The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-06-19

| frequently seen men walking ABOUT tue
streets as dead es Julius Caesar, but utterly
unconscious Of the fact. What is thus true
OF men may be even truer OF political
parties, which, being aggregations OF men
more or less successfully protesting to hold
more or less similar opinions, are capable
of maintaining their momentum for some
time after the corporate animating spirit has
fed, and thus present an appearance OF life
deceiving the less acute part of the commu-
nifty. All the organs of such defunct po-
litical body display preternatural liveli-
ness; the whole body breaks out into bad
language at the slightest public suggestion
that it is moribund; its principal members
repel the insinuation with the CHASTITY ac-
tiyity Of galvanized frog. The thing never
seems more alive than for some time after 1T
has given up the ghost, and it is as much as
live mans life is worth to declare it dead.
| We speak from o fresh experience, having
! imprudently ventured some days ago to
declare the democratic party dead. 1t is
dead. No shrewd observer OF public events
doubts this fact. 1t hardly needed MIR.
Tilden's blow at the Manhattan Club last
week to finish its existence Yet the public
announcement Of it's decease, made first in
the HERALD. according to our confirmed
habit Of making the earliest pub
lication of all important events. has
drawn upon our journal whole
shower bath of vituperation. 1t is,
therefore, with q vivid sense OF what will
follow that we hoist our umbrella before de-
claring, 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 demo-
cratic party or if anything could be deader
than the democratic party, as dead as that.
The republican party was, in its day, one
of the most important, one Of the most pow
erful and one of the most necessary parti-
san organizations this country has ever
known. Political parties are partnerships
for the accomplishment Of certain public
objects, and the objec Of the republican
party was in a constitutional manner to
check and ultimately extinguish slavery.
other. The old abolitionists were not
statesmen or politicians, but moral
lists; they saw an evil and moved at once
and peremptorily to extirpate it, and with
it whatever stood in their way. Thus they
denounced the Union and the constitution
rs league with the internal powers, while
arousing the moral repugnance Of the coun-
try to the slave system; but it was
left for the republican party to
devise constitutional, and therefore prac-
tical, means to check and extirpate the
evil. 1t was a special partne rship to ac-
complish this purpose. The partners came
together from both the previous parties;
they surrendered for the time and for the
purpose Of their new partnership their diff
ferences on all other questions, and thus
the republican organization contained free
traders, moderate and extreme protection
lists, men favoring and others opposed to in
ternal improvements, the supporters Of
Capitalization and the friends of local self
government men, in short, of all opinions
on oil the questions which have agitated or
divided opinion in this country; all sinking
for the time their beliefs on these questions,
in order to pull together against slavery.
With the help of the shareholders the
republican party extirpated slavery. 1t had
the great good fortune to head the war for
the Union, and naturally drew to its ranks
the greater part of the intelligence 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 leaders many Of the greatest
names Of the country. 1t played part in
our history which made its name dear to
the greater and probably 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 of the body polite; the Southern States
have been finally relegated to self-govern-
ment under the constitution. sThe South"
was the occasion of the republican party,
and there is no longer South" The
objects for which the party was formed
have been accomplished, and when Presi-
dent Hayes ordered that federal inter
ference in South Carolina and Louisiana
should cease he in effect dissolved the part
nership which had for twenty-one years
existed under the name, style and title
Of '.the republican party" We are here
Cameron, in fact all the republican
leaders, at once saw and acknowl-
edged. Many Of them were furious
at the Presidents act they looked more to
their party advantage than to the peace and
welfare of the country. But they were
wrong to blame the President he was