The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1877-07-12

"Charles Lamb, who was an acute oh
server, remarks somewhere that he had
frequently seen men walking about the
streets as dead as Julins Caesar, but ut
terly unconscious Of the fact. What is
thus true of men NAV be even truer Of
political parties, which, being aggregations |
OF men of more or less similar opinions,
are capable Of maintaining the momentum
for some time after the corporate animat-
ing spirit has fled, and thus present an ap-
pearance of life deceiving the less acute
part of the community. All the organs Of
such a defunet political body display a
preternatural liveliness; the whole body
breaks out into bad language at the slight
est pnblic suggestion that it is moribund
its principal members repel the insinuation
with the ghastly activity of galvanized
frog The thing never seems more alive
than for some time after it has given up
the ghost, and it is as much asa live mans
life is worthy to declare it dead.
"We speak from fresh experience, hav-
declare the Democratic party dead. 1t is
dead. No shrewd observer of public events
doubts this fact It hardly needed Mr..
Tilden's blow at the Manhattan Club last
week to finish its existence. Yet the public
announcement of its decease, made first in
the Herald, according to our confirmed
habit of making the earliest publication of
all important events, has drawn upon our
journal whole shower bath Of vitupera-
ton. 1t is, therefore, with a vived sense
of what will follow that we hoist our UNI
brella before declaring, as in the public
interest we are bound to do, that the Re-
publican party also is dead-as dead as it
can be; as dead as Julius Cesar in his dead :
est moments; as dead as a door nail, or as
the rat in the proverb; as dead, in short, as
the Democratic party, or, if anything could
dead as that.
"The Republican party was, in its day,
one of the most important, one of the most
powerful and one of the most necessary
parlizan organizations this country has
ever known.
| With the help of the Shareholders the
Republican party extirpated slavery. II
| had the great good fortune to head the
War for the Union, and naturally drew to
its ranks the greater part of the intelli-
gence and ability of the Northern States
1t was great and powerful party and did
its work with astonishing and irresistible
determination. 1t counted among its lead
ers many of the greatest names of the coun
try 1t played part IN our history which
made its name dear to the greater and pro
badly the best part of the conntry anC
which, even now that it is dead, makes it
good will and fixtures so valuable tha
there is likely to be more than one quarre
over them.
"But slavery is dead, the Union is re
established, the freedmen are freedmen
and have become with the consent of al
men part of the body polite; the SoutherI
States have been finally relegated to self
government under the constitution. 9Th
South was the occasion of the Republican
party, and there is no longer South
The objects for which the party was form
ed have been accomplished. 3 s. But
must not be forgotten that during tn
whole twenty one years of Its existenc
only one thing its opposition to SLAYER,
and the sequelae of slavery. On all othe
points its members were 80 bitterly divid
=; ed that it was with the utmost difficult
the quarreling factions could be he'll
! together even during the War. The dis
r cordant elements were silent and unite
: only while there remained a South t
oppose; they can no longer be held togeth
II er. The first time that any one fthe 'ne7
h issues appears in Congress the party vii
n necessarily burst as under. The free trad
) ers and modered tariff men will divid
from the protectionists; the internal in
y provement men will divide against tn
= opponents of internal improvements; tn
Il hard money men will vote against the ir
r flatIonists; and the huge body which ha
still momentum enough to move OF
though dead, will thereupor stop and fa
Z to pieces.
l. "Of course somebody will inherit III
D. name, though the complex and perfect ma
:. chinery will hardly be worth much
y President Hayes keeps his promise to til
Is country of divorcing the civil service froI
n politics.
When we say that a man is dead we
not mean that the family name is extinc
There Will be two parties in the election
publican and Democratic; but the policies
the leaders, the rank and file will be diffe
N ent in each. The present parties are deac
as and their death is benefit to the countr,
20 No greater curse could befall us than /
:. have the two old parties perpetuated, wit
10 their old and past date issues, their ol
he and new absurd and wicked War erie
ID their schemes for success, not by servin
~ the country, but by keeping section;
suspicion and hatred alive. 1t is natura
o and indeed inevitable, that the old part
lie leaders and War horses should desperatel
lie attempt to maintain their organizations
- clever Frenchman remarked that we n
ways feel little contempt for a man WI
dies; and besides the general repugnance
'g giving up the ghost, middleaged and elt
he erly gentlemen are shy of going hou
IN hunting, and find it difficult to make ne
i political alliances. They will make vi,
orous fight for the old issues against Il
t. new questions which they have for so man
IN years quietly barked or straddled in the
s, conventions. But it is in vain. The sta
~ in their course fight against them, and I
y. will be the wisest among them, be he Den
~ ocrat or Republican, who first looks Il
It. facts of the day in the face, acknowledg,
I'd that his party is dead, and grasps the ne
IN questions On these, when they come u
the country will see former Democrats an
III Republicans standing side by side, Soutl
e. ern and Northern men voting together; an
n the inevitable Bourbons of both sides, Il
Ie men who, to use Western phrase 'tres
:, on the coat-tails Of progress and cry who's
~ whoa = will be left out in the cold"
10 Dissolution Notice.