Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1877-07-03
ssThe Death Of the Republican Party.,'

ssThe Death Of the Republican Party.''
The New York Herald of 10Th has a
column and half editorial under the
above caption, from which we extract
the following:
We speak from fresh experience,
having imprudently ventured some
days ago to declare the democratic par
ty dead. 1t is dead. No shrewd obser-
yer of public events doubts this fact 1t
hardly needed Mr.. Tilden's blow at the
Manhattan Club last week to finish Its
existence. Yet the public announce
ment 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 vitu-
peration. It is, therefore, with vivid
sense of what will follow that we hoist
our umbrella before declaring, as in the
public interest we are bound to do, that
the republican party also is dead-as
dead as it can be; as dead as Julius Caesar
in his deadest moments; as dead as a
door nail, or as the rat in the proverb !;
as dead, in short, as the democratic par
ty; or if anything could be deader than
the democratic party, as dead as that.
With the help of the Shareholders the
republican party extirpated slavery. It
had the great good fortune to head the
war for the Union, and naturally drew
to its ranks the greater r art of the intel
ligence and ability Of the Northern
States. 1t was a great and powerful
party and did its work with astonishing
and irresistible determination. It count
ed among its leaders many of the grea-
test names of the country. It played q
part in our history which made its
name dear to the greater and proba-
bly, the best part of the country, and
which, even now that it is dead, makes
its good will and fixtures so valuable
that there is likely to be more than one
quarrel over them.
But slavery is dead, the Union is re-
established, the freedmen are freemen
and have become with the consent of all
men part ofthe body polite the South
ern States have been finally relegated to
government under the constitution.
The South" was the occasion of the
republican party, and there is no longer
South" The object for which the
party was formed have been accomplish.
ed, and when President Hayes ordered
that fedeaal interference in South Caro-
lima and Louisiana should cease he in
effect dissolved the partnership which
had for twenty-one years existed under
the name, style and title of "the repub-
lican party.n
But it must not be forgotten that dur
ing the whole twenty-one years Of its
existence the republican party was
united upon only one thing-its OPPOSE
ton to slavery and the sequel@ Of sla-
very. On all other points its members
were SO bitterly divided that it was
with the utmost difficulty the quarrel.
ling factions could be held:together even
during the war. The discordant ele.
ments were silent and united only while
there remained "South" to oppose
they can no longer be held together.
The first time that any one of the "new
issues" appears in Congress the party
will necessarily burst asunder.
vi course somebody will inherit the
name. though the complex and perfect
machinery will hardly be worth much
If President Hayes keeps his promise To
the country of divorcing the civil ser
vice from politics. When we say that
q man is dead we do not mean that the
family name is extinct. There will he
two parties in the election of 1880. and
they may call themselves republican
and democratic; but the policies, the
leaders, the rank and file will be differ
ent in each.