The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-10-30
From Harper's Weekly
REACTION.

The significance of the elections in
Ohio and Indiana is very plain. They
chow great dissatisfaction with the eX-
isting situation, and they threaten a
Democratic reaction. But to many OF
the truest Republicans in the country
the result is probably not surprising.
For more than a year there has been
great deal of protesting and crltielslng
within the party lines, which has been
sometimes scolded as the grumbling OF
impracticable people, but which now
seems to have been the observation of
eommon-sense. If the theory of our
government be correct, nothing is more
certain than that the party in power
will be held to strict account for the
character of its measures and of its
representative men, and that eXtrava-
ganee and recklessness in management
and low tcne of leadership will end in
disaster to the party. ITO stand by the
partyD is a useless exhortation to intel
ligsnt men, unless they see that the par
ty is resolved to secure those ends which
intelligent men desire by means of such
agents as intelligent men can respect.
The Republicans in the Essex district Of
Massachusetts who select a man like
General Butler as their representative
defeat the Republican candidates in In
diana and Ohio. 1t is they, and not
Republicans, who insist upon honesty
and principle in politics, who are re-
sponsible for Republican disasters.
The general torpidity of business, the
prolonged confusion in the Southern
States, the suspicion of corruption and
inefficiency in the public service, the
hostility TO stringent temperance legis-
lation, are among the reasons which
have fostered that desire for change
which is shown in the elections. There
is not one of these complaints, however
except that of the temperance laws,
which would be removed by a Demo-
cratic restoration. All the sincere ieal-
ousy of union, with all the hatred that
survives the war; all the hostility to the
principles and the purpose of the new
amendments to the Constitution; the
spirit of oppression of the negro; the
desire of repudiation-are all included
in the Democratic party. In States
where the old spirit of caste, fOstered by
ignorance of every kind. is strongest, in
those parts of the country which are the
most backward in civilization and gen
eral development, the Democratic party
is now, as it always was, more powerful
tnan its opponent. In the great centres
of intelligence. industry, enterprise
and an advancing social condition the
Republican party is dominant Ken
lucky and Maryland are distinctively
Democratic States; Massachusetts,, Iowa.
and rural New York are Republican.
Every patriotic and enlightened Amer
lean must prefer to see thecountry guard
ed by the spirit of the great Northwest
and of New England and New York
rather than by that of the old Bourbon
and Slave States The curse of slav-
cry that bIighted them so long has
not yet passed away. 1t is not TO them
that the country is to look for sober
principles and wise and humane policy.
And there could be no greater misfor-
tune than that the government should
again fall under the domination from
which it was rescued in 1860 and saved
only by terrible civil war A Demo
cratic restoration would not restore
chattel slavery, but it would bring into
power the party which zealously main
tanned it, and which was thoroughly de
bGuched by the base and inhuman posi-
tion which 1t assumed. As the World
said on the morning after the elections
in Indiana and Ohio. 1.-The Democratic
party which was dead is alive again
with all its annor on" What that means
every American kncws who remembers
the history of the last twenty years.
The Democratic party with all its
arInor on" means Tammany triumphant;
possible reputation; hatred of the ne
gro; raids on the Treasury for Southern
war claims of every kind; the extinc-
ion of hope of reform of the civil ser
vice; degrading reaction against the
ofty and American spirit that sustained
he war; restless and defiant foreign
.one; renewed ecclesiastical efforts TO
overthrow the public-schools system; and
re-opening of the claim of State SOW
.reignty. Ii does not mean honest ad-
economy, a purer civil
ervice, wiser and more temperate
oreign policy, truer regard for equal
lights, steadier and sincerer mainte-
lance of the constitutional settlements
'f the war, progressive peace and pros
'erlty. That such a restoration should |
De treated as even possible is a severe
'Ilticism of Republican conduct of the
government; and it is the plain and
pressing duty of all honorable Repub-
lcahs to make it impossible by voting
,hly Tor honest aud capable men of
neir own political faith, for such men
none can maintain the Union with free
ioin' intelligence, and justice