New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-09
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IS IT A " CRISIS"Y
We must be permitted to differ with the
superior persons who are preaching sort OF
indiffercntism for the present campaign as II
there were nothing actually at stake in the
contest and it were weakness and folly to
view it as anything more than struggle be-
tween contending factions for official spoils
There is no doubt that partisan zeal
and enthusiasm may be carried to a
foolish excess, and that the apprehended
results of an election are often unduly exag-
gerated for political effect. But the excite
ment and bounce of a campaign are harmless
compared with the indfferentism fOstered by
the utter neglect of politics which is INDUCED
in by people who lift their noses IN contempt
of it all. The sclf-styled political philoso-
piers are very poor observers and poorer
reasonerS if they cannot sec that the Gov
crnment is strong, durable and healthy
| Just in proportion as the people are interested
| in all that pertains to its administration, its
conduct, and its policy and that i'll proportion
to their interest are their earnestness and their
enthusiasm in political campaigns. Their en-
erges may be ill-dirccted and Overworked.
but better that Il thousand times than the in
difference and neglect of the superior minds
who pride themselves upon being unmoved
| through the whole of it, and whose boast it
is that they are " not interested in politics."
TIE TRIBUNE recognizes, as gladly as any
of these complacent philosophers, that the
campaign of 1880 has thus far been reason
ably free from the exaggeratiOn and gush and
manufactured excitement and enthusiasm that
usually characterize great political contests
But when they go on to say that the personal
character of the candidates of the two parties
is such as in any event TO insure wise admins
tration and good government; that consequently
there can be no "crisis" and need De no
excitement; and that we may all sit idly by
AID let the interested politicians on either
slde-the ms " and the outs fight it out,
we most decidedly dissent. For, trite and
worn-out as the phrase may seem to the in
different and cynical we do believe the cOun-
try is Just now passing through a crisis not
| less critical than any we have encountered
| since the long struggle with slavery began.
| 1t is not by any means question between the
| candidates-upOn their personal character,
| or even upon their capacity 10 adj
| minister the Government wisely. 1t Is much
more a question of two opposing policies Of
radically hostile tendencies, and it goes to the
root of our form of Government to the per
manent shaping of our institutions and to
their enduring character. The two parties
representative one progress, the other obStluc-
ton and reaction; and no further Illustration
or proof of the fact is needed than i'll the
record each has made in twenty years.
| We do not need to go over the argument.
| 1t has been repeated a thousand times i'll Re
publican newspapers, in Congress and on the
| stump till the details are familiar. Republl-
| cans never tire of it, for the record is one to
which they point as an occasion for pride IN
| the past and an earnest at the same time for
| the future. There have been crises and crises
during these twenty-five years, and our I'M
emotional friends have asked often, Shall
we never have an election that does
"not bring a crsis7" We think not. 1t is
always "etelnal vigilance or free insttu-
tons perish. There has not been time in
the past twenty-five years when the "crlsiS "
| that was preached was not genuine and
actual not a time when the triumph OF the
| Democratic party would not have set the
wheels of Progress more than a century
| back This is not mere assertion it is
| the intelligent reading of history in the
| light of actual events. The Demo
cratic party itself has never failed to con-
| fess it once in four years or oftener, by aban-
doning its old positions and moving sullenly
forward under the popular pressure behind IT.
The question of to-day differs but little from
that of 1864 or of 1860. The Democratic
canor is for "a change" and the change
means now, as it did then, reaction instead OF
progress, and the rule of incapacity and greed
instead of honesty, ability and fidelity.