The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1875-02-12
WHAT Is THE REPUBLICAN PARTY :
tFrom the New York Triubne.l

tFrotn the New York Triubne.1
The orators who ut this time assume
the defense of tho Administration are
accustomed to lay less emphasis upon
the merits of the men and measures
which they defend, than upon the
glory in the past and the necessity in
the future of the Republican party. In
wildly mixed metaphors they appeal to
it, as Il banner, n bark, an anchor, and
Al fortress. 1t forms the principal
motive ofLogan's thunderous diapason,
and os the nellitiuous minstrelsy Of
Conkling and Pease. It is not strange
that patriots who get their living out of
the party should believe in its sacred
ness. But the spell of the old and
honorcd name is powerful even with
independent anu unseltish men. There
are those who will denounce roundly
the violence of Sheridan, the irretteem-
able weakness and rascality Of kellogg,
the illegalities Of the President, and
will even murmur against the caucus,
who nevertheless feel that there is no
safety for the country or for human
liberty, ifpower should pass away from
the Republican organization. They
admit-sonte Of the clevcrest and most
anliable of then--that the Administrs-
tion ought to be defeated in Louisiana,
but that tho party ought to bc sustained
everywhere else; because otherwise
the war goes for nought and the con-
quests of twenty years struggle for
freedom are thrown away. They
consider the Republican party suprem-
acy now AS much AS ever the key of the
position. Once. when the rebels were
in Maryland, Gen. Hallcck telegraphed
to Hooker that IIarper's Ferry was the
key of the position; and Fighting Joe,
rejoined, "What is the usc of tho key
! when the door is smashed inY' The
rotort is applicable now.
No one but Il partisan obstinately
blind can fail to see that tho Republican
party is no longer in power. In its
place an organization of spoilsmcn is
administering upon its effects through
the consent of the unthinking
! voters who still cling to tho old name.
1t was Il party founded and kept
together up to victory and through the
war upon moral ideas. 1t served it's
purpose and won it's magnificent
triumphs under leaders who have
nearly all passed away from its councils.
Lincoln, Seward, Chase, Summer, are
dead and the last three saw themselves
ostraciZcd by their party before they
died. Trumbu1I, the lending tepubIi-
can jurist, has been oustcd from tho
Senate. Tho first scholar, orator and
soldier who represented in the Rcpub-
lic;,n party those hundreds of thousands
of libcrty-loving Germans who gave ii
such formidable strength, has been
driven out Of the organization, because
he could not submit his conscience to
the dictation of men as careless of law
as of liberty. Almost all the leading
journalists who fought the good fight
in tho press, have found it impossible
to retain their championship with the
present piIiagerS OF the victorious field.
Whenever u sincere and clear headed
man tlares to think for q moment for
himself, he is prescribed by tho COARSE
grained dictatOrS of the party caucus,
as Mcs5rs. Foster and Phelps are to-day,
as Gen. Morrow will he. The party is
honey -combcd with the doubts of
timiuiy honest members, who thor
ouglly lisapprovc of their leaders but
do not yet dare to .lisobcy them. They
sec how veteran Republicans like
Bryant and Cooper and I:varts are
denounced, villiiicd, and caricaturcl
tor joining in IL manly protest against
the abuse of power, and naturally hcsi-
tate to expose themselves to Il similar
chastiscmcnt.
Who arc the men who exercise this
ostracism of lifelong Republicans, and
who claim to cmbody the history and
the glory of the party which abolished
slavery and saved the Union? Their
recent Representatives in New York is
Gen. Dix, IL Bunchnnan Democrat, an
associate nearly all his life of Tilden,
Seymour and the rest, who opposed
Mr.. I.incoln's election, and as late as
1864 refused to suffer his name to be
used on the same ticket, on the ground
that he and Mr.. Lincoln were not in
political accord. In Massachusetts it
is Mr.. Butler, for whom Buchanan was
not pro-slavery enough. In Illinois it
is Mr.. Logan, who said on the eve OF
I the war that ne was proud of the "dirty
work" ofcatching runaway slaves. In
Wisconsin it is Matt. Carpenter, q pro-
slavery Democrat up to the end of the
! war. In both Houses of Congress
these caucus leaders are composed of q
corrupt alliance of carpct-baggcrs with
out honor or history and cx-Iebel
officers who have changed their prin.
ciplcs as readily as thicr coats. Tho
House Of Representatives swarns with
men from the Rebel army who swort