New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-07-16
Political Common Sense.

'ioh VIC may LUX loT q political party
without faults. The best Organization
ever devised by man has had it's weak
points. Even the church, an organiza-
ton where purity and excellence shou'.
be found, if anywhere on earth, has it
shadows which at times darken the ligh,
of it's holy teachings. Yet no one aban.
dons the church because few of its fol
lowers prove unworthy of it's name and
become stumbling blocks in the path of
religious truth few fall but the MANY
press on, holding aloft the standard IF
truth. The ignorant and vicious mt,
sheer at the church because its robes
cover at times hypocrite and rascal, but
the intelligent and virtuous look, not to
the one who disgraces himself by falling
short of his profession, but to the ninety
and nine who add to its glory by living
upright and Christian lives. What we
are apt to call the faults of the church
are simply the shortcomings of few of
its members. The church is no more
responsible for them than the sun is re-
sponsible for the clouds that occasionally
darken the earth. Its teachings tend to
elevate, purify, and if practiced by all
would transform world of wickedness
into perfect garden of love, peace. and
benevolence. But in the face OF human
depravity we must accept things as we
find them. We must bear with the faults
of our neighbors, remembering our own.
We must do the best we can. Perfection
is beyond our reach-improvemen
within it. To so live that by our ex-
ample we shall do good, elevate man
kind, make the earth better for our hav-
ing lived and acted, is the sum and sub
stance of mans duty to himself, his
country, and his God.
AS it is with the church and all moral
organizations so it is with political par.
ties. We must judge them, in the ag-
gregate, by the results they produce Oh
the community, State, and nation. 1t
is possible for bad men to creep into
power in good party, and equally pos
sible for good men to be found within
the compass of bad party. There is no
rule known by which the one can be kept
out or the other prevented from staying
in. A thief may break into sanctuary
and despoil its altar a saint may labor
in prison in hopes of converting its in
mates. We may punish the one when
caught, and urge the other to extend his
labors of love, but the facts remain the
same, and can not we'll be changed. To
Judge the Republican party by the char
acter of a few rascals that have been
caught plundering its altar would be as
just and sensible as to sit in judgment
over the Creator because a few of his
children have gone astray. Never since
the birth of the nation has party been
as quick and willing to investigate what
ever had the appearance of wrong, and
to punish with even-handed justice the
wrong-doer, as the Republican party. 1t
has carried this spirit of justice far be-
yond the demands of political necessity,
and has been censured by its own friends
for prosecuting it's investigations beyond
the requirements of it's inveterate ene-
mics. But it stands justified before all
men for the purity of its intentions. 1t
came into power to watch over and pre-
serve the Government, and it has never
lost sight of its original mission. We
challenge the political history of the
world for party of equal merit for a
party that has done so much to elevate
mankind and secure personal liberty; for
party that has left so broad an i'm
press for justice and humanity on the
civilization of the age in which it had
existence. To permit ambitious politi-
clans, soured statesmen, or the open and
avowed enemies of the Republic to break
up this grand organization would be to
welcome a calamity whose approach
would be ruin, whose presence would be
death to our peace and prosperity, whose
end no man Is wise enough to forecast.
1t matters little whether it falls before
the sword of Democracy or goes down by
the treacherous blows of those it thought
it's friends; its fall will be the same-the
breaking down Of the only loyal barrier
that guards the liberties of the people
from the encroachment Of that despotic
power that once held in the chains of
slavery four million human beings.
We would sound the alarm throughout
the length and breadth of the land. We
would summon every Republican and
every true friend of liberty to their post
of duty. Our enemies are active, unscru-
pulous, determined by threats or promises
to break up the party that saved the ma
ton and that now defends its honor and
its integrity. Every shade of opposition
is being united; little faults are being
distorted into glaring wrongs; the pecu-
lations Of a single official are being held
up as the rule of conduct on the part of
all !; and if our friends are not earnest
and watchful the noblest party of mod
ern times will be overwhelmed by this
foul lido IF rot zion ond falco-