Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1877-04-27
The Administration,

The most amusing recent illustration of
party spirit is the tone of the Democratic
organs in speaking of the policy of the
Administration. The Democratic Con-
vention, loudly and with infinite reitera-
ton, declared that the Southern policy
should be reformed, that the civil service
should be reformed, and that many other
things should be reformed, that there
might oe a new spirit in public affairs. The
Administration is reforming the Southern
policy and the civil service, and is COM
posed of hard-money men. But the
Democratic press will not be comfOrted.
1t teens with personal sneers and innuen-
does, and, unable to denounce what the
Administration is doing, growls at the
way in which it is doing it. The truth
is that it was not reform in any particu-
lar which was so dear to the Democratic
party as the possession of the power and
the places. Had its real desire, for in
stance, been a change of the military
policy in the Southern States, it would
honorably have applauded and sustained
an Administration which effected 1T.
When both parties demand non-lntcr-
ference in States, reform of the civil
service, and specie payments, and when
there is no immediate issue upon which
they profess to differ, party organiza-
tions will be very much relaxed, and
politics will become largely personal un-
til imperative questions are presented.
This was the situation of 1924. The Mis-
souri, Compromise had laid the deep
foundation of the irrepressible conflict
in politics, but it was not developed, and
Crawford, Clay, jackson and Adams ran
scrub.race." Assuming the persist
ence of the Administration in its general
policy, vehement party divisions upon
present issues become impossible. We
do not anticipate any sudden or COM
plete change in party association and
action. There will be no such change
indeed, until some question or measure
is presented which seems to the present
Democrat or Republican more important
than mere adhesion to his old party
name. Undoubtedly, in any readjust-
ment of parties, whenever it may occur,
the chance is very small that the tend
ency would be to strengthen the existing
Democratic party. The traditions, the
methods and the composition of that
party naturally inspire distrust. If the
questions of immediate Importance are
the Southern situation, the finances, the
civil service, and honest and economical
government, the Democratic party has
no reason for its existence as against the
policy of the Administration, unless it
stands for soft money, for patronage, for
State interference, or for extravaganza.
Those who are opposed to all these
things will naturally sustain an Admin
istration which opposes them. The Ad-
ministration of President Hayes is, there.
fore, in the truest sense national and
patriotic.
That the feeling expressed in the op-
position to the confirmation of the Cabi-
net, and by Gov. Chamberlain in his two
letters, and by Gen. Butler and Senator
Blaine, will take some form of open OF
covert hostility to the Administration, is
most probable. This probability will
become certainty if the measures of re-
form applied to the civil service shall
prove to be as radical as the principles
that have been announced. But the best
and only defense against such hostility
is the steady adherence to the policy
which the patriotic good sense of the
country approves. The handspring OF
the Hayes Administration is patriotism
and not partisanship. Its spirit looks
first, not to party advantage, but to the
public welfare. This is something un'
known since the Administration of John
Quincy Adams, except during that OF
Abraham Lincoln. And it is due to the
conviction and character of the President
Fortunately, while his political principles
are clear and fixed, he is not by nature q
strong partisan. His Presidency, there
fore, is most happily timed. Whatever
may have been true as to the require
ments of other epochs, it is manifest that
whatis now needed is not unbending parti
sanship, by whatever fine name it MAJ
be called. Those who hold that any
thing else is weakness ana folly will, OF
of course, not sustain the Administra
tiOn. They may tolerate it, hoping only
that the party, as they understand the
party, may be able to survive it. Thu
far, unquestionably, the Administration
of President Hayes has the cordial sym
pathy and support of the most intelligent
humane and patriotic sentiment of thu
country. And that is the surest ant
most lasting gfoundation.-Harper'S Week
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