The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-07-15
rgE REPuBLIcAN PLArFoRM.

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A closer examination Of the Republi-
can platform compels us to regard it as a
IKE. Il is impossible to imagine that
the gentlemen who drew it regarded 1t
as anything else. Take away from it the
brag and the buster which constitute it's
comic portions and there is nothing left
but commonplace.
1t begins with Dragging. The Repuh'
lican party, says the fist section, sup
pressed the rebellion, abolished slavery,
raised the value of the paper currency
from thirty eight cents to par, increased
TIE foreign trade, paid the pensions,pai
off a third OF the debt, revived industry.
1t seems a pity to stop just there. Why
not have added that the Republ. can par
ty raised the great crops Of the last few
years, caused the droughts and rains in
Europe which made 80 great and profita'
BILE an expectation of our products, Great
ed the fine wheat and corn weather with
which we have been blessed Tor years,
put a stop to the cattle plague, discover
ed and developed the new mines of
precious metals and dug out the Erie
Canal ?
If 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 control Of
the government for twenty years, on the
whole has mismanaged public affairs very
badly, and is not a bit sorry for its mis-.
conduct. In putting down the rebellion
aud in freeing the slaves Mr.. Lincoln
took counsel at every step with leading
Democrats as we'll as Republicans; be
was the President of the whole country,
and Democrats were constantly among
his most intimate and cherished counsel
lors. AS for paying the taxes, the Dem
ocrats have not been exempted from
that; the pleasing and Republican part
was to collect them and spend them, pay.
ing their share and no more.
The Republican chiefs have fallen into
the habit of looking backward. 1t sthe
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
effected. Like old men they.live in the
past; there is no future in them. Like
old men, also, old parties conveniently
remember only the pleasant and credit
able part of their past, Thus the Repub-
lican platform in its amusing retrospect
says nothing of the sCandalous misgOv-
eminent in the Southern States for which
the party alone is responsible; nothing
of the years in which they tempered
with the currency and brought upon the
country by their cowsrdice the plague OF
greenbackers; nothing of the mischiev.
GUS election laws which they enacted
and misused; nothing of the scandals in
which all the Republican leaders, with
less than a dozen honorable exceptions,
have been disagreeably involved; moth.
ing of the waste of the peoples money
which was thrown with lavish hands to
iobbers of various kinds for years, until
the Democrats we're at last placed in
control Of the H Juse by an indignant aud
impoverished country.
Where the platform ceases to brag it
begins to buster, the connection being
made by a brief section n which polyga-
my, internal improvements and proteC-
tive tariffs are huddled together, a few
cold words in co hmendation Of Mr..
Hlyes's vetoes being thrown in. The
bluster concerns, naturally, the solid
South and those dreadful Democrats,
whose only object, it seems, is to turn
their minority into a majority, as though
the only object Of the Republican chiefs
were not to retain possession of the gov
eminent. The buster is, on the whole,
more strongly comic than the brag; ii
drawja picture Of the Democratic "lust
Of office and patronage" which if it we're
not labelled Democrat" would be gener-
ally mistaken for a description of the
Republicans drawnby themselves. Surely
a party which seized the Presidency as
the Republicans did ID 1876 Z, and then
quarreled with the man they forced into
the White H )use because he would not
crafty to the extent Of their demands
their Unsuitable lust Of Office and pat.
ronage," but honorably preferred to
serve the country rather than the party
leaders-surely such a party should "sing
small" to use a sea phrase, when the
topic is greed of Office and power.
The Democratic platform is by no
means f~aultless; 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 a
continuance of high protective tariff. The
Democratic platform speaks of living
questions; it proposes free ships and an