The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-12-09
is THERE ANY pUN1sHMENri

I
No individual who habitually engages
in the commission of crime can hope to
escape from punishment. Even il he
evades the hand Of criminal justice, he
is yet effectively punished. His crimes
acting upon his inner nature, make him
worse and worse, until at last he becom es
30 monstrous that The common con.
science of meE rises up against him, and
he becomes banished from the society
Of his kind. The law of man may still
tolerate him; for lack of evic ence he
may be saved from prison or the gallows;
but the law of God deals with him, and
his punishment becomes harder than he
can bear
Is there any such justice as this for
political partiesP Or may they go on
forever, sinking from depravity to de
pravity and from wrong to wrong, with.
out ever being visited with Judgment
Certainly no political organization of
which there is any record has ever ex.
Ceeded the Republican party in the su
dacity or the blickness Of its offences /;
and yet at the recent election, although
its escape from defeat was by the mar
rowest possible margin, it succeeded in
one half of tNe states, in eleCting ite
President and retaining possession of
power.
In 1875, having been completely de.
feated at the poIls,yet possessing through
the carpet bay Governments of three
Southern States the means of perpetua
ting itself in po>sessi n of the Federal
Administration, this party boldly con.
spired to change h4 re ut of the elec.
ton, and by frauds whose audacity is
not fully appreciated, 1t fiually succeeded
in putting its own defeated candidate in
the place of the man who had been
elected. This political crime was of the
very gravest nature and the greatest
magnitude. If there is any supervising
justice in the affairs of nations, such a
crime ought not to escape it's retribuuop;
and yet at the election which Las Just
been completed, this very party with all
its guilt upon its head, has obtained a
majority of the electoral votes.
Again, in nominating it's last candidate
for President, the same Republican par.
ty selected man who had been Convic.
ted by tribunals, which the party itself
had created and which were Republican
in their composition, Of misdeeds that
ought to exclude MIN from every post of
public confidence and public honor.
They nominated man who had been
proved guilty of bribe taking and of per
| jury, and who had even been condemned
and denounced by the principal Repub-
liCan journals for the commission OF
these misdeeds. Such a nomination
seemed to be an insult to good sense and
to ordinary morality; and yet, as we
have seen, this man, thus stained,
tainted and condemned, thus backened
by the highest Republican authorities,
has now been elected by this came Re
publican party to be President of the
United States, the whole people being
aware of the facts and no serious at
tempt being made to deny or disDrove
them. Thus the effences of the Repub
liCan party would appear not only to he
condoned but to be even adopted by a
majority of the American people.
Things like these would seem to sug.
Gest that there is no moral rule in poll.
tics, and that political party may with
impunity commit the gravest public
wrongs. We cannot bring ourselves to
believe this is so and yet the question
reCurs whether there is any punishment
for the misdeeds of political parties, and
whether any justice is meted out for
public crimes when political parties are
their authors and abettors.
We maintain that there is moral law
in politics, and that a party guilty like
the Republicans must in due ime be
adequately recompensed.-M Y, Sun.