The Portland daily press., 1875-06-10
A Liberalized State.

MISSOURI IS a state Wnere tne atLeInpb IO
"liberalize' the Democratic party has been
made under the most favoring conditions
The ''liberals," independents" and ere
ormers" were so anxious to try the expert
ment of the TRANSMISSION of blood upon the
Democracy that they opened their own veins
and furnished the material necessary for the
questionable operation. The result has not
been gratifying though it is eminently in
structive. The Missouri "independents''
have learned that the task of purifying par
ty educated in the practice of the most shame
less political expedients and debauched by
thirty years of holding, of liberalizing
an organization whose only vital principle is
an intense and unreasoning conservatism OF
the worst type, is one altogether too cost
ly to be made.
The virtue of sincerity is not 10 be denied
to the Missouri liberals. They made an hon.
est attempt to restore good feeling by doing
away with every restriction which could re-
mind the ex-rebels of their defeat. Offices
of honor and trust were made accessible to
them, and in the interest of conciliation, the
liberals overcame personal and partisan OBJ
jections, and hastened to give the enfran-
chised Democrats that weight in the govern
ment to which their numerical superiority
entitled them. IT ever one class of men had
occasion to hold in grateful remembrance the
efforts of another class the ex-rebels of Mis-
souri, had reason for gratitude towards the
men who enfranchised them.
But those who have closely studied the his
tory of the Democratic party know that it
treats its allies with a Punic faith. 1t well
comes deserters from the opposite camp, puts
them in the front of the fight, watches them
through the contest with vigilance born of
suspicion, and when it no longer feels the
need of them drums them out of camp. 1t
has not falsified its record in Missouri. Sosoon
as it felt strong enough it turned against the
Independents, deposed from office those of
them it could reach, and put in their places
blatant rebels. The Democratic leaders, as
soon as they got possession of the State, be-
gan an assault on the school system. revived
war claims for property of confederate SYM
pathizers destroyed during the rebellion, and
raised a noisy clamor in favor of reputation.
A state commission was appointed to audit
the confederate claims, which amounted to
about three millions of dollars. The conf
mission issued certificates of indebtedness,
but these certificates were not recognized by
the last legislature. So constitutional conven-
tIon was called, and is now in session. 1t is
presided over by Waldo P. johnson, man
who was expelled from the United States
Senate in 1851 for disloyalty, and who boasts
that he has never been pardoned and that he
does not consider himself citizen of the
United States. The Convention has done no
harm as yet, for it has consumed its time in
making reasonable speeches.
1t is perhaps unnecessary to say that the
independents admit the failure of their ex-
pertinent, an experiment tried under the
most favorable conditions. Indeed they can
not otherwise than confess to defeat, and
they begin to acknowledge that in other
states they have Jared little better. In the
New York Tribune of Tuesday, Mr.. w. NJ
Grosvenor publishes a letter which is in
effect notice of dissolution of copartnership.
He says that the Liberals see in the Demo-
cratic party of Missouri only desperate and
ravenous partisanship which halts at no
fraud or shame in order to triumph and get
Office. They see the party elsewhere sup
porting with equal zeal corrupt knaves and
honest reformers, hired attorneys of rail roads
and extreme anti-railroad grangers, and they
are led to believe that it has in reality no
sincere conviction nor honest purpose, that
it is merely congregation of ants trying to get
in. If forced to choose between the two par
ties. he says, the Independent will be very
apt to choose the one which has less preju-
dice against Union men, less hostility to free
schools, less disposition to fraud for the sake
of power, and the stronger tendency toward
| practical reform.
The attitude held by the Missouri Indepen-
dent is held by his brethren in other states.
| These men are ready to fall into the ranks of
the Republican party if only sufficient en-
couragement be given them. They will
closely scan the platforms and nominations
made this year and next, and we have but to
make these unexceptionable to command
their support.