Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-10-30
RECALLING THE ISSUES.

irrelevant discussion is introduced as to
confuse the situation, and leave all but the
coolest and clearest-head uncertain as to
where they stand. And because this is an
accident common to all contests of the kind
it is useful to carry the public mind back,
at the close of the canvass, to the solld
facts upon which all that is real about 1t
rests. 1t is the more necessary to perform
this service in the present case, because
the campaign now drawing to its close has
been peculiarly deficient in those strongly
marked issues and clear cut dogmas which
constitute such powerful aids to convic-
ton, and tend to give enthusiasm and pur-
pose to a contest. Indeed, beyond the
obvious fact that those WHO did not elect
the President four years ago wished to
elect that officer this year, to the end that
the federal patronage might be theirs,
there has been no serious reason for
contest by the opposition. This statement
may seem surprising to some who have
been so stunned by the din and clamor OF
the campaign as to imagine that there
must be very tremendous issues involved,
but it is only necessary to trace back the
canvass to prove that what we say is true
that the Democrats actually had no ground
in reason for the proposed change which
they have been urging so vehemently upon
the people. One consequence of this alb
sence of serious justification on the DEM
ocratic side has been the scurrilous charac-
ter of the canvass. The old lawyers adj
vice, "When you have no case abuse the
plaintiffs attorney" has been acted
upon by the Democrats. Having no reasons
of state which could be regarded as vindi-
eating their position, and being estopped
from telling the plain truth, namely,
that they wanted the Offices, they have al
most confined themselves to abuse of the
Republican candidate, man of singularly
pure character and brilliant record. The
Republican campaign has therefore been
perforce an effort to demonstrate the unfit
ness of the opposition for power, and the
necessity of maintaining the conditions
which have already lifted the country into
SO promising a state of prosperity. The
arguments in favor OF this conservative
position are indeed too strong to be an
swered. The Democrats approach the
country under every disadvantage. For
twenty years they have been excluded
from power because the last time they
were intrusted with it they employed it in
the effort to destroy the Union. The ques-
ton ever since has been whether they had
sufficiently repented and abandoned
their reasonable heresies to be deserv-
ing OF renewal of confidence. This ques-
ton has been thus far answered in the
negative because the Democracy has never
been able to conceal the survival of its
attachment to the heresies which caused
so much trouble before, and because it has
never been able TO lift itself out of the
groove into which it then fell. -Four
years ago there was seeming reaction,
and sanguine Democrats thought that their
probation was at an end. But the truth is
that the reaction was not pro- Democratic,
but anti Republican, aud this distinction
is vital one. The Republican party had
fallen into bad hands at that time, and had
become corrupt, The independent voters
determined to punish this corruption, and
the only way to do so was to vote the
Democratic ticket. It was not that conf
dence in the Democrats had grown greater,
but that confidence in the Republicans
had diminished. Had the Democrats been
wise, had they been earnest, they might
have so used this opening as to commend
themselves to the country. But-they only
proved that they were joined to their
idols. As soon as they felt power
in their hands they began to
make bad use Of It. Instead
of accepting the situation as wise
and patriotic men would have done, they
tried to push back the hands on the dial of
Time, and to reopen the closed issues be-
tween North and South. They thus
alarmed the country anew, checked the
national progress. which had been pro-
eeeding, and made it necessary to exclude
them from powor still longer. During
their supremacy in Congress they have
nevertheless pushed their reactionary pol
icy still further. They have employed all
their energies in resisting the execution of
those laws which were enacted, as conse.
quences of the rebellion, to secure equal
rights to all men, North and South
When not occupied in this opposition they
have been laboriug to prevent the solution
of the currency problem, or striving to
evade their plain duty in regard to the ad-
ju5tment of the tariff question.