Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1874-03-27
Organization and vitality Of Parties.

Ever since the war sundry wiseacres
have time and again decreed the death of
the Republican party, but II "stili lives"
These philosophic gentlemen year after
year proclaim that the party has survived
the issues which brought It into being
has fulfilled It's mission-and that the
only things left for 1t to do are to go into
its shroud, close its eyes, compose its
stffenlng limbs, and so retire TO Its ever
lasting rest. They have shown surpass-
ing anxiety to administer upon its effects,
but instead of enjoying this felicity their
own incongruous estates have regularly
gone to probate. We have had Peoples
PARTIES" Soldiers PARTIES" and last, but
not least, the great Liberal Party" Of
1872 was sprung upon the country-but
they have all come to grief, leaving their
projectors irretrievabfy stranded on the
bars and beaches of popular contempt.
Annually almost have these experiments
been essayed. These little cock-bosts of
parties have been launched upon the
swelling tides of human affairs only to
be wrecked by the October and November
gales. Such manufactured political
parties are made up as incongruously as
the horrid monster of Frankenstein, and
are of as little use and purpose in the
moral world.
The history of this country shows that
parties with any vitality are of slow
growth. If they spring into being sud
denly they are very apt to be short-lived
If they are based upon vital principles,
and attain power after years of agitation,
their duration is only limited by their de
voticn to the best interests of the people
Such has been the course of the Republi
can party. Annually doomed by its enc.
mics to defeat for many years past, 1t is
still alive and vigorous, and 1t boldly
takes positions in the interests of the peo
pie, as new issues arise, just as 1t did upon
the slavery question. For instance, it is
the first organization to recognize the
difficulties which surround the transpor
tation problem. In the discussions tc
which the subject has given rise in Con
gress we find the Republicans earnestly
at work in devising some mode of relief,
while the Democracy array themselves
against it, alleging the exploded
doctrine of State rights as interven
ing to continue these wrongs. And dc
not the Liberal papers generally
throughout the country indorse this
untenable position: That the Constitu
tion, made "to provide for the common
defense, promote the general toelfare," etc.
is utterly powerless, nay, more, prevents
any and all considerations of relief al
the hands of our lawmakers? The bill
now before the House of Representatives
reported from the Committee on Railways
and Canals, embraces all that the wisdom
and experience of the world has yielded
up to this time, looking not to any sud
den measure of relief, but to deducine
them from the experience of this and
other nations. This plan meets the ap
proval of the best men in the country
and is moving in the right direction; mo-
to arbitrary or destructive measures tC
check the enterprises of those who builC
and operate our railways, but to such fail
and judicious action as shall conserve
their interests and protect the people a
the same time. But this course-thi:
effort to arrive at exact justice-in thii
great issue of the times, finds no favol
with either our Democratic or high-tonec
Liberal friends.
In the face of issues anC
interests which come home to every
person in the land, is there not still nee(
of a party which won its way to powe
by its devotion to popular rights? CaI
its mission be said to have been com
pleted while it still interposes its powe
to abate wrong and insure the prosperit,
of the great and abiding interests of tn,
country? The day may come for tn,
Republican party to disband its organiza
tlon, but while it shall remain as true t.
the interests of the people as it has thu
far done that time has not yet arrived
In the midst of detraction never befor
paraleled it fearlessly grapples with is
sues as they arise, and its instincts in tn
direction of the right are as unerrihg a
they were at any time during the perio'
of slavery agitation or the war in whicl
it was settled.-Inter-Oc Ocean.