The Portland daily press., 1875-02-09
Duties of a Minority.

uClC uCNCl Wdo q WOioS bOhafAb6 hiihOiAtJ
than the Democrats have been. Political,
like personal, misfortunes may be 'over-
ruled for good,' and the disciplinary advan-
tages of temporary withdrawal from the
burdens and responsibilities of power may al
most compensate party for pretty long
period of watching and waiting. Under prop
er management political organization, which
has for few years been exercising itself chiefly
in the way OF honest dissent and manly criti-
cism, will find itself strengthened and puri-
fed, and so fitted for a long tenure of power
when victory returns to gladden. it once more.
The ranks are generally well winnowed by
the sharp gales of adversity. The opportu-
mites for dishonest gain, and even for the
conventionally justifiable, Lut absolutely i'm
proper, acts in which majorities indulge them
selves are taken away. So that being out Of
power is, for party, like severe fit of illness
for an individual, an excellent time to break up
bad habits. Many man, who would have con-
tinued drinking whiskey and chewing tobac-
co to the end of his lite had he remained in
tolerable health, avails himself of the inter-
ruption to his bad habits occasioned by a
fever to abandon them.
But the Democrats have apparently made
no other use of their protracted freedom from
responsibility than to place themselves more
completely under the dominion of political
vices. Their proper function was to watch
and criticise and, if need be, denounce, hon.
estly, severely, unsparingly. We have nev-
er blamed them for keeping sharp lookout
and finding such holes as they could in the
garments of their adversaries. This was at
once their duty and their interest. 1t was a
duty which might have been performed in
such way as to rebound equally to their ad-
vantage and that of the country. But they
have not done it well. While there has been
no lack of that general denunciation which
sounds so well and means so little in party
platform, there has been no ferreting out of
public robbers to justice through the efforts
of the opposition. The Republican party has
been obliged to apply the lash to its own
shoulders or go unwhipped in all the specific
cases where its members have done wrong.
And strange to say, it has been. found in all
great public scandals, from the Credit Mobil-
ier to the alleged Texas & Ell Paso railroad
bribery, that the minority, instead of Occur
pying that dignified judicial position de
manded by their situation and by their true
interests, have been anxious only to make
such good use of their poorer opportunities as
to render their unjust gains as great as those
of the majority. So it has usually been
found that for one dollar diverted into the
pocket of Republican two have gone into
that of Democrat; and where Republican
has been caught in an act of dishonesty there
cheek by jowl, has been found a Democrat
The Democrats could not be expected to re-
strain the predatory tendencies of individu
ais among them, but if they had had some
recognized leader Of principle and ability
such as political parties formally select in
England, they would not as party on all crit
ical occasions have been found on the side O.
extravaganza, recklessness and corruption.
The investigations which have from time tc
time been ordered at Washington have lost
more than halt their vigor from the fact that
the representatives of the minority on the
committees have speedily found that full dis.
closures would be very poor party capital fol
them.
Is not honesty virtue of majorities, then,
as we'll as of the opposition? Certainly; but
what shall we say of men whose temptations
and opportunities are reduced to minimum
who have possibilities of regaining power
constantly acting as an immense restraint or
their unworthy impulses, who have but {
trife to win and the world to lose by giving
way to their lust OF gain, and who neverthe
less behave themselves with less prophet!
than those whose situation has in all ages o
the world been recognized as peculiarly un
favorable to the practice of virtue? Wha
conduct is to be expected of such men wher
the full authority and the revenues of th'
government are restored to their hands?
A feeling that the country needs change
has, through the influence of kind of unre
fecting despair, made a partial transfer o
power to those who are least worthy to exer
else it. The House of Representatives-elec
aud majority of the states are now Demo
cratic, and the Senate, the Presidency and
the rest of the states may fall into 1.-THE same
hands. But this heroic treatment must neces
sarily be but temporary. They who come
stained with the vices peculiar to both ma
iorities aud minorities to take up the fasces
will soon weaken confidence in that kind o.
political homeopathy which prescribes ga hail
of the dog that bit YOU" But the Demo
cratic interregnum ought to be season o.
moral growth to Republicans. Taking warn
ing of the errors of their opponents, they
should perform their duties of watchfulness
criticism and opposition in spirit of honesty
ana patriotism. Then when the inevitable
reaction comes, il will be thorough and per
manent.