New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1879-10-01

The Political Situation.


The Political Situation.
The elections of this year, before
those Of next year, are like the action
of Quatre Bras before Waterloo. The
allies, after a desperate struggle, won
at Quatre Bras, and they destroyed
Napoleon at Waterloo. Should tho
Republicans succeed this year, there IL
little doubt that they will elect their
President next year, and great politi-
cal changes must necessarily follow.
The present Administration is Repub-
lican. The question of the election
will be, therefore, whether, upon the
whole, the country is satisfied with the
general character and policy of the Adj
ministration, or whether it thinks that
Democratic ascendency would promise
a more satisfactory condition of affairs.
1t is true that for some time the Adj
ministration and large, if not the
larger, part of the party were not in
accord. But there is now no doubt of
the substantial agreement of the party
and the Administration upon the issues
which the Democratic party have
chosen to present to the country If
the Democratic chiefs had been wiser,
they would not have healed the breach
in the Republican line. They did not,
indeed, mean to do it, but they over
reached themselves in trying to widen
it. They counted upon the Presidents
approval of measures which his party
in Congress opposed, and upon the con-
sequent party schism. This attempt of
theirs at once brought into view some
thing which the Democrats do not
comprehend, and at which they always
sneer-the moral principle of the Re-
publican party. The strength of that
party has always been that in plain,
simple question of justice it was on the
right side. The weakness of the Dem
ocratic party for two generations has
been that it has attempted to substi-
tute legal fiction for the instinct of
justice.
The Democratic attempt to divide
the Republicans involved the voluntary
surrender by them of the last vestige
of National defense of the colored citi-
zens of the Southern States against
acknowledged oppression and injustice,
and a surrender upon the ground
of State Sovereignty. This PROPOSE
ton at once brought out in Congress
admirable and conclusive defenses of
the Constitutionality of the Republican
position, and trenchant statement of
it in the vetoes of the President, which
commended themselves at once to the
sympathy and support of the "loyal''
country. AS the next and most signif-
cant immediate result, the "Stalwart''
Conventions of Pennsylvania, and Iowa,
and Maine-the East, the West and the
center-unqualifiedly approved the
course of the President and of Congress-
The persuasion that the Democratic cry
of National interference was but pre-
tense to secure immunity for the sup
preston of the colored vote, and the
usurpation of the Government by that
means, aroused the old feeling Of the
anti-slavery days, and it is upon that
feeling that the Republican party, by
the action of Che Democrats, is now
united. ,
For what reason, then, should the
country anticipate greater peace and
prosperity by substituting Democratic
for Republican Administration? The
question can not be argued upon the
merits or dement's of the Grant Admin
istrations, the Credit Mobilier, the San
Domingo affair, the whisky rings, tho
Indian frauds, or anything else Of the
kind that may be alleged. It is not by
some other Administration but by this.
that the Republican party must be tried.
Is the country satisfied with this? Is it
satisfied with it's signal and unques-
toned purity, ability and patriotic fidel-
ity? Is it satisfied with it's financial
soundness and success, and with it's I'M
deniable improvement of the system of
appointments in the Civil Servicep Does
it believe that any Democratic Admins
tratiOn would be more absolutely free
from every kind of scandal, of sound
er financial views or policy, or more ef-
ticient in reforming administrative
abuses? If not, what is to be gained by
the overthrow of the party which is re-
sponsible for the Administration. and
which, by the principle of popular gov
eminent, is rightfully to be Judged by
its Administration? Passing to other
considerations, is the case changed? If,
in regard to other questions, the cleo
tion is to be decided by the general
views declared by party conventions,
and by party presses and orators, is the
Democratic party to be more trusted
than the Republican not to NEEDLE with
the currency or to try financial expert
ments? Business is reviving, and every
industrial interest requires that poll
ticians shall keep hands off. Which is
the more likely to do so, the Repub-
licans, under whose auspices specie
payments have been resumed, and who
have steadily resisted tampering with
the finances, or the Democrats, who
have nominated an initiation leader as
their candidate in what they believe to
be the test State of the years election?
Or is there so dangerous theory of
National power upon the Republican
side as to require Democratic success
as a party of just State-rights? The Re-
publican doctrine of National power is
stated by the President in his veto mes
sages. 1t is that National authority
may protect the exercise of the right of
suffrage for members of Congress
which the Constitution confers upon q
certain class of State voters. Are the
of this doctrine more
dangerous to the common welfare than
acquiescence in forcible usurpation of
the Government? Is there anything
fatally consolidating or centralizing in
such a simple Constitutional position?
On the other hand, is not the Demo-
cratic assertion that the United States
must helplessly see the rights which
They have conferred outraged, mon
strous and intolerable proposition?
Such are the broad and general aspects
OF the situation as between the two
parties. Would Democratic success
promise q more satisfactory condition
Of affairs? Would industry of every
kind feel surer Of the continuation of |