The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1874-04-03

Organization and Vitality of Parties.
Ever since the war sundry wise
acres have time and again decreed
the death of the Republican party,
but it "stin lives" These philosoph-
ic gentleman year after year pro-
claim that the party has survived
the issues which brought it into be-
.ing-has fulfilled its mission-and
that the only things left for it to do
are to go into its shroud, close its
eyes, compose its stifening limbs,
and so retire to its everlasting rest,
They have shown a surprising anx-
iety to administer upon its effects,
but instead of enjoying this felicity
their own incongrucus estates have
regularly gone into probate. We
have had peoples PARTIES" "Sold-
iers' PARTIES" and last, but not least,
the great "Liberal Party" Of 1872
was sprung upon the country-but
they have all come 10 grief, leaving
projectors irretrievably stranded on
the bars and beaches Of popular con-
tempt. Annually almost have these
experiments been essayed. These
little cock-boars Of pa.ties have
been launched upon the swelling
tides of human affairs only to be
wrecked by the October and Novem-
Der gales. Such manufactured po-
litical parties are made up as incon-
gruously as the hoTrid monster Of
rrankenstein, 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 suddenly 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-
votion to the best interests of the
people. Such has been the course
Of the Republican party. Annually
doomed by its enemies to defeat for
many years past, it is still alive and
vigorous, and it boldly takes
positions in the interests of
the people, as new issues arise,
just as it did on the slavery question.
For instance, it is the first organiza-
ton 10 recognize the difficulties
which surround the transportation
problem. In the discussions to
which the subject has given rise in
Congress we find the Republican
earnestly at work in devising some
mode of relief, while the Democracy
array themselves against it, alleging
the exploded doctrine of State rights
as intervening to continue these
wrongs. And do not the Liberal pa
pers generally throughout the coun-
try indorse this untenable position:
That the Constitution, made 'to pro-
vide for the common defense, pro-
mote the general acelfare," etc., is ut
terly powerless, nay, more, prevents
any and all considerations of relief
at the hands of our law makers? The
bill now before the House of Repre-
sentatives, rIborted from the Com
mittee on Railways and Canals, en-
braces all that the wisdom and expe-
rience Of the world has yielded up to
this time, looking not to any sudden
measure Of relief, but to deducing
them from the experience Of this and
other nations. This plan meets the
approval of the best men in the
country, and is moving in the right
direction; not to arbitrary or de-
structive measures to check the en-
terprise of those who build and oper-
ste our railways, but to such fair and
judicious action as shall conserve
their interests and protect the people
at the same time. But this course
this effort to arrive at exact justice
in this great issue of the times,
finds no favor with either our Dem
ocratic or high-toned Liberal friends.
In the face Of issues
and interests which come home to
every person in the land, is there not
still need of party which won its
way to power by its devotion to pop
ular rights? Can its mission be said
to have been completed while it still
interposes its power to abate wrong
and insure the prosperity of the great
and abiding interests of the country?
The day may come for the Republi-
can party to disband its organization,
but while it shall remain as true to
the interests Of the people as it has
thus far done that time has not yet
arrived. In the midst Of detraction
never before paralleled it fearlessly
grapples with issues as they arise,
and its instincts in the direction Of
the right are as unerring as they
were at any time during the period
of slavery agitation or the war in