Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-08-07
Whole No. 2919

done what l could TO sustain the
President in this effort; and though
some things have been Accomplished.
yet am satisfied that no plan Of COM
petitive examination or advisory
boards can cure the evil until the ex-
eeutive is left free and untrammele..
in the exercise of his constitutional
powers and is held to a strict respon-
sibility for the result of his action,
During the debate on the appropri-
alton to carry into effect his plan of
civil service reform, called on the
President in company with my col
league, the Honorable Mr.. Perry, Of
Cincinnati, and had a full eOnversa-
ton on the subject. The President
expressed an earnt st desire to better
the condition of the service, but it
was easy to see that the chief obsta-
cles in the way of success were those
to which I have alluded.
No mere change of administration
will solve the difficulty. Mr.. Greeley
himself has lately said that in case of
his election he shall make no differ
enee between his Republican and
Democratic supporters, in his appoint
ments to Office, thus taeitly admitting
that the offices Of the government are
to be for his supporters. That is no
civil service reform.
Turning from these general refiee-
tions. now call attention to the more
striking features of
THE CAMPAIGN NOW OPENING.
If we were to judge alone by the
platforms Of the opposing parties, we
might be in doubt whether this cam
paign is contest for principles or
mere struggle for a choice between
men, The battle has already begun
in spirit of unusual violence, and bids
fair to be as fierce and disreputabIe in
the spirit in which it is carried on as
any we have ever witnessed. Neither
candidate ought to be elected by force
of the abuse heaped upon him by his
adversaries; but the issues deserve to
be discussed with manly fairness and
Justice Unless the Democratic Con-
ventiOn, soon to meet in Louisville,
shall put another candidate in the
field the choice for the Presidency
will lie between General Grant and
Horace Greeley. 1t is fair matter
Of discussion to consider the relative
merits Of the two men, the spirit,
character and opinions of the parties
represented by each, and the dangers
to be apprehended from the accession
to power of one or the other of those
parties. No doubt each candidate is
open to criticisms more or less severe.
No doubt each party can be Justly
charged with errors of Judgment and
faults of conduct and of principle. All
these are legitimate topics of debate
and must be considered in making an
intelligent choice. For myself pre-
fer General Grant aud the party
which has put him in nomination,
rather than Horace Greeley and the
party which supports him. shall
indicate briefly the reasons for this
preference. The first is found in the
past career of the two parties. While
it is true that no party can stand on
its past record alone, yet it is also true
that its past shows the spirit and
character of the organization, and en-
ables us to judge what it will probably
do in the future. The most ardent
defender of the Democratic party will
not deny that during the last twelve
years the history Of the party has
been record of repeated failures OF
doctrines strenuOusly advocated but
soon exploded and abandoned of
measures recommended to the nation,
but rejected as unworthy of adoption,
and now no longer finding any con-
siderable number of supporters even
in the party itself. 1t will perhaps
be said by some defenders of the new
movement that the party now in the
field against the Republican party is
no longer the Democracy which we
have fought for the last twelve years.
They may say, in the exuberanee of
their hopes for the future, as Senator
SchuFz said in his st. Louis speech a
few DAYS since: "The Democratic
party no longer recognizes itself
1t has been swallowed up by
the new era. No Dartv
can do what the Democratic party has
done without dropping its historical
identity. 1t cannot return
to its old grooves; that is impossible;
the first attempt would shiver it to
atOms.n This view of the brilliant
Senator from Missouri would be pos
sible if the Democratic party had by
any act or admission of its own con-
sented to dissolve its organization.
But let it not be forgotten that this
very month the Democracy assembled
in convention at Baltimore with a
full body of delegates from each State
and from each congressional district
Of the Union; that the call for its
was strictly to the DemOc-
racy-a call to which none but Demo-
Gratis were invited that its Organiza7.
tion and proceedings were regular in
every respect; that in the adoption of
q platform of principles, it had before
It all the time-hOnOred principles of ,
Democracy from the days of Jackson
down, from which to select; and the
fact that it adopted a platform made
by its late enemies, which eontradie.
ted every subsequent doctrine put
forth by the party for the last ten
years, proves nothing more than that
Il has chosen to try new doctrines in
the hope of better success. Let it not
be forgotten, that in nominating q
candidate it had the whole field Of
Democratic statesmen from which to
choose. The fact that it chose for its
a man who has been for
iOrty years its most conspicuous enc
nv, is by no means an acknowledge
nent that it has devOlved its organi-
satiOn, but only that it has chosen to
wear a mask, and put on the uniform
,f its enemy as a stratagem of war
Even if twenty per cent. of the sup
DOrters of Horace Greeley should be
hose who have hitherto acted with
he Republican party, the significant
act viii still remain that eighty out
If every hundred of his supporters
will be Democrats Of the old school,
lcting through an unbroken organi-
.ation, and inevitably controlling the
policy of the new forty. Two mil
ions seven hundred thousand Demo-
rats voted for their candidate at the
election of 1865; and is
will be vain and Idle for few or even
many thousand Republicans to hope
hat they can leaven this enormous
ump and convert it from what they
Know it has so long been, into an
'arnest, unselfisn, pure and patriotic
party. If the new movement had
,een preceded by an actual, formal
dissolution of the Democracy and the
of new party, there might
lave been reasonable grounds for ex-
,ecting a better result. But / fear
hat our Republican friends who have
-one into it will find themselves like
hose ancient travellers who entered
he cave of the sOrcerer hoping to
ieZe and subjugate him, but were
hems elves robbed and enslaved by