The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1878-05-23
[FrOm Harper's Weekly, Nay 4.
Leadership. L

ton which has settled the Southern
question upon constitutional and Re
publican principles, which, without
the aid of the only Republican
branch of Congress, will soor SET
specie payment resumed, which has
broken up Congressional dictatior
Of patronage to the Executive, is an
Administration which can be disown-
ed by the Republican party only at
the cost Of total and contemptuous
e'e1t at the polls. The Republican
assaults upon the Administration
have been foiIed. Its opponents have
all denounced, derided, sneered, and
shrugged, but the Administration has
quietly held its way, as Mr.. Foster
truly said, without scandal or evil
rumOr, and with an honest purpose
that no man can dispute or deny,
even ifwithout that tact andvigor and
consistency which its friends would
gladly see.
The leadership is to be offered to
the President, hut what ought to lead
the Republican party ifnot a faithful
redemption ofthe spirit of its pledges?
1t asked for wise pacifcation of the
South, and more has been done to
restore real peace and harmony than
any body believed to bepossible. It
asked for Executive independence in
nominations, and that independence
has been recovered and maintained
It asked for a steady and continuous
progress to specie payment, and it is
at hand. But while the Administra-
ton has been honestly ymovingin in this
direction, how have others proposed
to lead? By sustaining the Silver
Bill, or by saying nothing about it /;
by fighting vigorously for "the ma
chine 5" by assailing cabinet officers
for doing their duty, and crippling
their efforts to save public property :;
by ri3iculing reform, and scoffng at
pacifcatiOn, and sneering at the
President as a goody -goody Sunday
School superintendent. What else
has the leadership done? What
measure or policy or suggestion Of
public Importance or national ad7aE-
tage, tending to give the Republican
party a juster and stronger hold Oh
the country, has proceeded from
those who have been busily decrying
the Administration as feeble and IN
Republican and ruinous to the par
ty? Results that every pltriotic
American must approve have been
accomplished. A better national
feeling than this country has known
for more than q generation has been
reached. Great progress toward a
restoration of financial confidence, II
dispensable to the renewal of indus
try. has been secured. UncOnstiu-
t,oral Congressional control of the
Executive has been repulsed. A
general feeling of hones:er tone in
themanagement Ofgreat departments
has been promoted. And all that
the leadership of which we speak has
done is to proclaim that the Repub-
ican party is not responsible for these
things; that the President came IN
by q bargain, and that he and half Of
his cabinet are really Democrats in
that what has been done is |
not the fruit of Republicanism, and /.
that if the Democrats want the Ad-
ministration, they are welcome to it.
This is leadership that had already |
bought the Republican party to the |
verge of total defeat, and the only /
chance for continued power that the |
party has lies in the belief of the coun- |
try that the Administration, which this
opposes, really represents
feeling and purpose.
In the Congressional elections Of /
his year, therefore, the Republican
candidates viii be strong with the
people in the degree that they are
known to be friendly to the Admin
strstion. And by this is not under
stood the approval Of every act of the
Administration, notan assertion that
tisin every thing consistent,uor that
t has not made mistakes. What viii !
'e understood Is, that the general
spirit and purpose of tie Admins
ration are approvedas patriotic, con
,titutional, and expedient, and that
is policy Of true pacifeatiOn, of hon
st finance, and of Executive indie
ought to be vigorouly sus-
aimed and more boldly prosecuted.
Those who desire good results Of
he Administration should strength
n it by showing that it h. S the
public approval. That approval,
must not AMI will not be
nisinterpre t as a sign Of n ire S t
or as an acknowledgment
Lat what has been done is all that
vas exp cted and demanded. Bat
t will be an encouragement to Pur-
ue a course more fully in harmony
With the anticipations that attended
Inauguration. Republican can
Iidates, on the other hand. who sym
,athizs with the hostility that
las been displayed toward the Ad
ninistration, and who are understood
o prefer the leadership repres nted