Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-11-27
A PLEA FOR THE REPUBLIC.
From the Cincinnati Euqrncr.

Shall the American prlnciplc remain
Shall the Democratic idea continue ?
Shall the simple, farmer Republic
last All other questions are less
than these in the politics of the next
twelvemonth. The Democratic prin-
ciple has large majority of the peo-
pie of this country as its adhercnts.
Local selfgovcrnment, home rule, cx-
alting the individual, keeping the
Government rather than men in sub
iection-this is the American princi-
pie. For this the fight is to be made
in the year ahead of us. The peril of
Il one-man power overhangs the Re
public In this great, free nation
there is Il demand for strong man,
man stronger than the Constitution.
When that demand is endorsed by an
emphatic majority of the voters of the
United States the end of the Republic
is Mt hand. The growing power of
corporations, the growth OF the power
of great cities, the alarming tendency
toward the Capitalization of power in
Washington, are dangers to the Re
public. There must be union of all
its friends to save it from these pcrils.
Men who three or four years ago were
shocked at the suggestion that one
man should be President of this Re
public twelve years now surround the
silent man as he marches across the
continent and hail his candidacy for "A
third term as a lovely thing. There
Is a longing for a Government, not
within the Constitution, but outside of
and beyond it-ior man and Gov
ernment stronger than the Consti-
tuition. This longing Is an enemy OF
the Republic and a foe of free govern
ment on this continent. 1t is to this
danger, or these dangers, that the cf-
forts of the friends Of the Republic
must be uuitedlv addressed. The cx.
istence of the Republic a~ it was is the
great end. And We will not believe
that the American devotion to the
American principle has been cxtin-
guished. The same impulses that sent
so many thousands of men into the
war for the protection of the Union
under the Constitution will impel men
to cling to the Constitutional Republic
in time of peace.
The Democratic party has been the
traditional party of discipline. Since
the beginning Of the century the Dem
ocratic devotion has been lofty and
admirable That discipline has ap-
parently relaxed somewhat within a
few wears. For nearly twenty years
the Republican party has held the
spoils and spoils, to great extent,
make discipline. The Democracy 10
longer have an unorganizcd or 4 disor-
ganized foe to contend against; but,
on the contrary, party with all the
machinery of government, with all the
patronage party audacious, unscru-
pulous, and terribly resolute. The
taking of the current Presidency by
the Republican party was a wound in
hicted upon free government, not so
much because one man rather than
another was placed in the White
House, but because the methods by
which a party took power were such
a. to diminish respect for Republican
or Democratic institutions. The love
for the simple Republic is diminished.
The respect for the constitutional
powers is growing less. The Demo
cratic principle, the American idea,
is weakened in the affection of Ameri.
cans. The holders of political power
have, in order to retain power, so in
famed sectional passion that there Is
almost willingness to abandon the
Republic. The tendency is certainly
and painfully in that direction. The
duty of the Democracy in this hour is
to preserve the Republic. The drift
is dangerous. Wings and RepubIi-
cans in the South have been driven by
Republican misrule, by carpet-bag
rule, by ignorant, negro misgovern-
ment into the Democratic party. Re
publican misconduct in the South has
consolidated the South, and now the
South is blamed for being solid, and
not only the South, but the Democrat
ic party North is blamed most out
rageously because Republicans have
made the South solid" Out of all
this grows the peril of the Republic,
to the fundamental ideas of free gov
ernment in this country. Sectional
hatred, even after secession and slave
ry are forever buried, may crush out
the devotion to the Republic. The
Southern States would divide poliii-
cally, as they were divided throughout
our history till 1860, with the removal
of the temporary causes for their solid
ity. The Southern representation in
Congress is made up chiefly of Wings,
not of original Democrats. When
the spoilholders of the Republican
party will permit the sentiment of
union to rise above the spirit Of sec
tionalism one-third of the Southern