National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-12-17
MR. DAWES AND PARTY COUR
ACE

In a recent speech in the House Mr..
Dawes is reported as follows: 'The Re
publican party has Just three months in
" which to save or bury itself, and has the
"rarc opportunity of performing the work
"for itself Nc other power can accom-
''plish its ruin. 1t will pass out of mind
and memory in the politics of this
Country, if at all, by its own hand. 1t
g has the power, as well as the oppor-
'tunity, of accomplishing either of these
"rcsults. In the past glory and achieve
''ments Of that party am as proud as any
zone. In the grand possibilities of its
culture no man has more faith than !
'have and in the work it 'isrs thus far &C
Complished no man has devoted more of
'years or strength. Let me say, there
fore, TO those who have its future in
'their keeping, whatever else may betide
ait, let it not die for want of courage"
Words very like the above appeared in a
number of this journal about the first or
second of last November on the eve Of that
months election. We predicted defeat
then, because in the campaign that was
closing and in the Congress session that
preceded it, when the real work of the
campaign was done, the country saw the
most notable want of courage, the most re-
markable exhibition of cowardice and i'm
becilty ever witnessed in our party his
tory.
We sincerely trust that the advice of Mr..
Dawes, as laid down in the above excerpt,
will be taken in the sixty or seventy days
Of life that are left TO it in the popular
branch of the Government. But what is
The prospect? Not TO 60 back beyond the
week, We have a proposition pending in
This same House to adjourn for nearly two
weeks TO take what is called the holiday
recess. If these were ordinary days, if the
party were in its old supremacy, there
could be no very strong objection to the
motion; but when it is not, and when the
purpose of the Democratic leaders in the
House is not concealed that they mean to
force March session of the Forty fourth
Congress- by defeating the appropriation
bills and bringing the Government to a
stand still, the proposition to adjourn is, in
party point Of view, simply monstrOus.
There is no excuse for ii. The gentlemen
who are so anxious to get away have had
4 holiday for the last six months, and, so
far as public life is concerned, there
is, we are sorry to say. a long, long
holiday before many of them from the
fourth day of next March. The appropria-
tion bills are ready, or nearly so. Why
not 90 ahead with them and pass them,
and, in the meantime, agree upon some
financial bill which shall give relief to the
country? The mechanic, the merchant,
the farmer, the manufacturer, every rank
and class of our people are entreating the
Republican party in Congress to do this
work, bring them out Of their present dis
tress, and make bright the dark and threat
ening future before them. Their petition
is answered by proposition to run away
for two weeks, to blot out one sixth of the
entire session, and fritter it away in idle
frivolity. What is it but cowardice of the
most contemplate character?
The party has been dying Of the disease
for the last two years, and we expect that
there is no immediate prospect Of its re-
covery. Last winter, when every industry
in the country was paTalyzed, it was too
cowardlv 10 inaugurate the policy which
should give it relief The session was
wasted in weary, sickening debate upon a
finance bill which the President vetoed and
the country repudiated At the polls. In the
House it was too cOwardly to pass the civil
rights bill or to reject it. 1t was too cow
ardly to stand by its action of the year be
fore upon the salary question. II was
too cowardly to resist the Opposition
in ordering investigation after investiga-
tiOn into the Departments Of the Govern
ment, merely to make political capital,
TO deal with the murderers and assassins
who were and are making a mockery Of
republicanism in the South. 1t was too
COwardly to do anything; to commit at a
single blow the political suicide it per-
petrated and is perpetrating at the present
time inch by inch. This policy must come
10 an end if the party would live and sue
coed in 1876. Mr.. Dawes seems TO appre-
ciate the situation and condition of the
party, and we trust his words may be
heard and not pass away as the idle wind.
We have had occasion to criticise his
course now and then, and to condemn
many things that he has done, but after all
there are few men in the country who de-
serve better of the party than he, who has
labOred for it more earnestly and sincerely.
He has struck the keynote within the
week, and we trust he will hold the party
to the policy which he seems to foreshadow
in the passage we have quoted. We need
bold men and bold measures. Let him
draw the party lines once, and see how the
party will stand by him. The present is
his greatest opportunity.