The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1874-02-17
THE REpUpL,CAN PARTY

A few days since we endeavored to
show how the local and temporary failure
of the Republican party in some states
had been mistaken tor its general decline.
In great army, scattered along vast
frontier, there may be varying successes
at different points. The trusted commander
may treacherously yield an important po-
sition. Imbecile officers may sacrifice
brave soldiers in mad conflicts barren of
results. towards may retreat without
a blow struck or shot fired upon the
approaching foe. All this may happen
while the main army holds its own or
steadily advances into the heart of the enc
my's country. In the history of every
party, as in the history of every man,
local and temporary defects are the uni
yersal experience. Though there come
the stern and wholesome lessons that
point the way to ultimate success the
Republican party carried the nation
triumphantly at the last Presidential cleo
ton. The battle was fought out essen
TALLY upon the ground Of accepting or
rejecting the results of the war. 1t was
partisan contest. 1t proved conclusively
that the past work of the party was gen.
orally approved by the American peo-
pie, or at least that the people
forb6de the return to power Of the Demo-
cratic party under any form whatever.
Unfortunately the Republican party found
itself in the last Congress largely repre-
sented by men who had outlved their day
Of usefulness, or by greedy and unprinci-
pied adventurers, who, having no faith
or sympathy with it, were allured to its
ranks by the hope of plumber. To these
might be added large number of sincere
and honest men, destitute Of all insight and
inspiration, to whom Republicansm meant
only the repetition Of party watch words,
long since rendered meaningless by the
lapse of time. To such men the new
needs and the new issues which pressed
hard upon the daily life of the people APP
pealed in vain. Industry and Trade,
struggling and strangling in the giant coils
of o monstrous monopoly, cried out
vainly in their agony for help.
The Democratic representation generally,
calculating, selfish, and indifferent to
to all else but the hope Of profiting by the
faults of its antagonist. was willing to see
the country ruined if it might thereby
purchase temporary return to power.
Its conduct last winter adds new chapter
to the black record Of its infamy. To the
cry Of the people for bread, it gave only
the stone of its hypocritical SYM
pathy 1t lifted no voice for
the peoples cause. 1t pressed no
measure to save the country from the
grasp Of monopoly. Between a sinister
and brutalized Democracy and fossilized
and plain Republicanism, Congress was
controlled in the interest of the monopo-
lists and the money ring. All the great
measures Of popular relief in financial
reform, in biography, in providing for
higher education. in securing to labor its
Just reward--all these great measures
were insultingly thrown back into the face
of the people from the steps of the Capt.
toll. A few months more and the great
ruin of September came over US like the
burning srocco from the sandy wastes Of
Sahara. 1t dried up the flowing rills Of our
prosperity and blighted every green thing.
1t was the natural result of system false
in principle and unjust in every detail. Its
coming had been forseen and predicted by
farseeing men, but no hand was raised by
Congress to defend the country from its
approach. 1t is not strange that a
suffering people held the dominant party
responsible for the terrible ruin that the
last Congress could have prevented by
just and timely legislation. But yet the
party was not morally responsible. The
local defeats that we suffered last year
were largely caused by the September
panic. Now what is the lesson of to-day
for the Republican party? We have a
new Congress, fresh from the people. AS
their predecessors failed to meet the living
questions of to-day, let them not fail.
We look to the Republican majority 10
Congress to meet the great issues of the
present trying hour in the same spirit of
justice, love of liberty and love of their
fellow men, which inspired the party in its
old heroic days. In this spirit let them
approach the paramount issues of finance
and take the side of the oppressed as of
yore. Let them seize upon the telegraph
and railroad questions not as patisans, but
aspatriots, determined that justice shall pre-
vail and equity shall rule 10 the great trans.
actions of trade, which hinge upon national
legislation. Let Republicanism strike off
the antiquated fossils and barnacles who
are too indolent to learn the new issues and
too selfish to give heed to the new needs
Of the country. Let it grid up its loins to
the grand work of clearing the land Of the
decayed rubbish Of the past. Let it bare
its right arm to plant the seeds of noble
growth in the goodly soil spread out be-
fore it, and the people will rally as of old
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