National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-09-01
P0LLTLGAL LSSUES


The condition of parties seems to be
a subject Of deep concern to large number
of politicians and political journalists at the
present time. The feeling is not confined
to partisans upon either side; the Democrat
is quite as anxious and bewildered as the
Republican. Looking around the political
horizon, the former sees so many fragments
of q party, broken and shattered, one thing
In the South, another in the East and q
third In the West. In fact there are hardly
two counties in any State in the Union
where Democracy means one and the same
thing with kthe exception Of the South,
where the faithful never fail to rally to the
bugIe call of destruction and death to the
negro. On the other hand, the Republican
misses the old-time discipline and order,
when the party stood shoulder to shoulder
in unbroken line, as determined and irresis-
tible as its armies In the field. He sees
brigades and divisions marching of under
different leaders and commanders, each one
making the campaign in his own way, and
with apparent difference Of plan and pur
pose. In Indiana, for instance, Mr.. Morton,
holding his State in about as complete con-
troll as in the days when we spoke and
wrote and sung of him as the "Great War
Governor, " assumes a position almost in
direct conflict with Mr.. Blaine, in Maine.
In Pennsylvania the Cameron interest as
serts itself in the usual way, taking time by
the forelock-the Swiss legion of our ma
tional politics. In New York all is uncer-
tsinty and doubt; possessing as many fac
tions as there are ward politicians, each one
Of which wants an organ" to represent it,
no one can tell where the party in that State
stands, or what it will do. For q quarter
ola century. upon both sides, there have
been two objective points in New York
politics-the Custom House and New York
city. National interests have always been
subordinated in the struggle to capture the
one or the other, and it is hardly too much
to say that there never has been party in
the Empire State which would not make
any barter or bargain, however disreputa-
bic, to secure the one or the other.
The condition Of the two organizations
to-day-Republican and Democratc-is
somewhat the same as that of Scotland at a
certain period of her history. We have
innumerable chieftains with stout follow
ings, each making war against the common
enemy in his own way and in his own time,
with no concert of action and no definite
plan of campaign. As we said, what is
true in this respect Of one party is equally
true of the other. For example, here Is
the New York World, in the interest of its
Eastern chieftains, reading Mr.. Hendricks
and Mr.. Thurman out of the Democratic
party Commenting upon the accidental
agreement Of the New York and Illinois
Oemocrqts-fOr everything now done by
that parry in a national way seems only an
accident-upon the subject of free trade
and the finances, that paper says: ut set
"tes finally and irTevocably what the
q timidity OF Governor Hendricks and the
Indiana Democrats the temporizing of
Senator Thurman and the Ohio Demo
Gratis had seemed to put in doubt, to wit:
"the Democracy of Democrats. " Here
we have Messrs. Thurman and Hendricks
plainly notified by the New York managers
that they have been either recreant to their
party OF, what is almost as bad, that they
have not the brains and sagacity to entitle
them to its leadership. Considering their
past services to the party, and their present
position and aspirations in it, this is q harsh
and severe blow. The criticism that they
are towards and temporizers is rssping and
exasperating. To be written down as
timid and vacillating is not calculated to
help their chances for the Presidential
nomination, the point which each of them
is endeavoring 70 attain to in the near
future. The object Of this attack upon
Hendricks and Thurman in the World is
not, however, 50 much an assault upon
those gentlemen as an effort to rally the
national Democracy upon some simpler
tangible platform In national affairs. Our
contemporary sees the weakness of its party
that the divisions and dissensions which
exist in # are destroying all hope Of its
being able to achieve victory in 1875; that
If the campaign were to begin now It
would have no hope of success.
But although the two parties resemble
one another in their present disorder and
disorganization, there is great and striking
difference between them in this, namely
That the division in the Democratic ranks
is real, marking an inability to unite upon
definite policy, while in the Republican
party it is merely the result of the smbi-