New-York tribune., 1878-12-17
4 P1TUiR SJGGENTIYt CONTRAST


Whoever considers carefully the record OF
the two great parties with reference To inveSl-
cations begun and carried on during the
past six yeirs-the objects of inquiry, the
methods pursued and the results ObtaIned-
will be struck with the remarkable con-
trast presented. 1t is a contrast too, that
goes not merely to the things named, the OBJ
iects, methods and results, but is thorough
and misunderstanding down TO the character
and purposes of the parties. 1t may
he broadly and truly stated in these
terms: that whereas the Republican party
is. as rule, honest and patriotic,
there are exceptional cases in It of dis
honesty and reckless seli-seeking, viii h Re
publicam themselves have investigated fear
lessly, and relcutIessly punished; while the
reverse is true of the Democracy, to wit:
that honest men and patriots are the eX-
ception, and these so few that they count for
nothing in the party, for the party, leaders.
followers aud all, rise up whenever a Democrat
is caught in political offences or civil crimes
and instead of pursuing, unite in screening him
from Justice. There has been but one exception
10 this rule that we now recall. That was
the prosecution of The Tweed Ring by Mr.
Tilden but he took 1t up late, and the pur-
pose of that period OF virtue has been very fully
translated since. They have had troubles with
Doorkeepcrs i'll Congress- to be sure, and been
Obliged to turn out two; but they stumbled into
a knowledge of transactions which they could
not well ignore, and III the end 1t appeared
that the Investigations grew ont OF personal
quarrel, over the division Of spOllS, and were
not by any means due TO regard for the in
terests OF the public service.
Here was this famous investigator, Glover,
pegging away at all sorts of inquiries, all
through last session, with the sole purpose Of
discovering something damaging to Republi-
cans and avoiding the discovery of anything
hurtful to his own party. There was hardly
any attempt at cOncealment of this on
the part of his committee or himself
and none whatever on the part of leading
Democratic statesmen and Democratic news
papers They made no secret of their dissat-
isfaction and disgust when he brought to
hight, as he did at frequent intervals,
the evidence of Democratic dcyiltIy. They
all said "This is q blunderw and COM
PEELED him to drop his clew and start in
some other direction in the vain hunt of Re
publican fraud and dishonesty. They were " in
"vestigatDg to find out" to use Gen
Buffers phrase, but to find out only
the encmys offences, and not their
own. And they, and all the other in
vestigating Committees started out by
Democratic Congress, have received every
possible aid from Republicans, and III no in
stance been Obstructed or hindered The
Republican reasoning is that they can
not afford to seem TO be anxious
to conceal anything; that the great mass of
their organization are Republican partisans only
because they believe the party aud its leaders
to be honest and patriotic. The conscience of
the party behind them holds them up to a
manly and courageous attitude, even
if their individual cOnsciences do not.
The instinct of self-preservatiOn cOmpes
them to welcome investigation and
invite scrutiny of all their acts. On
the contrary the Democratic leaders have an
| instructive dread of uncOyenng anything in
politics lest they or their friends get found
out. The feeling permeates the organization.
The party proper loses no great number of
voters for shrinking from investigations. It's
loss in the late election was principally the
floating vote, which is naturally Republican.
The Democratic instinct is to get ont damag-
| ing facts about the opposition, but conceal
| whatever is of disadvantage to its own friends.
| The Republican instinct is rather to have
everything open and above board, but
especially the acts of its own officials OF
whose honor it is very jealous.
Contrast the manner in which the Mild
and XLIIId Congresses, largely Republican il
both branches, took up and pursued investi
cations of all sorts, affecting the details oi
administration and the personal and pOlitica