Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-03-29
The Policies and the T-arty.

1t may be truly said 0 f the Gate C;;tv.
that it discusses all GU estions with abil-
ity, dignity and calm less, even though
it be not always r; ght. The following
extract from its columns is not only
candid, but, in tf4e main, sound and SEN
sible. The Dnplacables are growing
prematurefy over the accession of Mr..
Clark to the ir ranks. Aside from his
h%allucination about Hayes being fearful
of his title, and the deductions he makes
from it, he is very near right, as we
view things:
Mr.. Hayes did not find the Republi-
can party dead, nor did he find it strong.
1t was in a minority of the popular vote
OF 76. 1t merely got the Presidency
by an act of Congress supplementing
the elections. 1t had lost the South ir-
%retrievably upon the old policies, and it
had lost the North as well as the South
~irretrievably, if it had tried to carry the
bayonet policy to unlawful limits, and it
would have been unlawful had it tried
to persist in the policy under the con-
ditions arising following the elections
of '76. A new Southern policy and a
civil service policy that would secure
public confidence were both urgently
pressing upon Mr.. Hayes. His civil
service policy has in the main secured
a good degree of public confidence al
though every body sees that it was a
weakness on his part to issue a general
pronunciamento as though he did not in
tend to take politics into consideration
in making appointments OF any other
consideration, personal or what not,
save the general impartial one of fit
ness. Everybody knew that he would,
everybody knows that he has, disregard
ed his own conditions and made many
appointments on personal and political
grounds. Yet the whole country feels
that Hayes has filed the offices with
honorable, upright and creditable men.
They take his Sherman circular to have
been in a praiseworthy fevor of honest
enthusiasm about an honest civil serv-
ice, and that if he has failed himself to
carry it out it is because it was honest
ly impracticable. While the country
feels hat his proclaimed theories about
ofice-flling are not tenable, there can
be no question but the mass of the coun-
try is satisfied that the civil service un-
der Hayes is an honest and respectable
one. However unsatisfactory to many
Republicans, the general features of his
Southern policy were at least unavoida-
BILE; we hold them to have been wise,
statesmanlike, and not only compatible
with but absolutely essential to the
highest interest and success Of Repub-
licanism. Some Republicans insisted
that Hayes policies would kill the par
ty out right. We were confident they
would not; kept reiterating that they
would not; and they have not. While
Grant was a far stronger President than
Hayes we have no doubt that if he had
been President during the last year, and
had persisted in the Southern and civil
service policy of the preceding four
years (Which he would not) we would
have lost New Hampshire, Massachu-
sets, Wisconsin and other Northern
States which we're saved under the poll
cies Of Hayes, a far weaker man and
President. There would have been far
less grumbling among Republicans than
there was and more defeats. What
does all this indicate? We answer, the
strength and vitality of Republicanism
when not committed to policies that the
majority of the people disapprove. The
party has not been killed by Hayes pol
icies.