Litchfield enquirer., 1878-10-24
The Parties and the Issues.


 No doubt January 1879 will see the resump- tion of specie payments in accordance with the statute in such case provided. Of ''fiat" money we have little fear; but there still re- mains the very grave question of the large diff ference in intrinsic value between the silver and the gold dollar. The 420 grain trade dol lar is now worth but 90 cents, and silver is still on the decline. So few of the legal ten- der 412 grain silver dollars have yet gone into general circulation that their value is now de- termined by their being interchangeable with the greenback, which is nearly at par Luck fly the act .remonetizing silver has proved practical failure. Will the present Congress, or the still more unreliable body which is to meet in December 1879, allow it to remain 80 ?'Wil they not try at least so to shape the effect of resumption as to make the silver dollar, and not the gold dollar, determine the practical value of the greenback dollar? Should that be the case, gold will at once go out of gener- al circulation; the gold dollar will be worth some fifteen cents premium; and we shall have permanent deterioration of the currency to that extent, with every prospect of still great CT decline as silver continues to depreciate in value. Here is sufficiently grave evil i'm pending, without waiting for the ascendency of the Buffers and the Kearneys. It is an evil that will certainly have to be confronted during the last half of Mir. Hayes presidency. We have 8 sound president and a majority of the Representatives from the Eastern and Middle States; but in the West and South, both Republicanism and Democracy are, to great extent, unreliable.
 Taken as a whole, indeed, the Republican party has proved the only reliable supporter of Hard Money even in the East, where Hard Money is strongest. In Maine the Democratic hard money men have been actually thrown into minority in their own party. Massachu- setts promises little better If Butler is dis tanced in the race, as now happily seems prob able the Democratic candidate will be still further behind. In Connecticut. the same weakness of the. Democratic organization in resisting the soft money infection is very per ceptible. The platform of the party is a dis reputable muddle as regards this mat ter Their candidate in the Third Congress sional District, isa Greenbacker Judge Phelps, their nominee in the Second, is little better :; and Mr. Landers, in the First, still blows hot and cold, as he has done all the while in Congress- In this District Mir. Bruggerhof is pronounced hard money nian-the single candidate of the four who dares openly take that position. On the other hand the Repub- licans of Connecticut stand up boldly for an honest. currency. Their platform and their candidates are sound. Gov. Hawley, in the First District, is speaking out with the power and frankness peculiar to the man, for an hon. est financial policy, and the prospect is that he will be elected.
 The other great issue of the times-political reform-is one with which neither of the old parties dares to grapple. The control of Con necticut Democracy seems to be given over to Barnum and corruption. He is running the campaign on the old contract: buyingin a legislature, and taking his pay in Senator ship. We look over our files of State Demo- cratic papers in vain for the faintest protest against this shameless sale of the highest office in the gift of the State. On the other hand, Connecticut Republicanism has but faint faith in political purity. It has given but very little support to a President who has tried to reform the civil service. It is largely in the control of machine politicians. It has not met Mir. Barnum's impudent personal claim on the Sen atorship with that personal advocacy of a diff ferent type of candidate which would have been the strongest appeal to the moral sense of the people. No sooner was Gov. Hawley's name mentioned in connection with the Sena- torship than the New Haven press, and the New York Tribune, under its influence, began to stir up the old fires of local hostility against him. Even in our own Congressional District the Republican managers have been on the lookout for Republican Barnum, instead of trusting to that hatred of corruption which the methods of the Democratic Barnum have aroused among the best men of both parties. We hear many Republicans affirming that Mir. Miles will not prove a candidate of the Bar mum sort and we trust that they are right but we have yet to see the intelligent Republi' can who denies that it was the hope of "a lib eral campaign contribution" which accustomed his nomination.
 Looking as an independent voter, then, at the chief issues of the November campaign, we contend that, as regards the vital financial question, the position of the Republican party is altogether preferable. Not only in Connect. icut, but, as general thing, in the West, it is a sound, hard money party. The Democracy on the other hand, is plainly unsound, even here in the East. Its candidates and it's poli cies are at odds with themselves; and the par, ty deserves the hearty support neither of soft nor of hard money men. AS regards political morality, the standards and practice of boti parties are abominably low; but, even here, we see manifest superiority on the side of Re publicanism. At least it is not lying absolute ly prostrate before any such car of Juggernau as the Hon. William H. Barnum is drivin. over the bodSg Connecticut Democracy.
 October Monthlies.
 HARPER's contains: A Free Kindergartel Gllus. ); Old Flemish Masters, David Tenier the Younger Gllus.); The New Sequoia For | asts nf Culifornio Cillno l Tho Ualla1, of @l,