Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-10-07
THE REFORM PARTY.
An Accurate Analysis of It's
Composition and It's
Career.
With a Vivid Pen and Ink
Sketch of Gov. Taylor Not
by Mr.. Slaughter.
The Brief Triumph OF False Pre-
tences and Fraud, Humbug
and Hypocrisy.

1 iiSiiCh iit lbS Jill w aUhOO hISftp6tCV 10 g
severe but just analysis of the Re
form humbug which the people O.
this State have been suffering under
during the past two years
The history of Reform rule, as it is
sarcasticaly called, in Wisconsin,
will be that of a raid instead of a
conquest-in with rush, brief sea.
son of pillage, and out in panic.
The gathering indications, which all
Democrats endowed with any political
sagacity obviously observed, are that
the Reform movement, as inaugrated
two years ago, must die in its infancy.
The organs of the party keep up a
lively whistle, as they draw near the
political cemetery, but latterly their
tune has grown tremulous, with a
very audible accompaniment of chat
tering teeth.
The movement is failure, and all
see it except few politicians of the
patent-right, quack-medicine school,
and even they confess that the mix
ture needs additional ingredients
Only the verdant few who estimate
the curative properties of the dose by
the nastiness Of its taste regard Re-
| form as a success.
The reasons why the movement is
at standstill, as the Celtic statesman
observed, are many and all lie on the
| surface. 1t was a fraud to begin
with, and got its start by false pre-
fences. 1t was false in name and
false in pretension. 1t set out with
a Pharisaical claim to angelic virtues,
professed to be free from thirst for
office, love of power or plunder; and
| official corruption was so odious to it
that it could not pass a public office
without holding its nose. An unex.
pectcd success so surprised it that it
forgot every pIaak, pledge or promise
in its platform. The greed and rush
| fvs once ,-l.:~l- f~lIv-res - r;stn"3.
are innumerable among scramblers of
the kind. It's list of soreheads is the
largest ever polled in the State, and
owing to the bad state of its system,
they don't heal but continue to tester
and run till the whole Reform camp
is pervaded with an odor suggestive OF
the pollevil ward of a veterinary hos
pital, Sorehead issue, the unfailing sys-
etm of political decomposition, was
aIarmingly manifest in the Reform
party from its cradle. In word, it
sprang into existence with all the
diseases and vices which are generally
supposed to grow upon a party long
in power.
Again: there is little community
OF sentiment between the two elements
which constitute the party. The
liberals are still republicans. The
bourbons are bourbons still. Politi-
cal sentiments which have stood the
wear Of the last fifteen years are fire
Gilt, ard do not easily change. The
reform vencering flakes off from the
average reform democrat in so many
spots as to give him sort ofspeckled
appearance, which everyone de-
spises, and none more than himself.
He hates his liberal allies with the
hatred he feels for a republican, and
| superadded thereto the hatred which
every constant soul feels for rene
gade. The liberals, on the other
hand, have little faith in their more
numerous allies. The manner in
which they are contemptuously cast
aside, wherever the democrats are
strong enough to get along without
them, renders their service in the re-
form camp exceedingly uncomfortable
They fear poison in every cup and a
stab in every embrace. Mutual dis
trust and contempt, and discordant
political opinions, make the union OF
the two wings precarious. Held
together only by selfish motives and
an appeal to bad prejndices and in
stincts, the party, or rather the
motley rabble, is no match for its
well organized foe.
Another reason is that the reformer:
now lack the organized aid of the
liquor league Two years ago thai
powerful ally, plethoric with The
profits of crooked whisky, made i
fat eating, and drinking too, in tht
camp of reform. 1t is now writing
in the clutches Of the law, and car
spare neither aid nor counsel, drinE
nor money to the cause of reform
The reformers affect an austere look
of responsibility and leave their ole
friends to their fate, morallzlng only
as Pecksniff can.
Again, the people Of Wisconsin
know not where Democracy and Re
form will fetch up. Whether as in
fationists, regulators or hnancia
revolutionists whether in order tC
gain success they will ally with thu
rebel element and bring on dissolut'
restoration whether the results of thu
war will be safe in the hands of thost
who fought them. To trust new
party whose policy is to adopt any
principle to get in, and once in t.
ignore every principle to stay in, is
a leap in the dark. 1t gives pause tc
many an honest Liberal. They know
that Democracy has been on tn
wrong side, that it has fought agains
the achievements which make this
generation memorable in history
that il has been a stumbling block t
progress, and that Democracy i
: nearly all of Reform, and that it
masses regard Reform success as thei
yindication, their revenge and thei
! restoration.
5 And still another reason for tn
+ downfall of Reform is. the persona