The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1871-04-12
Daily argus.
wednesday Evsniag, april 10, ISL,
ssThe Golden Hour For the Demo-
cratic Party"

The Franklin Gazette a stsunoh old Dem.
ocrstic journal published in New York and
noted for it's fidelity to the cause of equal
rights of the issues now before the country
as follows:
1t does not need the voice of Theodore
Tilton to convince the people that this is the
golden hour for the Democrats party"
The results of the elections for Congressman
aud other officers in 1870 and 1871 Fave
covnced the most obstinate p,inded that the
day of Radlcalism is departing fast, aud the
triumph OF the Democracy Is advancing
faster. The laundering and criminal acts
of Grant, who since he first sat upon the
Presidential chair has wllfully set
at naught the will of the sover-
eign people, and the ruinous policy Of his
administrator, have produced powerful
reaction in the minds of the people, and the
President who two years ago, although
untried as statesman, was the idol OF the
people grateful for the service he had done
As soldier, now nnds himself without
party, deserted by those who were HIS
strongest friends, Fastening to the oblivion
he Justly deserves. The South, Southwest,
New York and New England are against
him, and TO no section of the country can
he look for united support. The party
that elected him President is split into fac
tons that are swiftly working its disintegra-
ton. The mission of the Republican party
has ended IL has no further issues upon
which It can appeal to the people for sop
port and is rapidly degenerAting into a foul
congregation of plunderers and Office
holders. No wonder, then, that even Theo-
dore Tilton calls this the Golden Hour" Of
the Democracy. In the Golden Age last
week an article appears with the above
heading:
"The republican party is now passing
under a shadow; the democratic is Rdvanc.
ing its banners into the sun. Defeated
the Green Mountains, the administration Is
pushed step downward into the Valley
Of Humiliation. OF course we know, rs the
BAtAvisns did, that q single battle IS not the
whole war. But we know, also, that the
New Hampshire verdict bears the inscrip-
Iion, T. Piuri6ES UHuH; which by inter
probation means that this defeat is but one
of series Of coming losses President
Grant, in the midst of his ambition for q
denomination, suddenly finds his Hover
frosted, his hope winter killed. This with
ering fact is now the halfsad, half-glsd con
fession OF republican caucuses and cosncii-
boards at Washington and elsewhere. The
remaining question among republican lead
ers now is whether or not, for 1872, the
President, in defeating himself, has defeat
ed alsO his party.
Let US suppose the worst. what then?
The time has come for somebody to say
from radical republican point of view and
since the higher authorities are silent We
Z hot 81 -
republican party-whicb was at first q DO
htical, then q military, and always q moral
necessity 10 the countrY-would now cease
to be any kind of necessity 10 it whatever,
If the democratic leaders were wise enough
to take noble advantage of their great op
portuuity.
This result is not because of the RepubIi-
can pArty's incidental blunders of legisla-
tomas, for instance, its failure to repeal
the income tax nor from the dead level
OF mediocrity which chsracterizes the Pres
Idepts sssociates-with the exception of
here and there tireless worker like Bout
well not from its elaborate triaiug with
the Alabama claims, which, we hope, are
now IN fair way OF ad iustment; nor from
It's most gigantic of petty follies in striking
Mr.. sumner, for which it is suffering the
sting of popular punishment; nor from it,
criminal delay to legislate for the safety of
Southern loyslists, to whose grave it sends
commission 10 inquire whether they are
dead; nor from its condemnation by New
Hampshire, the first State that has had q
chance to tell il the truth it is to none of
these cases singly, nor even TO all taken
together, that we can trace the decline Of
the Republican party; but there is q solitary
great tact IChtcit, more potent than this sum
total gfminOr influences affords the true er-
plaHation' 'chich is that this party, for the
first time in IT'S history, has no hriRg, BREATH
ing, inspiring Issue with which, as Of old, to
excite the enthusiasm of the people, and to
gather their swelling numbers under vic
Torious flag. For tie last tlcO years the Re
publican party has been Kept aliUe almost sole
iy on the prestige Of hepreUious ten. II has
proud record-but THIS is almost wholly
story of the past. ia Presidential elec
tom tcere to be held tomorrow, tie Republican
defeat 1couid be due to the fact that the par
" is lcithOW a consolidating national issue;
that it has no single and sacred purpose 10
achieve that it has no watch word-no
bsttle-ory-no camp-song in short, that it
is without the moral sinews of its earlier
DAYS.
hepuDncAnh as we Rre-yea, radical
among radioals-loe beIieoe that the greatest
blessing that could betaU the nation in 1872
icouId be to see the Democratic party ratify
the arbitrament of the war, accept the plan
Of reconstruction, carry out the fourteenth
and fifteenth amendments, forget that the
negro is black, to remember that he is a
citizen, declare itself against the rebel debt,
and then, on the basis of universal amnesty.
including the abrogstion of all political dis
abilities, take victorious possession of q
government which President Grant has
failed to administer to the satisfaction OF
the country
Believing these to be words of truth and
soberness, we commend them not only to
Democrats but to epublicans-in the as
sured conviction that any political party
which would not rejoice to see its oppo.
nents step voluntarily upward to higher
moral plane, deserves to see itself outdone
in public spirit and outnumbered in popu-
lar support. When such men as Charles
Sumner, Theodore Tilton and hosts of 9th
ers of eminent standing, desert Grant and
his administration, can any sane person
doubt the speedy downfall of our military
President