The Portland daily press., 1876-06-06
Reform and the Parties.

| Reform and the Parties.
That there are errors of administration to
| be corrected, that abuses have been engen-
dered by long possession of power, may be
| admitted without substantial prejudice to the
| Republican party. That such errors should
be corrected, that such abuses should be done
away with no one tor moment attempts to
| dispute. Opinions only differ as to the
agency to be made use of. Whatever else
| some may have desired circumstances are
| such that the administration for the next
four years must be entrusted either to the
Republican or to the Democratic party. A
third party is now out of the question. The
American voter is to decide which of the two
great parties can best accomplish the work
which he desires to see done, and to cast his
ballot in accordance with that decision.
1t is net easy to understand how the voter
can long hesitate in making his decision. A
considerable majority of our people are Re-
publicans. That organization is one of their
own formation, and by means of it they have
brought to pass great and much desired re-
the national unity, they have absolved them
selves from the foul sin of slavery, they have
wrought serious changes in the organic law
OF the land. What more natural than that
they should continue to use for the further
ance of ends still to be attained an instru-
ment with which so much has already been
accomplished! What more natural than
that they should seek 10 work through this
organization of their own making rather than
to trust the furtherance of the reforms de-
sired to an organization which they have
always fought and long distrusted, an organ
ization which has contended for everything
which they have opposed for twenty years,
which clings to theories regarded by them as
heresies concerning the functions and even the
very nature of our government. The ques-
ton simply is whether the majority of the peo-
pie prefer to accomplish reform themselves
through an organization they have them
selves perfected, or prefer to trust the work to
party they have every reason to distrust
and in whose councils they have no voice.
Only the utmost confidence in the intentions
classification to the latter preference. No
one believes that the Democratic party cheer
fully accepts the constitutional changes
wrought during the last decade. Even did
that party acknowledge the justice of these
changes it could not be expected to rejoice
in the trophies of its own defeat, and there
is abundant evidence that it does not ac-
knowledge their justice. If it obtains con-
troll of affairs, that control is gained by the
votes of the united South, and the numerical
preponderance OF the Southern wing acting
with the gratitude of the Northern wing for
victory gained will give to the South the rul-
ing voice in the public administration. The
South looks upon the constitutional changes
as acts perpetrated to perpetuate the memory
of its defeat, and though it may not be strong
enough. even with the aid of its Northern
allies, 10 reverse them, it can easily, having
| the power in its hands, render them of 10
| avail, as has been done with laws many times
before. On another great question, the
question of currency, the doctrines held by
| the Democracy are constant menace to the
National credit and good name, and its sue
cess conveys threat of National bankruptcy.
| Those even who hold that administrative re-
| form is of more immediate consequence than
currency or constitutional questions ought
to convince themselves that reform can be
achieved by the Democracy before they take
the risks which attend its elevation to power
What has the Democratic party ever done
which can lead men to believe for moment
that administrative reform is to be expected
from it?
The Democratic party has achieved some
notable things, has upheld some admirable
principles of government; but among the
things achieved or striven after the hisI
character of the civil service, economy in ap
propriatiohs, retrenchment in expenditure
have never held a place. In the record o
the Democracy they have been conspicuou
by their absence. In Democratic admins
trations Office has been notoriousiy the re
ward of party service, the cheapest kind O
politicians have been made captains of tn
hosts, jobbery has flourished, appropriation
have been lavish and expenditures profuse
Whenever abuses have become notorious tn
course has been, not to correct but to concea
them, and the exposure of corruption has al
ways been treated as treason to the party
This is frankly acknowledged by those WHIT
are minded to once more put their trust il
that party, but they advance the idea that tn
Democracy has been chastened and purified
bv defeat. Unfortunately for the theory tn
facts are against it. The Democracy ha
never come to a sense Of its own delinquen
cies, has never felt the need of reform within
itself, has never believed that its repudiatiol
by the people was owing to it's own faults
1t has always held that the people had los
reason, that they were carried away by mis-
guided enthusiasm and al every little success
which has come to it the leaders have ex
claimed and the followers have believed tha
the people had at last come to their senses
Every victory has been construed as an en-
dorsement of the past, as desire for re
turn to the old order of things. Should the
party be put in control it would believe i
was entrusted with power because the peo
pie longed for the methods of administration
which obtained before the war, for the car
rying out of the principles set down in Dem
ocratic pronuuciamentoes for the last score o
years. The Democratic party has within i
no potentialities of reform. Wherever it ha
gained power the old men and the old meth