Litchfield enquirer., 1872-11-28
ADVICE.


 sidering the fervof with which 1t secuted all suggestions of needed reform during the campaign. This inconsistency, or ap- parent inconsistency, is an excellent sign. It is apractical confession that the Admin istration, while meaning well, has made some very dangerous and disreputable biunden, and that the Republican party, though purer than the new party of Re- form, is.neyertheless, in certain localities at least, dangerously tainted with corrup- ton. q ai Eaa ,goI39sqib yt.a si flaal o
 In the first place this deluge of advice indicates general. desire for some real Civil Service Reform. .ats That politi- clans are to control post offices, forever, IS becoming more and more problemati- cal That Oongressmen are to continue,dol- ing outpublic patronage hereafter, as here-l tofore, we hopefully doubt. The people are growing extremely sensitive to the evils of our present system, and were the President to make a firm stand against Congressional interference he would have the whole country at his back. Present indications are that he will make such stand at once. Should he fail to do so the man who succeeds him 1877 will not so fail. Shrewd politicians have not for gotten how matters looked just after. the Baltimore Convention and when the. first returns from North Carolina misled so care full an observer as Gen. Banks. If MT. Greeley could have carried off an eighth of the old Republican party in July he would have had half by November. a The fear of being an isolated Republican among Democrats, the suspicion that the party controlled by old Confederates and old Copperheads would give the country Reaction instead of Reform, prevailed with many vote who vastly preferred Sum ner, Greeley, Trumbull and Schurz, as leaders, to Morton, Conklin, Cameron and Butler It was the rank and file, not the officers of the self-styled Reform party that were objectionable to Republicans and prevented stampede that once be- gun would have swept away hundreds of thousands of voters: As the animosities en- gendered by the war die out, and the Dem ocratic party and the South, really aban- doned all idea of reaction, Republicans will cling to their organization with less and less tenacity. Year by year the ill re- pute attaching to us from the Camerons, the Buffers, the Murphys, the Caldwells, the Caseys, the Claytons and the whole army of Carpet Baggers, becomes more and more dangerous. Unless we purge ' ourselves of such .perilous stuff it will and ought to be, our ruin. For experience has impressed one thing of all others up the American people-that the surest way to reform a party is to turn it out of power. Along with the blessed victories of the past few months we are profoundly thank full for few blessed defeats. Present appearances seem to justify our hope that we have lost Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. Tn certain contingencies the electoral vote of those states might have been of importance, but in general the advantage the Republican party derives from its ascendency there is vastly over balanced by the frightful corruption that has attended that ascendsncy. With Gen. Grant in power we have no great fear of Democratic oppression, and the present Republican party, there,' is possessed of l devils that nothing but a long course of fasting will cast ont. The sooner, there fore, the rSginc of Carpet Baggers gives place to a rSgiDae forwhich Republicanism is not responsible, our greatest danger and our greatest reproach is removed. Universal Amnesty, now practically grant ed and the rise better Republican party, South, will wipe away the worst stain of corruption that was ever justly attached to the name of Radical
 1t may seem little ungrateful alter what Pennsylvania has done for us to eriticise its Republican models and meth ods, too sharply. Still we cannot express any very profound qualification with the way in which the coal, iron, and railroad interests combined with considerable fraud in Philadelphia to defeat MT. Buck alew and mash poor Greeley out of exist ence. Pennsylvania is the most selfish State in the Union, and if she voted Re- publicanism up, this time, she will be just as ready to vote it down, at another election, should Protection seem in danger. Luckily this is point on which the Presi- has shown that he needs no advice.
 With so many evidences that the Presi- dent is aware of former mistakes, that. he means to lead the van of progress and re- form, and that the Republican masses are in earnest in his support, we can look to the future with as much hope and as lit tie fear as the rapidly varying phases of popular government will ever allow.