New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-08-01
LOYALTY BEFORE TREASON.

One after another the Republican guns get
into position, and make havoc in the Demo
cratic ranks. The speech of the Assistant
Secretary of State, delivered at Cleveland,
which we print in full to-day, is no
ordinary campaign address. 1t has breadth,
dignity, cleaness of statement and
soundness of reasoning, in an unusual
degree. 1t opens with a striking contrast Of
the record of the two great parties for the
past twenty years-a record forcibly sup
ported later in the speech, by a contrast of
the productions. commerce, manufactures and
financial condition Of twenty years ago and
now. That the Republican party has done
grandly, and that the country has Jared well
under its wise and patriotic care, ought to be
and is the highest possible reason for con-
tinued confidence in that party, and the men
who sneer at the comparison of the past acts
of parties, we may observe, are almost al
WAYS men whose records bear some faint
The Democratic party, particularly, wants to
have us all forget the past, and Colonel
Hay tersely puts the real reason. 1t is be-
cause the Republican party means to have it
settled that man for man, loyal man is
"better than a traitor"
of 1861 is in almost every case, the enemy
of free institutions in 1880. Treason has
changed its form, but not its spirit. Tho
one overshadowing danger to the Republic Is,
as Colonel Hay insists, that there is no civil
freedom at the South. Even murder is no
longer the necessary nor the cheapest mode
of extinguishing an antagOnstc majority, and
the quoted record of votes in certain typical
counties at the South shows how impudent
and infamous is the claim that the Demo-
cratic party wants free and fair ballot.
This is the real rebelism of the present day.
1t is organized conspiracy against free institu-
tons Free voting and free speech are sys-
tematically suppressed IN the Southern States,
and the 1873 electoral votes thus secured, in
defiance of free institutions and of the pOpu-
lar WILL are relied upon to overpower MAORI
ties in States where thought and speech are
free, and ballots are honestly counted. But,
as the address before us says, it is, after all,
a conspiracy against the multiplication table,
the almanac and the Constitution. Every day
of the Nations growth puts further beyond
the reach of a disloyal, reactionary and fraudu-
lenty solid South the control of Nation
which is advancing swiftly in population. in
prosperity, in wealth, in Investigation OF in
terests, and in comprehension of its own duty
and dignity.
There can be nothing better than the picture
of the dismissed seryinRman, who was kicked
out for good cause in 1860, made a fuss, tried
TO burn down the house, and cost his employer
millions of money by his malignant assaults,
and who has been seeking vainly for place
ever since, demanding of the people who
kicked HIM out instant reinstatement and full
confidence. - forgive you; give me the
KEYS. and let us say no more about it," the
Democratic party declares. Disgraced and
dismissed for cause in 1860, because it was
disloyal and incompetent. it has been getting
more disloyal and more incompetent every
year for twenty years, and now wants to be
instantly and absolutely trusted because it
has found pair of loyal epaulets and an
| army hat for a disguise
The utter incompetence of the Democratic
party, as Colonel Hay shows. is proved by its IN
ability to sell United States 6 per cent bonds at
par. after many years of uninterrupted control
| in a time of peace and prosperity. The Repub-
| lican party, hardly out Of the shadow as yet
of a great Democratic rebellion, sells per
cent bonds at 10S. 1t sees immigration COM
ing in at rate unprecedented. 1t sees a
grand prosperity as the fruit of its labors, and
can afford to laugh at the false pretences OF
| Democratic economy, which have no founda-
ton in real saving or in honest regard for the
public good. 1t is well SAID by Colonel Hay