New-York tribune., 1872-06-07
NOTHING NEW.
Grant.

Gov. Morton, who is perhaps as much as
anybody else the political manager of the Ad-
minstratiOn, was apparently anxious, on
Wednesday, that the Philadelphia nominees
should not be embarrassed by any declaration
of principles. 1--WE have nothing new" he
exclaimed. "In regard to the platform, it is
" scarcely necessary for this Convention to
" adopt one; the platform of the Republican
"party is found in its history for the past ten
years, and it is to be found in the present
policy of the Administration" Of course the
modest suggestion that the Convention should
take Grant, the Military Ring, the Custom-house
brigade. the General Order swindlers, the arms
brokers, the SantO Domingo SpeculatOrS, the
Senatorial OvcTsceTs, and the P0st-Ofilce Jour
naliss, and commend them all in lump with
out further inquiry, was too much even lor
the Oflice-hOlders to accept. Far as the Phlla-
delphia Convention was ready to go, 1t was
not vet prepared to say that it had no prlncl-
plcs except loyalty to the President, nor would
it venture to promise that the party IN future
would profess whatever his EXcellency might
be pleased to desire. But Senator Morton's
remark was suggestive as an indication OF
what the leaders of the Grant faction think
about politics, and what they imagine to be
the character of the Republican party. A
party which has nothing to do has no busi-
ness to live. Parties cannot sustain themselves
on the memory of past services. They must
not look backward at what they have accom-
plished, but forward at what they mean to
undertake hereafter; and when they cease to
make progress when they have nothing
"newn to propose, when they can approach a
Presidential campaign without feeling the
necessity for the construction of a platform,
il is a sign that their mission is over and they
must fall to pieces. They perish as soon as
they cease to be aggressive. They cannot
stand still when they cease to move onward
their day is over.
Whatever Gov. Morton may think of the
party which he represents, true RepublcanlSm
is conscious of great work to be performed
not merely of the remnants of unfinished
labor to be gathered up, but of something
"new' always pressing upon us, and OF
wrongs to be rightcd and errors to be re-
traced The Liberal party proposes not merely
to finish what the war began, ratiiy what 1t
established, secure its achievements, and heal
its wounds, but to meet new problems which
have arisen since the war ended. 1t proposes
to bring back the Government to the cOnstl-
tutonal principles which the present Admins
tration has abandoned. 1t proposes TO restrict
the Federal authority to its legitimate sphere
and defend the rights of the separate States
and individual citizens, to correct the growing
tendency toward Capitalization, to enforce III
the Executive a scrupulous respect for law,
and subordinate military force to the civil
authority. 1t proposes to complete the recon-
struction of the South by restoring the polit-
cal rights and franchises lost by the war
And it proposes to reform the abuses of the
Civil Service, and if possible to make the huge
system of patronage which now corrupts all
the administrative branches impossible here
after. That is what we purpose doing; and If
the Grant party imagine there Is nothing to
be done but to fold ones arms, talk about
battles, and huzza for the boys in blue, they
will find themselves dreadfully mistaken before
the campaign is ended.