Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-10-26
Republican Party Feeling in Washing
ton
Correspondence New York Tribune.


disturbed the Republican Congressman
feel about the triumph of the Demo
Gratis in Ohio. Many of them have be-
come woeful Jeremiahs, prophesying
the utter downfall and complete ruin Of
their party, and the certain victory of
their opponents, not only in 1880, but in
all the subsequent elections to the end
of the century. They magnify Demo
cratic majority of twenty odd thousand
in State peculiarly tickle in it's poll
tics, and in time Of exceptional apathy,
into a terrible hand writing on the wall,
fOretelling their destruction. OF course
they will get over these "doleful dumps
after while, but now that they are in
the depths OF them, they are interesting
subjects for the journalists spectre
scope. They lack moral Drawn and
bone. They are altogether too sensi-
tive. The Democratic party has taken
defeat piled on defeat for nearly twenty
years, and after each successive buffet
ing it has come up smiling and resolute
for the next contest; but the moment
the Republicans fear they are going to
lose their hold on the General Govern
ment they have no more courage than a
seasick man when he imagines that the
whole universe is out of gear and is de-
voting its energies to making him I'M
comfortable
Most of the disheartened machine
Congressman charge the whole blame Of
the defeat upon the President. Some
dwell upon the Southern policy as the
chief cause, and all say the Civil-Ser-
vice order hurt the party badly. Among
those who talk most about the effect of
the Presidents course toward the South
there are three kinds of opinion, some
members thinking that his course was
wrong, and ought not to have been pur-
sued, others holding that it was an I'M
fortunate necessity, and still others
maintaining it was right, as well as inev-
liable, and that although it's effects up
on the party was to weaken it at first,
any other course would have injured it
far more The first class of men are
sad and mad both The second are sad
but not mad. And the third, though by
no means glad, are in a state of philo-
sophie equanimity. They say that the
military epoch in the South had to pass
away, and that it was far better for a
Republican President to cut it short
than for the Republican party to seek
to prolong it, and finally to be driven
from power on that issue They fur
Their say that it is inevitable that many
honest and jealous Republicans should
feel dissatisfied about the Presidents
action, but that the edge of their resent
ment will be fast dulled by time and re-
Election.
On the question of the wisdom of the
Civil-Service order, there is much less
difference of opinion. That it was bad
policy to issue such sweeping order all
Republican Senators and Representa-
tives with whom | have talked agree
Some think the order is wrong in princi-
pie, others say it goes in the right direc-
ton, but goes altogether too far. All
that was necessary was for the Presi-
dent to remove office holders who were
making themselves obnoxious by man
aging conventions and caucuses, so as to
defeat the popular will. A few exam
pies of this kind would have moderated
the partisan zeal Of the whole body of
Federal appointees. With all the talk
of the past ten years about Civil-Service
reform, it is plain that the average Re
publican Congressman is not much adj
vanced beyond the old idea that the Of
fees are the chief incentive to political
strife, and that those who have got
them have as good a ri ght to fight to
keep possession as those who are out of
place have to fight to get in. Accord
ing to this view, it is absurd to say that
a man may struggle for years to get an
office, but as soon as he succeeds he
must refrain from all efforts to defeat
the men who are trying to drive him
out. 1t is OF course an overstrained
construction of the order to say that it
prohibits office-holders from being ac-
tive for their party at elections, but the
effect of it, as shown in Ohio, is that
Postmaster or other official, who is for
hidden to serve on town or county
committee, is not disposed to exert him
self at the polls
1t is somewhat surprising to find that
number of the most prominent Repub-
lican leaders believe that the doom of
their party is sealed, and that it's speedy
dissolution must result from the antag-
onistic opinions prevailing in its ranks
as to the course of the President. These
gentlemen are, as rule, active party
men, who have always stood by the or
ganization, and who think that machin-
cry is necessary to the existence of par
ties, and that patronage is a great pow
er that ought to be made the most of to
win campaigns. They would not like
their names printed to back up their
opinions, and the correspondent who is
sufficiently intimate with them to get
an unreserved expression Of their senti-
ments is always cautioned not to pub
lish what they say. Put in the briefest
compass, their view is that the Presi-
dent has sacrificed the Republican party
to protect his title; that the party is
without leader, and is fatally divided
in convictions; that it's hard workers are
disheartened and Indifferent; and that it
has lost it's solidity of purpose, and is
likely to drop to pieces and give place
to ephemeral organizations powerless to
resist the compact and victorious Dem
ocracy. This dismal view, so widely en-
tertained just now, is the outgrowth
rather of feeling than of judgment.
Republicans who are not intense par
tisans, and who look at the situation in
a cooler temper, do not share it. They
say that the natural condition of poll
tics is one of constant change, and that
no party has right to count on uniform
success. The Republican party has con-
trolled the National Government for
nearly score OF years. If it loses its
grasp in 1SSO-an event by no means
certain-it does not follow that it will
cease to exist. On the contrary, the
history of parties teaches that we may
expect it to take the position of strong
and healthy minority, controlling large
number Of Northern States, and step
ping upward, on the folies and mistakes
Of it's adversary to new lease of ma
tional power. The Democratic party
does not possess intelligence and states
manship enough long to administer the
Government to the satisfaction of the
people These cheerful and sensible
theorists add that they expect a reac-
ton in favor of the Republicans at the
Congressional elections next year. BY
that time the dissatisfied element in the
party will have become reconciled; the
Southern policy will have fully justified
itself; the Civil-Service order will be
somewhat modified in it's application if
not in its text; the abundant crops will
produce better times. and better times