The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1874-10-27
They Cam. stand Defeat.

They Cams stand Defeat.
In yesterdays Sentinel there was an ex-
posture of the cowardice of the adminlstra-
ton papers in regard to the third term
scheme. The New York Times has already
put in a defense for its course by producing
extracts to show that it never favored the
reelection of Gen. Grant. The sin of the
lay, not so much in their open
advocacy of the the third term move
ment, as in their dishonest endeavor to per-
suade the people that no such scheme was
on foot. While protesting independence of
the executive and a sincere devotion
to the interests of the people, they
were the most serviceable tools in
the hands of the president. They lulled all
suspicion in the public mind in regard to
the public danger. When the Herald
sounded the alarm they sneered at its folly (;
when the Couriar-Journal echoed the warn
ing, they ridiculed Watterson about the
SHERRY and the champagne" when the
Tribune re-echoed it they sneered at Reid for
attempting to make use of Benefits thun-
der; when southern politicians of every de-
scription avowed their participation in the
scheme, they pronounced the whole mattera
weak invention of the enemy; when South
Carolina republicans, declared themselves in
the plot, and Pennsylvania and Kansas re-
publicans repudiated it, and New York
republicans preserved discreet silence,
the party papers still protested vehemently
that the whole third tenn business was
mere delusion. So far as in them lay they
became accessories to the villainy. Now
that the unpopularity of the administration
is made plain by the last elections, these
same journals come out with i'll timed zeal to
denounce plot which they have maintained
stoutly never had any existence. 1t is for
tunate that they have set their own refuta-
ton of their former declarations upon record.
The country can now understand the devo-
ton with which they serve their party at the
expense of the general good.
Another strange inconsistency of the re-
publicans is the style in which they turn
upon the temperance people. After the
election is over, and that intense anti-liquor
sentiment which broke out year ago, and
on which they calculated as certain means
of victory has failed them, the politicians
reYile the reformers for the defeat which they
have suffered. The party managers adopted
high moral ground in its declaration of prin-
icples. It conducted the campaign in its usual
"we are holier than thou'style, and now when
the election is over, they expose hollowness
of their professions by accusing the temper
ance people of injurlng them by their ILL
alliance. If the republicans
were beaten on account of the stand
which they took upon the temperance
question it behooves them to'come out man.
fully and declare that their ante-election
professions wero sincere, and that they will
stand by their principles through fifty de-
feats rather than sacrifice them for single
victory. Iftheir temperance resolution was
a piece of political folly they shonld have
said so long ago. If it embodied wise and
good principle of government they should
hold to it until they see it triumph. Honest
minded people should see to it that they do
not play fast and loose on the subject, as they
seem inclined to. The Sentinel is happy TO
say that it has advocated nothing during
the canvass which it was not prepared to
stand by in triumph or defeat.
The most curious political trick of all,
however, is that which some of the repub-
cans of Indiana are endeavoring 10 play in
order to exalt Senator Morton and them
selves at the expense of Gen. Grant and the
rest of the party. For some days the rumor
has been current that the leader of the re-
publican party in this state contemplated
opening the Indiana campaign with an
onslaught upon the administration. He
was convinced that the organization in this
state could only act successfully in COM
plete Independence of the party in Their
ton and unhampered with the record OF
the federal government. This story
was circulated in the Chicago papers
few days ago, and reappears at full length
in the Tribune of yesterday morning in the
letter of an Indianapolis correspondent,
made conspicuous by editorial comment.
This pretended reputation of the president
and the whole party record is certainly a
cool piece of impudence. How can the re-
publicans of Indiana wash their hands of
the sins of the administration? The con-
vention professed great pride in the party
history. Every official from the highest to
the lowest shares in the responsibility for
the wrong done; and the attempt 70 weaken
confuse or blot the lines OF the past is
simply to efface all claim to peculiar
political character. If Indiana republicans
are NOT in union with republicans
OF the rest of the nation in regard to national
policy, then they cease to be republican, for
the state issues can give them no distinct