Litchfield enquirer., 1880-05-13
Measures, or Men ,?

not Men!" is the cry he always raises, after engineering specially disreputable nomina- tion. The famous Tammany maxim," Vote for the devil if his name is on the regular tick ct !" was re-echoed from Great Britain at the recent election, by no less spiritual authority than Mir. Sturgeon, it was said The noted preacher repudiates the charge but it's curren- cy shows the feeling prevalent.
 We readily concede the importance of ad- herence to political principles where they are vitally concerned. Sometimes the vindica- tion of those principles is of such supreme importance as to make all other considerations secondary matter. Is it not also true that, at other times the men are greater consider ation than the measures? Unquestionably there was time. during the war, when such man as Benjamin F. Butler received the votes of as conscientious citizens as are to be found in the republic. That was time when the integrity of our territory, if not the exist ence of the nation, was at stake, and when l the bad man, representing the just principle, was entitled to the votes of all who considered the preservation of that principle the first duty of good citizenship. The time came, | however, when it was no longer the duty of the good citizen to vote for Benjamin F. But Ter. DecencY pleaded for his. defeat much more forcibly than duty to party could plead | for his election. Yet, though Independency could urge the stronger arguments for his re- | jection, Straight Republicanism could cry the louder, and he remained Tn Congress, dis grace and stumbling block, long after a wiser political policy would have cast him aside even at the cost of sending Democrat in his place.
 Just as the partisan thinks too much of his | measures and too little of his men the Inde- pendent may sometimes run to the opposite extreme of thinking too much of the men and too little of the measures. There is just mean, heres as in all other matters of conflict | ing duty. Sometimes measures are of most | importance; sometimes, men. In the presi- l dential election of 1864 the vital question was whether the nations should hold together or go to pieces. In 1868 the question was whether the victorious majority or the defeated minor | ty should reconstruct Southern society. | Though the former did the work in some re- spects very badly, we think it was their clear right and duty to dc it. In 1872 there was | no obvious contest of principle; it was the | men not the measures that were of vital im- | portance. In 1876, though there was finan- cial question of great importance at stake it was still more contest of men than of meas | ures.
 | Which then will be of greater importance in November next, the measures at issue or the men? Let us look first at the principles to be contested, if any. Will the Democracy if victorious, dare to repudiate Resumption :? Is the Greenback party any longer a live or ganization? On the contrary, the Greenback fallacy strikes us as thoroughly exploded fal- lacy, and one that, having done it's evil work, has gone to it's own place in the limbo of polit- ical blunders. Is the Southern question any longer the burning issue of six or even of four years since? Does any man believe that the Southern States which slipped out of the strong hand of Grant in 1875, 6 and z, are to be recaptured by him during the next four years? Surely his own published utter ances indicate no such hope. He believes, | perhaps, that he might make himself more acceptable to the hitherto hostile Southern white than could Blaine, Edmunds, or even Sherman. He plainly sees that the old South ern Republication of Yarmouth and Moses, Of Patterson and Conover, is dead past resur- rection. There are to be no more legislatures packed with plantation hands; all ignorant, half thieves. There may and no doubt soon will be split in the "Solid South" but it will come between Independent and Bourbon De- | mocracy.
 The true game of Republicanism, from 1881 to 1885, is waiting" game. Quiet, sood-tempered, kindly disposed NIT. Hayes has done Bourbon Democracy a vast deal of harm in fonr years past: or, more accurately, has allowed that stolid party all the rope it wanted to hang itself Another such four years would not only putit in hopeless mi nority in the country, but would as surely dis credit il at the South
 We should much prefer another as good a Republican President as Hayes, to Demo- | crat but to our notion, there never has been a time when a Democrat in the presidential chair could do as little harm to Republican princi- pies as during the next four years. Even if the Republican party carries the November election, it can hardly get control of Congress till 1883, perhaps not till 1885. What they need, then, vastly more than present success, is to put themselves in proper condition to win, and to deserve, future success The DC. riod between 'S1 and '83, certainly; and be- tween 'S1 and '85, probably, will be their period of probation. With popular president an adherence to the reform platform of 1876, a retirement of ''bosses," and lessening of ma chine influence, this would prove most use- ful period. Let us imagine, however, arevv- al of Grantism; the Conklings and Camerons, certainly. and the Babcocks and Robesons possibly restored to power; apportioning otfi- ces among their personal retainers, domineer ing over conventions, and driving away Iude- pendents as they drove away Sumner and Greeley and Schurz in their former day of power. Is Republicanism strong enough, or likely ever to be strong enough, to renew such experiences
 | We maintain, then, that there has never been time, for generation, when Repubi- canism has had so much to fear from success, and 50 little to fear from defeat, as in the present year. Nor is the case different with Democracy. This is, s,therefore, ,emphatically a time when men are of more importance in pol itics than measures. We claim this as no dis covery of our own. It is obviously the feeling of q large proportion of the intelligent men of both parties. There never has been time when so many Republicans and SO many