National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-02-17
THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY

business department to tie new EEPus.IcAs
building.
THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY
Within the last week one or two of the
more thoughtful of our exchanges have con
hAined articles upon the present ard the III
ture of the Republican party. One Of the
Journals referred to was Republican in Poll
tics and the other Democratic. Our Demo
cratic cotemporary took the position thai
the organization was falling to pieces and
would be certain to he defeated in the Eex'
Presidential campaign. Pointing to The
opposite views entertained by Senator:
Morton and Carpenter in regard to Tic
Louisiana question; to the attacks made
upon the party in Journals which were
formerly among IFS strongest supporters; to
the growth OF the Changers; TO the unset
tied financial condition Of the country, and
to one OF two other matters of minor i'm
rortance, it argued that destruction was in
evi.able The journal upon the other side
viewed the matter in an entirely different
Light Admitting all that its opponent adj
vancet, il maintained that the party has
Still abundant vitality in it that, in fact, IL
is stronger to-day than it has been for years,
for the all-sufiicient reason that it has not
to-day anywhere an organized opposition.
The latter view of the situation is un-
doubleday the more correct one. There is
at the present good deal of unrest in the
public mind. Many men. bodies of men,
are becoming tired of the old issues which
have kept parties divided during the last
thirteen years. and arc anxiously looking
around for something newer and fresher.
In the West we have the farmers uniting in
sort of social-politico organization, which
processes to be one thing to day, but may he
something very different tomorrow. In
the large cities the working classes are agi-
tated and endeavOring to find some solution
of a problem which the wisdom of the world
thus far has been unable to solve. There is
q faction, or a patty. which considers the
national banks 10 be the prime source of
most, il not of all, the ills we are suffering,
orimaginc We are suffering, which is the same
thing; another, which sees in the building
of great lines of internal communication by
the General Government a remedy for
grievances which loudly demand rctlrcss
another which would blow up the custom
houses and send collectors and appraisers
out West to raise corn; and so on and so on.
Those who do not look very far below the
surface of affairs see in this multiplicity Of
parties the humiliation of republicanisni.
Nothing could he more absurd or falhcious.
All these organizations are only SO many
healthy signs of the times; so many evil
dences of the activity of the thought and
aspiration of the country; and the suppose
ton that a new party must necessarily
spring out of one or all of them to be COR
rect must be based upon the condition pre-
cedent that the Republican party is unable
or unwilling to meet and settle any one OF
the questions which seem to call for solu-
tion. The strength of the Republican party
lies in the fact that it is the party Of new
ideas; that it does not stand still, but is ever
upon the advance, keeping pace with the
progress of the time, and not stupidity stand
ing still in the r,lts of the generation in
which II was loundcd.
If we go back to the first platform of the
Republican party. and compare it with each
subsequent one that was framed down to
that of Philadelphia, in 1872, we can see at
glance how it has steadily met issue after
issue; how it assimilatcd all that was good
in the agitation of the time how it reflect
ed popular sentiment and gave shape to
popular ideas as they were presented. One
great source of its strength has been that ii
carried and carries within itself o-day, as
it were, two PARTISAN extreme Radical
party, led by men like Mr.. Phillips, who
were willing to try all manner of expert
ments-who were perpetually breaking new
ground, and, as they believed, leading the
party up to higher planes of usefulness and
endeavor, and more timid, cautious con-
sentative party, who acted as sort of bal
ancc-wheel, regulating the machinery, put
ting ON the brakes at the curves and travel
ing slowly down the grades and over the
weak spots in the political roadway. In the
hour of danger the two united for the COM
mon welfare, and radicals like Sumner, and
conservatives like Seward and Raymond,
forgot the minor quarrels anu chickering's,
and stood shoulder to shoulder together.
We have the same strife and struggle within
the party to-day that we had in 1864, when
men thought Mr. Lincoln was too slow, and
editors like Mr.. Greeley. and extreme lead
ers like Mr. Phillips and Gerritt Smith and
Mr.. Chase, wrote and spoke about "a weak
and vacillating administration.
The present attacks upon the RcpuSliAan
party would, in all nrnl,ah;litv, eliminate
In its overthrow if it were not for one or
two things, which do not, perhaps, receive
that degree of consideration which they
should receive. In the first place, the mo-
tives of the opposition are thoroughly IN
derstood by the people. The springs which
move the anti Republican press are patent
to the whole world. The Tribune played
bold and daring game and lost The
Suns support was rejected with something
like scorn; for if its patriotic editor had
been made collector of the port of New
York it would to-day be throwing around
the Executive Mansion halo of glory.
And SO of the Tribune of Chicago, and the
Cincinnati Commercial, and of score of
lesser journals, whose friends were not con-
soled with post Offices and pension agencies
and places in the internal revenue Offices
If the gentlemen who edit these "inde
pendent journals and their friends had
been quartered upon the public; if their
real or imaginary services had been what is
called rewarded" we would never hear
Of the horrible stories of corruption
and fraud and iniquity which are daily in.
vented to "beat Grant" But these gen.
tlemen deceive no one: We had an ex.
empliHcation in the last campaign Of how
little they can effect Of the utter insignia
canoe of the influence of so-called leading
journals when they are edited by malice
and passion. The destruction of the Re
publican party can never be wrought by
~ ~1o~Hne -.