The daily gazette., 1876-06-17
THE RADICAL PLATFORM.
CoMMENTG OF THE PRESS.
FIom the Delaware Republican.

every right thinking man. 1t is broad,
comprehensive and just, and the party
with Its excellent standard bearers,
should vchieve complete triumph
over its opponents. We ask the at
tentive perusal OF every article, and
the decision of candid and fair judg-
ment should be followed by appro-
pirate and coDsiderate action at the
ballot box. The Republican party
saved the Government, and those who
stood by it in the hour of peril, cam
not be defeated in order that its assail-
ants shall be placed ih power.
From the Philadelphia Telegraph. Rep)
The Cincinnati Platform.
Our special correspondents at Cincin.
natl yesterday telegraphed us as fol-
lows; -"As whole the platform fell
fiat, for, instead of being terse and
seizing upon points of vital interest at
this time, instead of being full of
energy, it fell upon the convention as
wordy production, much as though
the committees had labored hard to
cram it," AS it impressed the conven-
lion, so is it likely to impress the
country. 1t is one OF those platforms
of which Mr.. Toots might with great
propriety say "It's of no consequence"
or of which Sir Charles Coldstream
might properly remark, There's moth
ing in it!''
! The very opening sentence of the
report of the Committee on Resolu-
| tions was an assumption of virtue and
Of good deeds done which has no sup
port in truth. The Republican party
which struck those savage blows at
slavery and killed it: that was not a
political party at all in the sense that
| the existing Republican organization
is, for the party which overthrow
those twin barbarisms. slavery and Sc
ccssion, included the morals and con-
sciences of the entire North, it was of
the people; and all but an Insignificant
part of the people were of it. Partisan
lines were broken down; Democrats
uniting with Republicans at the polls,
fighting shoulder tp shoulder with
them in the field to crrry out Mr..
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
and to kill the heresy of secession
The Republican party of to day is an
other thing altogether, for that was a
party of ideas. of real tangible things
to fight and if need be to die for; but
this party is without ideas, without
any live issue unless it be that of the
integrity of the schools, and we are
far from certain that that question is
properly a Federal one, or that il
should not be left for settlement to
the different States. Certainly no
other party opposes the integrity of
the schools, and the school plank
strikes US not as q great patriotic sug-
gestion, but as mere bit of campaign
fustIan.
AS for the Republican party estab-
fishing government by the people
and for the the people of these United
States, that is sheer impudence and
nonsence. This Government in all its
omprehensiveness, was established
three quarters OF century before the
present Republican party had exis-
tence.
: We criticize these things because they
place the Republican party in an absurd
light; because they weaken, not strength.
en- the position of the party before the
. country The people are not fools they
!, recognize sham and elap-trap as quickly
, , las they see them, and 10 give them lin
truth when there is truth to give is tC
commit an act OF stupidity without eI
: euse.
The anti-coolie plank was not wortl
the discussion given it, for 1t is a mer,
glittering pretense tp inquire into some
thing, not to do anything one way or the
other. 1t may mean to prohibit Chimes,
q immigration or it may mean to encourag,
it.
!, The specie-payment resolution ls no
7 half as strong as it should be, for i
: promises nothing but speedy progress to
o wards resumption, and every platform
y since the close of that war has promised
. that much.
= The school plank is evidently the on'
!; on which the party intends to make thu
grand fight for the Presidential success
: sion. We fail to see the present neces
sity of dragging this matter into tn
dirty pool Of politics, of encouraging re
ligious strife. Each State is solely re
sponsible for its schools and for the dis
l position of its school funds; and it is th
1 opinion of the wlsest constitutional
) awyers that the State Legislature
should alone have control over this mat
ter. We believe as implicitly as any on
that the nations strength is in the pre-
servaticn of the unsectarian character
our plan of education, but we have n
fears that 1t Will ever De destroyed w.
!. sectarian influence. and the introduction
|, of such an issue into national politica
y contest seems not only unnecessary, bu
J. gratuitous bit Of political buncombe.
5 - ALI the references to appointments t
office are fiat, stale and unprotitablt
They are but the rehash OF counties
other resolutions meaning nothing
te nothing worth, The strongest plank i
the platform Of 1872 was that relating t
, civil service reform, but it was mere claI
S. trap, and slgnified nothing more than
sharp political trap 10 catch weak -minde
voters. But it had certain tersenes
IS and vigor which the Cincinnati plank
the same topic altogether lacks.
As for the succeedingresolutions abou
1. opposition to railroad subsidies, protect
ing immigration, women's claims to pa
ticipation in the Government, the dut
of suppressing polygamy, our dcty
soldiers, deprecating sectional strife, an
, arranging the Democratic party of tn
present as the party Of treason, they al
simply political rot of the most otfensiV
= SORT.
It is no matter of surprise that thes
resolutions should fall fat upon the col
vantion which is filled with men of q