New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-12
MP RHTLERS FUTURE.

Mr.. BUILERS FUIUhE.
Whoever supposes Mr.. Butler is crushed, or
that he is even temporarily disposed of or set
back by his defeat at Worcester-and there is
considerable talk of that kind-mistakes the
man and misapprehends the political situation.
Mr.. Butler, as has been before remarked by
THE TRIBUNE, is not merely an audaciOus
demagogue ambitious of preferment. lie is
man with men behind him; a representative
character; and probably the best repre-
sentative of force in politics which is
struggling for the mastery of the Government
and the direction of the political thought of
the country. IT is selfish and aggressive
force, low in character and tone, and eternallY
FESTIVE and uneasy under any clean and
honest rule Rough, unkempt, and unwashed,
vengeful and implacable. it does not admit
defeat or recognize disaster. In.the party now
dominant in the nation it has become dan
gerously powerful. For selfish aggrandize-
ment OF base ambition it has worn the mask
of the party of moral ideas while it sneered
at morality scoffed at virtue, and attached to
every man his price. The revolt of the Liberal
Republicans last year from the dangerous ten
denotes of party under such control, left
these men with larger influence and freer
scope in directing the policy and plans of the
organization. Under the delusion that it
had become safe and practicable, they began
to throw off their thin DISCUSSES and come to
the front claiming IN their own proper char
acter the honors and the spoils of Office. They
have speculated in Credit Mobilier, voted
themselves unearned money, bought and
sold seats in the Senate, bribed the
voter, corrupted the ballot, falsifed the count
and shamelessly held out Executive pardOns
to repeaters and ballot-box suffers, and they
have given their vices public airing in the
most offensive fashion. And then, like the
drunken member of the Legislature who re-
piled to the policeman's inquiry what he was
doing in the gutter, that he was "repre (hic)
senting CRANKY" they boldly assert that
they are representing the people-the average
morality, virtue, and decency of the American
people.
1t is this element in politics that Mr.. Butler
represents and represents with marked ability
and fitness. Already in some of the States it
Is absolute; it elects Governors and Legisla-
lures. buys and sells Legislators, traffics in
franchises, and holds courts and judges be-
tween its dirty thumb and finger. 1t reached
contest between this and the better element
in the party is not at an end, however, even
in Massachusetts,. Responsibility and honesty
made q good fight and won it. Mr.. Butler went
down in the tussle, but it is to be remarked that
be came up smiling, and Mr.. Butler is man not
easily discouraged. He is not disheartened or
ashamed at being bedragged in the dust. 1t
will only make dirtier task for whoever
takes the next hold of him. And it must be
remembered that though he was defeated by
sheer force of numbers, he had in the argu-
ment long advantage. For he brought his
respectable opponents on to the field of his
own selection. He made them face the ques-
ton of caucus obligation and party fealty,
and it was his triumph when they dared not
meet the issue squarely with the assertion
of individual responsibility and duty above
all sanctities of caucus or obligations of party.
He made them face the question, and
dodge. He stays in the party, and so do
they. He will meet them in Convention
again; will lead the same bad element against
them; and if he is not handicapped then as he
was in this canvass, with q Salary Grab bill
carried through at the request of the President
of their choice, will have the odds against them.
And then the gentlemen who on Wednesday
lodged his definition of party fealty will per-
haps in the stress of that more pressing
emergency assert themselves above caucus
and above party, and before God and free
people say that no obligation of party no
Satanic sanctity of caucus no precedent or
custom, or any manner of politicians shift or
demagogue's invention, shall bind them to sup
port candidate or ticket or platform which
is not in their soberest Judgment safe, reputa-
BILE, decent, competent, honest.
Until they come to this, and until the coun-
try comes to this, Mr.. Butler and Mr. Buffers
kind pursue their fight for the control of
the party that controls the country. Mr.. Hoar
and his followers lodged the question on
Wednesday. Earlier in the canvass Mr.. Dawes
did not dodge, but registered gratuitously a
shameful party allegiance that binds him to
help bad man TO power in the nation so
soon as he can by any means get power