Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-04-02

EVER since the war sundry wlseacres
have time and again decreed the death of
the Republican party, but it still lives"
These philosophic gentlemen year after
year proclaim that the party has survived
the issues which brought it into being
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
stiffening limbs and so retire to its ever
| lasting rest. They have shown surpass-
ng anxiety to administer upon its effects,
but instead of enjoying this felicity their
own incongruous estates have regularly
gone to probate. We have had " Peoples
Parties" SOLDIERS Parties" and last, but
not least, the great Liberal Party" of
1872 was sprung upon the country-but
they have all come to grief, leaving their
projectors irretrievably stranded on the
bars and beaches of popular contempt
Annually almost have these experiments
been essayed. These little cock boats of
parties have been launched upon the
swelling tides Of human affairs only to be
wrecked by the October AMI November
gales. Such manufactured political par
ties are made up as anonymously as the
horrid monster of Frankenstein, 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 sud
denly 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.
al, ~, - al .,,l,
| lican 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
| upon the slavery question. For instance,
| it is the first organization to recognize
| the difficulties which surround the trans.
| portation problem. In the discussions
| to which the subject has given rise in
Congress we find the Republicans earn
estly at work in devising some mode of
relief while the Democracy array them
selves against it, alleging the exploded
/ doctrine OF State rights as interven
| ing to continue these wrongs. And
| do not the Liberal papers generally
throughout the country indorse this
untenable position: That the Constitu.
| ton, made "to provide for the common
defense, promote the general aoeltare," etc,
! is utterly powerless, nay, more prevents
any and all considerations of relief at
the hands of our lawmakers? The bill
now before the House of Representatives,
reported from the Committee ON Railways
| and Canals, embraces all that the wisdom
and experience of the world has yielded
up TO this time, looking not to any sud
den measure of relief, but to deducing
| them from the experience of this and
other nations. This plan meets the ap.
prevail of the best men in the country, and
! is moving in the right direction; not to
arbitrary or destructive measures to check
| the enterprises of those who build and
! operate our railways, but to such fair and
! iudiciOus action as shall conserve their
interests and protect the people at the
/ same time. But this course-this effort
| TO arrive at exact justce--in this great
! issue of the times, finds no favor with
| either our Demo cratic or heightened Lib.
eral friends
y In the face of issues and in
! terests which come home to every person
! IN the land, is there not still need of a
! party which won its way to power by its
devotion to popular rights? Can its
mission be said to have been completed
while It still interposes its power 70 abate
wrong and insure the prosperity of the
| great and abiding interests ofthe country?
The day may come for the Republican
party to disband its organization, but
! while it shall remain as true to the inter
ests of the people as it has thus far done
that time has not yet arrived. In the
| midst Of detraction never before paral-
leled II fearessly grapples with issues as
4 they arise, and its instincts in the direc.
i ton OF the right are as unerring as they
were at any time during the period Of
i slavery agitation or the war in which il
! was Dream