The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1876-07-13

tional characteristics; but amid them
all, there of necessity exists law OF
continuous variations Of human opin-
ions. 1t is thus that the future is born
of the present, as the present was horn
of the past; and, at each successive
stage, events and ideas emerge which
owe their origin and existence to pre-
ceding events and ideas. Hence the
folly OF those exceeding wise men who
boast that their opinions never change.
II were hopeless to look Tor reform from
such Interchangeable wisdom as this.
When, by the elimination of events,
nation has reached one OF the great
epochs by which the duration of its lite
is marked, and is preparing for another
period Of progress under new conditions
| of social order, that is the time OF all
| others when reforms are demanded and
| the true reformer is needed. Then it is
that the wrecked matter of the past must
be prudently cut away from the present.
We are just now embarking in new era
of our national progress. The late civil
war and all its attendant circumstances
and results were but the culm nation of
long series of antecedent events and
ideas. That event has wrought revo-
luton in our present national ideas and
conditions as complete as our first revo-
| luton wrought in its antecedent ideas
and conditions. And such are always
the times OF the fiercest conflict of ideas.
1t is the encounter of the Old and the
| New. The inertia of the past is with
standing the activities of the present.
! Out Of these throes renovated future is
TO be born. And here is the theater for
true reform to exercise its most beneti-
cent functions.
| In an Aristocracy, the nation may
have credit for possessing higher de.
gree Of civilization than its actual con-
dItion would warrant; because its gov
erning classes are the exponents OF its
national refinement. In Republic this
| can not occur; for the common people
are its governing class. The rerresen-
tative men in Republic are such as the
| people make them. If those men become
| corrupt, they misrepresent the people,
| and can not be trusted to reform Them
selves. The remedy, then, lies with the
people. The people may not even at
| tempt to reform these corrupt men; but
they will reform their corrupt practices
by taking the power for evil out of their
hands. This is the ultimate resort for
! the enforcement of reform.
But, does it therefore follow, that
party organization must needs disband
because bad men have used its power
improperly? Is there no capability in
party to work reform within itself by
discarding corrupt men, and yet main
tain its public policy in the government
70 prescribe as u condltiOG OF reform,
that for such reasons, party organizu-
Jion must be changed and the public
administration made over to another, is
10 declare that correct political princi-
pies must be abandoned because bad
| OF practices in administration that is
demanded, and that is secured by a
| change Of men; not change OF public
policy in government, which is only to
be obtained by change of parties. The
true retormer, therefore, is he who, while
adhering to sound principles in govern
ment, commands absolute fidelity anu
purity in its administration. Conse-
quently, the man who would abandon
The party organization to whose political
creed he conseientiously subscribes, tor
the sake Of turning a corrupt man out OF
| office, voluntarily abandons his princi-
pies in order to punish an abuse of them.
And this is certainly not the true prin-
ciple OF reform.
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