New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1874-10-08
The Vital Question.

The vital Question.
The question to be answered at the ensuing
Congressional elections is not 80 much the
claim of this man or that man for political
preferment as whether the professed princi-
Piles of the Republican party and its action,
in view of those principles, are more condu-
Give to the general welfare OF this great Re-
public than the professions and &C tons of the
Democratic party.
That few members of the Republican
party have participated in corruption is not
to be denied, but that the party as a whole
is censurable for corruption cannot be truth
fIlly asserted. The unearthing of corrupt
practices, and the punishment Of those en-
gagged in them, have been accomplished by
and through the Republican party against its
has ever been true of any other political Or
ganization since the formation of the Govern
ment. Not that there has been more cor
rdptiOn under Republican administrations Of
Government than under Democratic admin
istrations, but that there has been stronger
determination to administer the Government
economically, and with the highest regard
for the nations honor. In such Democratic
strongholds as the city of New York corrup-
ton continued unrebuked and with no effort
to check it on the part ofthe Democratic party,
while its journals all over the State denounced
the charges of corruption as political lies
The large number of trials and convictions of
corrupt men who have put on the Republican
cloak the better to practise their crimes
convictions brought about by Republican
Officials-attest the sincerity of Republican
;1rofessions of desire for honest management
of Governmental affairs. On the score of
honest administration of the Government the
Republican party stands higher than any
party preceding it. In all minor matters of
administration the Republican party has
proven itself as fully capable of administering
the Government as any other party, and we
think eminently more so.
The people of the United States are called
upon to exercise vigilance, lest the founda
ton principles of the Government are lost
sight of, and the evils for which the war of
the Revolution was inaugurated to subvert,
take the place of the good intended to come
from the sacrifices of blood and treasure of
a hundred years ago. The nation needs
peace, and in order that it may have tran
quillity and prosperity among its citizens, it
is necessary that there be no inyidious dis
tinctions in the enjoyment of the benefits of
the law and the Government. Because Of
unjust determinations against the subjects
of England in the Colonies Of America, of
their taxation without representation, came
the great struggle to which Americans
proudly point as the opening for correct
system of government, system to which it is
claimed there is no superior. In the United
States there are two political organizations
differing widely in their policy. The one has
in the past, when it had power, fostered and
protected a system which was denial of the
truths enuncated by the sgners of the Dec
laration of Independence, and which was an
outrage on humanity. This party has been
firm aud persistent in its tendency towards
a denial of the rights that the Revolutionary
fathers declared to be inalienable. The last
President from that party was elevated to
power because of his sympathy with oppres-
sion, and the party became disintegrated in
1850 because il wavered on the questions of
freedom aud slavery. Ever since that time
1t has vainly sought power. At no time has
it fully accepted the principles Of freedom,
but has adhered to that element in the coun-
try that goes farther than any other in oppo-
sition to the principles Of the Declaration OF
Independence. Thus in all cases Of rebel
lion against the Government that seeks to
conform to the principles of the founders,
the Democratic party, and that party only,
furnishes the men to carry on resistance to
such principles. So that to- day the rebellious
spirit in the South, with correct sagacity,
holds the Democratic party North, as well
as South, to be their proper allies, and its
triumph to be their triumph. The patriotic
citizen has to make a choice between this
Democratic party, whose antecetlents in
power, and whose tendencies out Of power
are evidence of its unpatriotic reputation Of
the principles for which the people of the
Revolution fought, and the Republican party
that saved the nation from overthrow by a
Democratic rebellion. Diur oar aFfn ssal
Those who cry that we have lad enough
of Republicanism because some members Of
the party have been guilty Of corruption, do
not take INTO consideration what Republican
ism really means, and how important is its
difference from Democracy. Nor are they
awakened TO the real merits of the party until
some such action of the Democracy as the
horrors perpetrated during the past few
months at the South by Democrats. plainly
show the tendency Of the opposition to Re-
publicanism. The murders BY the White
Leagues are the warnings that the country
may well heed, of the disposition by which
the Democratic party would be controlled.
should it again come into power. A disposi-
ton differing in no respect from Ito old time