Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-02-06
THE RUTLAND HERALD.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY s, 1878.



nNo strict Party votes"
A dispatch from Washington notices
the fact that hardly a question has been
passed or rejected, at the present session
of Congress, by "a strict party Yo'e'
and accounts for the fact as one Oh tne
results of the Credit Mobilier inyestiga-
tion. Without some other reason why
this protracted investigation should result
In and be responsible for everything ex-
cept on the sole ground that they both
exist at the same time, we cannot see
any possible connection between the
two. 1t Is no matter of surprise, how
ever, that party lines are not strictly
drawn, or that the votes are not divided
on the basis of party affiliations. 1t is
one of the effects that might naturally
have been expected to flow from the
mixed condition of political affairs dur
ing the past summer, and from the re-
suit of the Presidential election. Where
In, taking the changed condition of the
country into consideration, does the
present political outlook differ from that
of the period commencing in 1917, with
the first election of Mr. Monroe, and
continuing for years thereafter. The old
Federal party, at that time, had been
practically dead for years, but they raj
lied sufficiently to give Rufus King, a
profound statesman of New York, the
Presidential votes of three States and an
electoral vote of only thirty-four. The
questions which had so long divided the
Republican and Federal parties had been
decided over and over again. The war
of 1912, and the complications growing
out of it, had all been settled, and for
sixteen years, in spite of all opposition,
the party of jefferson and Madison had
enjoyed unbroken and almost undispHted
sway over governmental affairs. Monroe
was President for eight years, being re-
elected substantially without opposition,
and during his whole term the country
was in state of political calm, the op-
position going to pieces at the COM
mencement of, if not before, his second
term. Thenceforth, for twelve years or
more, and until after the beginning of
General Jackson's first term, there were
no political parties. The strife, when
any there was, was not between organ
lied parties, but between individuals of
the same party. Politics became mar
rowed down to contests for the choice of
particular individuals. John Quincy
Adams was elected over candidates of
the same political faith, and so was
Jackson. Wherein is the present situa-
ton different, whether we consider the
professed principles of the parties or the
actual condition of affairs. Examine
carefully the several platforms" under
which the parties professed to conduct
the Presidential contest of last year, and
conceeding that they are honest and
sincere in their professions, and wherein
do they differ in principle, save, possibly
on the tariff question. And it will be
remembered that party lines never could
be drawn straight on matters pertaining to
thetariff, both and all parties always con-
tanning among their leaders and general
adherents more or less protectionists as
we'll as free traders. The franking
privilege is abolished, amnesty substan-
TALLY secured, universal suffrage and
equal rights conceded, the payment of
the public debt held sacred obligation,
and the validity of the constitutional
70 o1, no
main propositions in all the platforms.
If the parties were honest and sincere in
enunciating these principles, there is no
political issue before the people. And
whether they were honest or not, these
matters are all settled past probable or
possible recall, and, with them, have
ceased all issues that have heretofore di-
yided the people. Again, at the last
election, the Democracy tacitly confessed
that they had nothing bat captious OPP
position to make to the measures and
policy of the party in power, by practi-
cally abandoning their party organiza-
ton and placing in nomination, as the
opponents of their professed principles,
their life long political opponents. So
the election not only decided the ques-
ton of personal preference, but settled
and laid forever at rest all disputable
political issues, that had divided the
country for the past eighteen years
This, 1t seems to us, accounts for the
fact that there are no "strict party
votes" in Congress.