The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-10-05
Tho Qampaion.
trrm Hsrper,s Weekly, Sept. ~

As tho campaign proceeds, TIVE
things are conspicuous: one, that Oh,
candidate who Is urged as the great 70
former Is cntangled In endless explana
tons; the other, that intelligent mcr
everywhere arc asking for the evidence
that the Democratic party has shown
itself to be essentially changed. The
issues stated In the platforms and dis.
cussed by tho orators and the press are
three: tho finances, tho South, and
civil service reform. but they all
dpring from the war, and the Demo.
Gratis can succeed and Mr.. Tildon be
elected only by the virtually .solid
South" Thus we have precisely the
sectional inspect of an election that we
had before the war; and the Democrat
10 proposition Is that the vital issues
| growing out of the contest shall be set
tied by the Southern party. Democrat
10 ''reform" means simply TO use the
words which are we'll understood, and
| not for needless offence-a union of
rebels and copperheads Tor the admins
tration of the government which was
saved from their conspiracy, and for
the enforcement Of constitutional amend
ments which they desperately opposed
and denounced rs revolutionary and
void.
Before intrusting the national govern
ment to such hands, however, intelli-
| gent and patriotic men will long and
| carefully deliberate. They will hardly
| find in the fact that Belknap was q
| dishonest Secretary of War n sufficient
reason Tor putting Wade IIampden in
his place, nor because Of the offences of
the whiskey ring will they think II wise
to fly for refuge to Ben Hill or Tucker.
They will. on the contrary, ask wheth-
or a party of which these, with others,
are the chosen representatives. n party
which really wishes Horatio Seymour
aud him only in New York, which re-
places Schurz with Cockrcll in Missouri
aud Barnum in Connecticut, is in any
sense whatever a party of reform, or
any other than the old familiar Demo
cratic party, which for sixteen years
Amciic lean patriotism and intelligence
has spewed out of its mouth. To this
question they will find but one answer.
nor can a single good nomination here
and there change the general impress
ion.
The real drift and instinct of the
Democratic party were shown in the
nomination of Mr.. Seymour in New
York, not in that of Mr.. Adams in
Massachusetts,. Mr.. Seymour was the
resistless and enthusiastic choice, over
bearing all the canny and crafty plans
to impose another nam rs n prctence
| of reform. Mr.. Seymour is and has
always been a Democrat, and the rep
| resentative Of what the country most
| profoundly distrusts in Democracy
| the apologist of slavery, the Copperhead
OF the war. the candidate Of Reputation
and the foe of the amendments. This
was the natural, ardent, instructive
Democratic choice, and the choice re-
veals the spirit and tendency Of the
Democratic party. But Mr.. Adams
| was in no sense tho earnest, natural,
| instructive choice of the Convention
that nominated him. The managers
| did not pretend it. They asked his
nomination for effect elsewhere. The
pleaded for It because it would give to
the party "nicn idolizes Mr.. Seymour
, an air OF reform. 1t would cnable.Dc-
mocratic newspapers to declare that
the nomination was proof Of q change
of heart. 1no thcr words, it was pro-
| posed and carried as n fraud. 1t was n
| trick to carry an election, like the nom-
ination of Mr.. Greeley at Baltimore.
W. do not believe that there is n single
intelligent voter in Massachusetts who
believes that Mr.. Adame represents the
Democratic party in that State, o + in any
other, in the same sense that Judge
noar represents the Republicans. He
is put upon the ticket to catch the dis
satisfied vote. lie does not stand for
reform with the Democratic party; for
il that were the spirit of the party, it
would not have taken n candidate who
Is not now and never was n Democrat,
but i. would have nominated one of its
own members. 1t did not do it because
there is no conspicuous Democrat in
Massachusetts, who represents reform
either in or out of the party. The NOM
ination Of Mr.. Adams merely shows
that when the Democrats wish to prove
that they are q reform party, they must
select a candidate who IS not q Dem
ocrat.
All these facts are duly weighed by
the people, whose intelligence the
Democratic leaders underratc, The
consequences involved in n change of
party control of the government ut this
time are very much more momentous
than those OF ordinary election. How
eyer indignant a man may be with in
stances OF dishonesty in public position.
he will reflect that to bring in the Dem
ocratic party is to do n great deal more
than change the officers. Not only will
a change not necessarily bring reform,
but a change would necessarily bring
somewhat into question and doubt the
settlements of the war. 1t would do
this because it would be II deliberate
preference by the country of the party
which has been restlessly in opposition
to all that has been accomplished since
1860. This might, indeed, be risked if
the Republican party Were united in the
defense of all defects of administration
which naturally arise under n party long
in power. 1t might then be plausibly
urged that the only method to reform
abuses would be to take the portentous
chance of n Democratic restoration.
But no such argument is now tcnable,
for the fact, of which every Republican
is conscious, is that tho nomination Of
Hayes and Wheeler, with the letter
which New York Republicans declare
to be ''the platform of the party" is the
sign of that reform within the party
which, by securing reform under Re
publican ~ascendency, is the real pur-
pose Of the people.