The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-04-11

ple Of all parties are restive under this
feeling Of wrong and injury to them. The
party TO which the gentlemen themselves
belong is dissatisfied with that result and
il Is therefore not strange that our con-
stituents demand this at our hands. we
can do nothing less, and II wrong be done
| Il may at least lead the public Judgment
in the end to q higher plane Of public
service than that which the Republi-
can party 30 long maintained while In
power.
But we have still otherreasons for pur'
suing this policy, 1t has been the boast
of the Republican party that 1t contain
ed about all the intelligence-all the ca
pacity to govern-all the honesty (Y) In
the land. The Democracy is fast coming
into power in the Federal government
il ia in power in Ohio to-day, and firmly
believes that there is in that party ability
to govern the whole country, and manage
the institutions of the State of Ohio also
and they intend to demonstrate 1t now
that they have the opportunity. If any
of our public servants prove untrue to
| Jl6lT bTublb, We udNF pllO SOAtoSS
ability to choose others who will do right
Gentlemen talk as if we had nothing to
say No reasons to render on this side OF
the House. We haYe minds, judgments,
and reasons of our own, and upon proper
occasions we have the courage ard ability
to express them and it must not be TAX
en- as an indication that we have nothing
to satisfy our ConscienCes, because deslr-
ING to transact public business with the
least possible delay, we pass these bills
under the operations of the previous
question in order to cut off useless debate.
We do not admit, by any means, that
there are not still other reasons for turn
ing out Republican officials, some of fwhom
have held public positions for nearly a
quarter of a century. 1t is sometimes
we'll to make these changes. No man or
set of men in this country are born to
public positions. Changes must some-
times come. 1t may be we'll to remove
them, and look again into these public
institutions, and see whether or not evil
practices do exist in their management.
1t is always possible that when men are
long in public positions, that they come
to feel as if they owned these places; and
it may be well to teach such that they
are but servants of the people, just as we
are, and not their masters. We believe
that at least in some of these institutions
there are useless officers and employees.
We believe that salaries may bereduced,
and expenses decreased, and we propose
at least to try and do it; and because we
have not spent time and money in inves-
tigating matters in advance, it must not
be taken as an indication that we have
no reason for believing that abuses do not
exist in some, if not in all. If Ifgentlemen
have just discovered that great wrong of
their past course as party; and if some-
time in the distant future they again Sc
cure popular favor 80 that they could
make these changes, twill then be very
good time for them to practice what they
to-day preach to us. 1t may, | say, in the
end, if they be true to the sentiments
now here expressed, work a reformation
in their own course of party life, if we
now compel them to take the sane medi-
cine they administered to us when
they had the power. They seem to
have forgotten that their party legislated
out of Office Democrats in the midst of
their terms, against whom not breath
ofsuspicion existed. In the exercise of
their party power, they have ottimes
been tyrannical and severe upon Demo-
Gratis, and, even in this House within the
past few years, they have exercised this
self.same power of "gag-law" upon the
Democratic side of the House, and were
never then horror.stricken with their
course of conduct, which seems to them
80 bitter now, when they are compelled
to drink from the same Chalce they have
held to the lips of others.
It must therefore in view Of all the
facts passing before us, when calling up
the history of the past. not seem at all
strange that a state of things exist which
calls for a clean sweep of Republican Of
fCials, when in the past they have con-
stantly pursued precisely that course
themselves toward Democrats, and hav.
ing furthermore wrested from the people
of the United States the fruits of an eleC-
ton of Chief Magistrate of the Nation
that they should now pay the penalty for
that great wrong by being driven from
place and power whenever and wherever
the people can get at them-until that
great wrong the evils of past political
course shall have been sufficiently atom
3D. This is the feeling underlying this
demand for a complete change by our
constituents, and we, their Representa-
tives, can do nothing less than to obey
them. These are some of the reasons
which gentlemen have demanded at our
hanps, and are pleased to render, if any
were at all necessary.