The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-30
CONKLING'S TRIUMPH.

CONKLING'S TRIUMPH.
The dssensions that marked the Rochester
convention afford confirmation too strong to
longer admit Of question Of the utter and
irretrievable decentralization Of the Repub-
lican party. Conklings triumph was but
personal vindeation, and does not secure to
him the leadership Of great and compact
party. He has gratified his resentments
against the party leaders who opposed him,
but, likeSamson, he has destroyed himself with
them. This is perhaps too strong q figure
for the temple had been shaken to It's founda-
tion stones before this Achilles, who sulked
80 long in his tent as to incur the derision OF
his rivals, indicated his pursuance as against
his brother chieftains. The truth is that the
party fought the last fight for the presidency
on dead issues and ON o sentiment that the
people had become convinced was false and
out of date, and 1t held itself together during
the campaign only by the cohesive force
of prestige and spoils The only vital and
national idea and purpose it had possessed
since the war was Its reconstruction policy,
and upon this the people OF the last election
put O popular condemnation that could not be
mistaken. Hayes readily recognized this
fact and In the face Of this condemnation he
dared not continue the policy Of Grant, which
had alone kept alive by appeals to the baser
and more selfish instincts Of men the party
that had fulfilled It's destiny and been long
since disrobed of oil the higher aims and
worthier purposes that inspire the political
enthusiasm of an earnest and republican peo-
pie. He conceived the idea, In this extremity,
OF appropriating to himself and his party
just as fraudently and surreptitiously as he
had stolen the Presidency, the vital and life
giving principles Of the Democratic
party and the popular applause that
these had won. In this endeavor he
has met with signal failure, and at
the same time he has dealt his party blow
from which 1t shall never recover. Through
out Grants two terms the very life-blood of
the party had been spoliation and robbery Of
the people, and the breath Of It's nostrils was
utilization and abuse Of the South. The Co
hesion of spoils and the shameless use of the
federal patronage and the army, backed by
Misrepresentation of the South and passionate
appeals to the ignorance and prejudice of
deluded people, were all that had preserved
the party unity and power since the accom-
plishment Of its mission. which ended at APP
pomattox.
The very two things under the sun that this
corrupt and effete party could not survive
were civil service reform, the publication of
the public service, and the exposure Of the
cruel injustice and vindictive wrong that had
been done the South, and of the infamous sa-
trapies to whose support the government had
lent the strong arm Of military power.
Yet these are the very things that Hayes
has aspired to do, and tho result Is the abso.
lutte and hopeless disintegration Of his party.
Without unity Of action, without single ma
donal purpose, and robbed Of everything like
community Of interest, II Is now divided
like routed and demoralized host into SO
many personal followngs whose strength and
influence In no instance extend beyond the
limits OF o single State. In New York we
have the Conkling party, in Maine the Blaine
party, in Indiana the Morton party, and each
faction Led by its own ambitious chief between
whom exist manifold iealousies and heart
burnings, with no community Of purpose to
bring them together or induce them TO relin-
quish their personal ambitions In common
cause. Shattered into o Thousand fragments
there Is not even nucleus around which
great national party can be gathered, for Mr..
Hayes, while he has succeeded In doing to
death the old Republican party, has utterly
failed to erect in its place new, and to-
day he has to look TO the Democrats
for whatever substantial support his admins
tration is likely to receive, and must content
himself with such as they choose to mete out
out to him.
Doubtless Mr.. Conkling realizes these facts,
and has been guided in his action solely by
the instinct Of self-preservation and deter
mination to evolve out Of the universal chaos
that has overcome his party personal fol-
lowing that will rescue him from absolute
political retirement and give him an infiu-
ence that must be respected and perhaps
courted byany organized opposition to the
Administration, whether In or out of his
party. 1t 10 barely probable that he is look
ing to combination with the ultra Tilden
Democrats with view to securing his return
to the Senate. The fierce hostility he has dis
played toward his party rivals, and the des-
perate extremity to which he has pushed his
advantage, show very conciusively that he
cares very much less for the unity of his
party in the State than for some other object
he has In view.
His fight against them has been q routrance,
Nth sword bare and scabbard thrown away,
and It has not been tempered by any party
G0Isgi derations or prudence.
Over them his victory has been complete
md overwhelming. 1t is hardly necessary to
no futo the history Of the long warfare