The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-07-15
THE TWO PARTY PLATFORMS.
The New York Herald, the Leading Newr.
paper of America, Expresses its Opinion
on Their Relative Merits.
The Republican Platform.


platform compels us to regard it as {
joke. 1t is impossible to imagine tina
the gentlemen who drew it regarded il
as anything else. Take away from it tht
brag and the bluster which constitute it:
comic portions and there is nothing left
but commonplace.
1t begins with Dragging. The repub
lican party, says the first section, sup
pressed the rebellion, abolished slavery
raised the value of the paper currency
from thirty-eight cents to par, increased
the foreign trade, paid the pensions, paid
off third of the debt, revived industry
1t seems pity to stop just there. Why
not have added that the republican party
raised the great crops of the last few
years, caused the droughts and rains in
Europe which made so great and prof.
table an expectation of our products,
created the fine wheat and corn weather
with which we have been blessed for
years, put stop to the cattle plague,
discovered and developed the new mines
of precious metals and dug out the Erie
Canal?
II the republican party really furnish
ed all the soldiers of the war and paid
all the taxes since the war undoubtedly
it did all the other things we have sug-
gested. The plain truth of course is
that the republican party has had con-
troll of the government for twenty years,
on the whole has mismanaged public
affairs very badly, and is not bit sorry
for its misconduct In putting down the
rebellion and in freeing the slaves Mr..
Lincoln took counsel at every step with
leading democrats as we'll as republi-
cans; he was the President of the whole
country, and democrats were constantly
among bis most intimate and cherished
councillors. AS for paying the taxes,
the democrats have not been exempted
from that; the pleasing and republican
part was to collect them and spend them
paying their share and no more.
The republican chiefs have fallen into
the habit of looking backward. 1t is
the common habit of parties which have
been in power twenty years. In that
time, and indeed before that time, par
ties, in the nature Of things, become
efete. Like old men they live in the
past; there is no future in them. Like
old men, also, old parties conveniently
remember ouly the pleasant and credita.
BILE part of their past Thus the repub-
lican platform in its amusing retrospect
says nothing of the scandalous misgov-
ernment in the Southern States for
which the party is alone responsible;
nothing of the years in which they tam
pered with the currency and brought
upon the country by their cowardice the
plague of greenbackers; nothing of the
mischievous election laws which they
enacted and misused; nothing of the
republican leaders, with less than dozen
honorable .ceptions, have been disa.
greeably involved; nothing of the waste
of the ople's money which was thrown
with lavish hands to jobbers of various
kinds of years, until the democrats
were at last placed in control of the House
by an indignant and impoverished coun-
try.
Where the platform ceases to brag it
begins to bluster, the connection being
made by brief section in which poly.
gamy, internal Improvements and pro-
tective tariffs are huddled together,
few cold words in commendation of Mr..
Hayes votes being thrown in. Tho
bluster concerns, naturally, the solid
South and those dreadful democrats
whose only object, it seems, is to turn
their minority into majority, as thoug b
the only object of the republican chiefs
we're not to retain possession of the gov
ernment. The buster is, on the whole,
more strongly comic than the brag; it
draws picture of the democratic "lust
of Office and patronage" which if it were
not labelled democrat" would be gen
ally mistaken for a description of the
republicans drawn by themselves
Surely party which seized the Presi-
dency as the republicans did in 1857,
and then quarrelled with the man they
forced into the White House because be
would not crafty to the extent of their
demands their Unsuitable lust of Office
and patronage" but honorably preferred
to serve the country rather than the
party leaders-surely such a party should
''sing SMALL" to use sea phrase, when
the topic is greed of Office and power.
The democratic platform is by no
means faultless; we mean to take it to
pieces another day. But it has at least
the very great merit that it looks ahead.
1t promises the country something; the
republicans promise nothing, except
continuance of high protective tariff.
The democratic platform speaks of liv.
ing questions it proposes free ships and
an extension of American commerce in
America bottoms; it proposes reform
of the revenue laws so that they shall
Weld revenue and not mainly embar-
rass commerce and foster monopolies; ;
it proposes to spend the money of the
taxpayers for public purposes alone and
to reserve the public lands for the people
who will settle on them. No doubt the
democrats are a terrible set of fellows;
nothing could be more disagreeable to
to the republican chiefs than the appa-
rition of an opposition party making a
real bid for popular favor, letting the
dead past bury itself, and looking for
ward to living questions in which the
happiness and prosperity of the people
are concerned.
The republican platform represents
very accurately the spirit of the party
leaders. They have been twenty years
in power, as the platform takes care to
remind the voters; and they would like
to have another twenty years 20 Of it on the
strength of past services. They refuse
to look forward; they promise nothing
to the country. AT the last session of
Congress they played the part of obstruc-
tiyes and nothing else. Every reform
which was brought forward received
only their obstinate opposition. The
election laws SO clearly needed amend
| ment that all the candid republican
journals spoke out in favor of proposed
changes but the party leaders opposed
every change. The civil service was
seen to need better regulation, but the
most eminent of the republican Senators
declared the question n mere abstraction.
The attempt of MIR. Bayard to place the
currency on stable basis by withdraw
| 49, tt,o rroo, ho oEu ftr1fillod tho rpnuhli.