The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-02-18
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WHAT IS THE REPUBLICAN,
PARTY?

the ueIenSe OA IlS huiiii
customed to lay less emphasis upon the
merits of the men and measures which
they defend, than upon the glory IN the
mast and the necessity in the future oi
the Republican party. In wildly mixed
metaphors they appeal to it, as banner
n bark, an anchor, and fortress IL
forms the principal motive of Logan's
thunderous diapason, and Of the melli-
fluous minstrelsy of Conkling and Pease'
1t is not strange that patriots who get
their living out of the party should be-
lieve in its sacredness. But the spell OF
the eold and honored name is powerful
even with independent and unselhsh
men. There are those who will de-
nounce roundly the violence ofsheridan
the irredeemable weakness and rascality
of kellogg, the illegalities of the Pres
ident, and will even murmur against the
caucus, who nevertheless feel that there
is no safety, forthe country or for human
liberty, ifpower should pass away from
the Republican organization. They ad-
mit-some of the cleverest and most ami
able of them-that the Administration
ought to be defeated in Louisiana, but
that the party ought to be sustained
everywhere else; because otherwise the
war goes for nought and the conQuests OF
twenty years of struggle for freedom are
thrown away. They consider the Re
publican party supremacy now as much
as ever the key of the position. Once
when the rebels were in Maryland, Gen.
Halleck telegraphed to Hooker that
Haruers Ferry was the key Of the po-
sition; and Fighting Joe rejoined, what
is the use of the "key when the door is
smashed in?" The retort is applicable
now.
No one but a partisan, obstinatey blind
can fail to see that the Republican party
is no longer in power. In its place an
organization of spoilsmen is administer
ing upon its effects through the consent
of the unthinking voters who still cling
to the old name. 1t was a party founded
and kept together up to victory and
through the war upon moral ideas. 1t
served its purpose and won its magnlii-
cent triumphs under leaders who have
nearly all passed away from its councils.
Lincoln, Seward, Chase, and Sumner, are
dead, and the last three saw themselves
ostracized by their party before they
died. Trumbull, the leading Republican
iurist, has been ousted from the Senate.
The first scholar, orator and soldier who
represented in the Republican party
those hundreds of thousands Of liberty
loving Germans whogave it such formid- |
able strength has been driven out ofthe
organization, because he could not sub
NIT his conscience to the dictation of men |
as careless of law as of liberty. Almost |
all the leaningjournalsts who fought the |
good fight in the press, have found it inn
possible to retain their companionship |
with the present pillagers of the victori-
Gus field. Whenever a sincere and clear |
headed man dares to think fora moment |
for himself, he is prescribed by the coarse
grained dictators of the party caucus, as |
Messrs. Foster and Phelps are to-day, as
Gen. Morrow will be. The party is
honey-combed with the doubts of timid-
ly honest members, who thoroughly dis
approve oftheir leaders but do not yet
dare to disobey them. They see how
veteran Republicans like Bryant and
Cooper and Eyarts are denounced, Will
fed, and carricatured for joining in
manly protest against the abuse of power, |
and naturally hesitate to expose them
selves to similar chastisement,
Who are the men who exercise this os-
tracism of lifelong Republicans, and who
claim to embody the history and the
glory of the party which abolished slave
ry and saved the Union? Their recent
representative in New York is Gen. Dix,
a Buchanan Democrat, an associate near
ly all his life of Tilden, Seymour and the
rest, who opposed Mr. Lincoln's election,
and as late as 1864 refused to suffer his
name to be used on the same ticket, on
on the ground that he and Mr.. Lincoln
were not in political accord. In Massa-
chusetts it is Mr.. Butler, for whom Bu
chanan was not pro-slavery enough. In
Illinois it is Mr.. Logan, who said on the
eve of the war that he was proud of the
"dirty work" of catching runaway slaves.
In Wisconsin it is Matt. Carpenter, pro-
slavery Democrat up to the end of the
war. In both Houses of Congress these
caucus leaders are composed of corrupt
alliance Of carpet-baggers without honor
or history and ex-Rebel officers who
have changed their principles as readily
as their coats. The House of Represen-
tatives swarms with men from the Rebel
army who swore at Greeley and Sumner
all the way to their graves, for what they
called the treason" of these historic Re-
pubicans. In the Cabinet, who is there
to represent the Republicans who built
up the party, sustained it in its weakness,
and carried it to strength and triumph?
Not one, and it would puzzle more Lhan
half Of them to produce the evidence that
they ever voted for Abraham Lincoln.
In the White House, the great visible
head and master of the party is Bu-
chanan Democrat who never cast Re-
publican vote in his life, unless for him
self or Boss Shepherd.
Into hands like these the work has
allen of preserving intact the traditions
and the honor of the Republican party. |
1t seems only necessary to state this to
show the absurdity fthe idol-worship of
those who still think there islno saliva
ton rthe country outside of the Admin
istration caucus. 1t was this which caused
general rejoicing among many honest
people when Dawes was elected from
Massachusetts, instead ofsome such dan
gerous man as Adams; and which occa-
stoned general dismay when Judge Chris
tiancy was chosen by Democratic votes
to succeed Mr.. Chandler. 1t is the only
weapon now welded by the Admins
tration leaders, and it does not seem pos
sible that it could last much longer. Yet
while it is fourishing, it seems effectual