiza-
ton of political managers in the country
has again elected its docile agent, Mr.. John
[ T. Hoffman, Governor of New York. II
now proposes to play for the control of the
country, with him as its Presidential candi
date in 1872. It's organ, therefore, begins
Immediately to claim that the party is
always successful in New York, and that
therefore the leaders in other States should
yield to the New York mastery. Thai
mastery, it insinuates, is persuaded tha
there is but one way in which the party
can succeed in 1872, and that is by abso
lutte acquiescence in the great Republican
settlements of the war, without which the
national distrust of the party will remain
mistaken.
That it can bring the Democratic party
to acquiesce we do not suppose, because
although Tammany Hall has no convic
tions or principles except those of success
at any cost, there is a large part of the
Democratic party which has. Jealousy o
the National Government, and hatred O.
the debt and the negro, are sincerely fel
by the, great bulk of the party in th'
country. A very large part of its vote il
strictly ex-rebel, and that part, at least, ha'
a great deafof fervor of conviction. More
over, it is the party of ignorance, and will
ignorance -prejudices of every kind are in
vlneible. The Tamnlany managers, there
fore, will not find it an easy task to per
saade their followers to acquiescence; no
will it be any easier for them to convinc,
the country that they have acquiesced ant
could they succeed in this persuasion, tht
country would only ask why the Demo
Gratis should be preferred to carry out th'
Republican policy, when their genera
principles and measures are not better anC
no more timely.-Harper's Weekly.
THE Attica, Ind, Ledger says: "ou