New-York tribune., 1874-11-10
WHAT or THE FUTUREf

II is to be doubted If the Republican party,
so called, fully appreciates at once its peril
and its opportunity. 1t is true that the storm
of popular indignation has just burst upon IT,
but it is equally true that the people were
"slow to wrath The work of the party IN
the past gave such promise OF usefulness In
the future that its omissions have been over
looked and its transgressOns forgiven In the
hope that, with all its mistakes and sins, lts
progress was in the right direction. 1t may
safely be SAID that the verdict was reluctant,
although it was so terrible in its severity.
President Grant finds the elections mere
Joke. Those who cast their ballots against
the party he has made his own took q more
serious view of the matter. To many intelil-
gent independent voters the Republican party
is still dear as the party that freed the slave
and saved the Union, and the Democratic
party is still hateful as the party that upheld
Slavery and sympathized with Secession. IL
must have been a deep disgust which drove
them from the one to the other. Only the GER
tanty that all hope of reforming the party
while in it was at an end could have induced
them to leave it. Only n certainty that the
party is fixed in its folly will prevent them
from returning to 1T.
Two years of administration yet remain to
those in power Whether these are to be the
last, depends entirely upon the way in which
they are employed. Wise and careful govern
ment; economy in appropriation and equal
economy in expenditure; fearless investigation
of abuses and equally fearless reports; due
regard for the rights of States and OF lndl-
viduals; promp. cessation of the oppression Of
the South which has done much to make the
name of Grant infamous; moderation OF the
bitter partisanship which is characteristic OF
third rate intellects such as compose the Grant
party-these beneticent reforms might do much
to regain for it the prestige it has lost, and
enable it to present confident front in 1876
Here lies its opportunity.
Its peril first thrusts itself forward. If any
one thing can be said to have been decided by
the elections, it is that the people will no longer
tolerate that strange political essence detested
in Massachusetts, rs Butlerism, in Pennsylya-
mia as CamerOnism, in Michigan as Chand-
lerism, and known generically everywhere
as Grantism. The Republican party as
now constituted needs not SO much reform
as total reconstruction. Grantism has
been repudiated at the polls; it must
now be repudiated in the caucus and the
convention, if Republicanism is to establish
any further claim to existence. The leaders
who have been condemned by the people must
be deposed by the politicians, or the latter
may as well abandon their calling. New men
and new measures must show themselves.
But if, on the other hand, there is to be no
change either in the policy or the leaders of the
party if its notorious corruptionists are to be
sustained and encouraged F.; if sovereign States
are to be governed by telegraph from Wash
ington, and usurping despotism made perma-
ncnt by Presidential caprice if venality is to
be concealed, defended, extenuated, and denied;
if, in short. Grantism is still to masquerade
in the dress of Republicanism, the election of
two years hence will be decided long before
it takes place. There is only one way for the
Republican party out of its present peril.
Gov. Morgan and the other bewidered leaders,
who are talking in dazed way about re-
organization on a broader basis, may as we'll
take notice. The reorganization which in
cudes Grant Grantism is reorganizing
for destruction.