New-York tribune., 1876-08-19
4 FEU CONTRASTS.

Guide-posts are useful only when one does
not know the road. Political platforms ana
the professions and pledges Of Candidates ale
ONLY euide-posts to indicate winch way party
tends. When q new party first appeals to pub
lie favor we study its declarations because We
cannot study It's record but i'll later years,
when il has proved It's tendencies by a long
course Of conduct in victory or defeat, we know
the read. and need no gUldepOst TO tell Us
whittier the success of that party will lead us
The Republican and the Democratic paItics
have been tried one for more than forty years
and the other for twenty, and each has been
tested both in power and in defeat. During
tie past Winter we have seen the Democratic
marty i'm pOwcr in the House, for many years
it has had opportunity to serve the country,
scarcely less than the party III power, by per-
forming the duties Of pltriohc and cohetltU-
tional opposition. The Republican party has
also been tested by many years OF victory and
power, and by recent disasto ous defeats. Every
orOoncnt now admits tlIat it displays VICE
dcrful vitality; that it has marvellous hold
upon public confidence.
Sometimes they asciihc this to the strength
of the party organization, though III reallty 10
party has ever existed to which machinery and
the control of patronage contributed so little
aid. 1t has never shown greater power than
if did in 1866 ana 1868, when President
Johnson used all the power Of patronage TO
defeat if ; nor has il ever shown more OF weak
nos, or been more sgnaly defeated than in
1874. when the public patronage was used
more unscrupuIously than ever to secure its
success. Sometimes opponents ascribe its
poYer to the feelings aroused by the war, and
some of its leaders, seeing that these feelings
arc very powerful with the great proportion
of lis voters, fancy that in strong appeal TO
them lies its hope Of success. Both arc mis-
taken. The disasters of two years ago prove
That a portion of the party, sufficiently
large to insure lis defeat by mere alb
scnce from the polls, utterly refuses to
suDpolt il unless it deserves support by It's
Treatment Of the new questions Of the present
What, then, is the secret of its power! 1t IL
tbe knowledge which those voters have of its
tendencies and constituent elements, and the
Knowledge which they have of the elements
and tendencies of the Democratic party also.
Platforms count for little. Professions of can
didates are valuable only as they show whether
tbnv synpathize with the better or the worse
elements within the party. In the end the
,eople will decide because they believe, from
all that they know Of the two parties, that the
one or the other will be the more likely to pre-
serve untalnshed the public honor, to give
the country a sound currency, and to bring
about genuine reforms IN the public service.
Ii is very hard for the Democratic party to
win public confidence on either OF these issues
For fifty years the tendency OF that party has
been toward the most unblusliing abuse OF
public patronage for party ends. Whercvcr it
gains power, whether in town or city, in
State, or in either House Of Congress, herd
of hungry applicants instantly rushcs forward
10 claim that division of "thc spoils" which