The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-03-28
The Republican Party.


party has been called r;,on TO pass
through very trying ordeal during the
past few months. Success had produced
its usual fruits-it had given it great
power, and made it many enemies. For
more than year past there has scarcely
been day on which it has not been bit
terly assailed. Last summer an organ
lied and determined effort was made to
overthrow it. Some of the journals
which once had represented it suddenly
turned traitors, and exceeded its natural
foes, the Democrats, in the violence of
their attacks and reproaches. We were
told by the New York Tribune that
"party lines were broken, and, by way
of proving it, that paper falsified its en-
tire previous history, and became rabid
Democratic sheet, as it has ever since
remained. In its early course it ruined
the reputation of its "founder, but that
was lesson which had little significance
for his Successors, who have no reputa-
tons to lose-or, ut least, no regulations
from which they would not willingly
part. In this city there is no journal
which is so implacable or unjust foe to
the Republ :an party, for the notorious
since deprived it of every vestige of in
huence. The most careless and easy
going community in the world will not
attach much importance to the express
sions of journal which is one day sold
for house in Fifth avenue, and another
for sum of money paid directly into an
exhausted exchequer.
Besides these open foes of the Repub-
Gcan party, it has had many enemies
within its own ranks. We need not re-
call the history of the last Presidential
election. Everybody remembers how,
at one time, there seemed scarcely any
limit to the faithlessness of our avowed
friends. They went to bed Republicans
and woke up Democrats-only they dis
guised their Democracy under the inno-
cent name of Liberalism" A Liberal
Republican is only Democrat who has
not the courage to .avow his real princi
Piles. He means to destroy his opponent
if he can, but he will DO it, like an
Italian bravo, by stabbing him in the
back. OF such enemies the Republican
party had to face an abundance last
year. Nor were its troubles over when
the election came to an end. There were
some men who had been much trusted,
and whose good names were deemed be-
yond reproach, who had fallen under the
influence of these great corporations
which, as Gen. Hawley has truly said,
threaten to debauch, if not to ruin, the
country. When they were first attacked,
almost everybody believed them to be
entirely innocent. 1t was incredible that
men who had SO long possessed the pub
should have held any traffic with lobby
lists or bribers. The theory that rich
corporation should have " friends in
Congress ought to have had no weight
with them. Few can be blamed for be-
heving in the integrity of men who were
implicitly trusted by the entire Ameri-
can people. Even now, there are men
who say that their acts were not repre-
hensible. But what is to be said of their
own conflicting explanations of these
acts? If you are to defend their con-
duct, how are you to justify their varied
excuses of it? To take few shares of
stock below its market value may not be
in itself clear proof of bribery but when
the accused person denies that he ever
saw or touched the profits, and they are
afterward found in his pocket what is to
be said for him?
These circumstances have thrown a
certain degree of reproach upon the Re
publican party, and yet it is reproach
which the party itself does not in the
least deserve, and, consequently, it is
one from which it will speedily recover.
The party has kept it's faith with the ma
ton. 1t has broken no pledges. 1t may
L Ill 90 e
its more advanced members, but it must
be remembered that it has had its work
to do under circumstances of uneXam-
pied difficulty 1t had great war to
conduct amid the most savage opposi-
ton. If anybody wants to recall exam
pies of furious enmity to our Govern
ment, he need not 60 to foreign journals
for them-let him turn over the pages of
that corrupt and unprincipled sheet
which in this city assumes TO represent
the Democratic party The success of
the war only intensified the hatred of the
disloyal Democrats. They have never
forgiven the Republican party for sup
pressing treason at the South. Since
1865 tho Republicans have inflicted a
fresh series of defeats upon the Demo
Gratis, although the latter could boast of
deriving strength from that curious abor-
ton known as Liberal Republicanism.
Twice their attempts to gain possession
of the Federal Government have been
frustrated. In local as well as national
affairs constant humiliation has been
brought upon them. In 1871 their lead
ers in this State we're proved to be men
who were either swindlers themselves or
in collision with swindlers. 1t fell to
our lot to expose these swindlers-if it is
not crime to mention that fact-and
we have been rewarded with their enmi-
ty ever since. The best certificate of the
thoroughness with which our work was
done is to be found in the vindictive ha-
tired of most of our city contemporaries
a hatred which at least we have never
sought to appease. Whatever else these
chivalrous foes may assert, they can
never say that we have tried to lessen
their animosity, or have been otherwise
than proud of their resentment. We, in
fact, have merely fallen in for a share of
the virulence with which the Republican
party has been assailed After a heavy
siege, that party to-day stands firmly
81 -, <lo q tlo go