The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1880-04-09
THE NEED OF A STRONG MAN.

w hNtN SttOfH nfhh III tiC w hitc
House TO brace mp the constitution, TO
restore TO the Republican party the
power and prestige it has lost, and TO
lead IL back TO new victories over lis
old fields of conquest.
When the forty-first congress met in
its first session on the day, March A.,
1869, when President Grant was first
inaugurated, the Republicans had an
overwhelming majority in both branch
es. In the senate there were ffty-five
Republicans TO ten Democrats, though
four southern states were not repre-
sented. which subsequently swelled the
Republican phalanx TO sixty-onc. The
house contained 159 Republicans and
seventy-two Democrats, counting the
few on both sides not vet admitted 10
their seats. Every norlhern state was
represented by Republican senators
only, except California, New Jersey
and Ohio, which had one Republican
and one Democratic senator each.
Every represented southern state ex-
Delaware, Maryland and Kentucky,
was represented in the senate by Re-
publicans. The Republicans controlled
the state governments of every south
ern state save these three. AT the end
of eight years when the strong man re-
tired from the White House, the proud
Republican majority of 81 i'm the house
which had hailed his triumphant inau-
guration had not only vanished from
the scene, but had given place to a
large Democratic majority in that body,
which stood in the party roll-call thus :
Democrats 1S1, Republicans 107, Inde-
pcndents 2, Democratic majority of
seventy-four. In the senate the Repub-
llcan majority, already reduced from
fifty to seventeen, was dwindling with
every senatorial election, SO that when
the senators elect took their seats at
the next session the Republican majori-
ty had wasted away to just two. Mean
while the Republicans had, during
Grants administration, lost control Of
the state governments of all the twelve
southern states which had laid the trib.
ute of their electoral vote, eight years
before, at the feet of the conquering he
TO of the war. Nine of them had been
totally snatched away from the Rcpub-
licans-sevcral of these by sheer vIo-
lence-under the eyes of the strong
man and in spite of his bayoncts. In
the remaining three the Republican
party lay manaclcd and helpless under
the feet of the triumphant bnlldozer,
and appealed TO the strong man in vain
to deliver them. Hayes had barely
been elected by one disputed vote, and
it required four months 10 determine
whether that vote was lawfully his.
From the heights of a power so great,
and entrenchcd in such overwhelming
popular maioritics rs to be, or seem, III
vinciblc, the Republican party, during
The eight years of Grant, had declined
by Slow steps during his first term, by
swift steps during his last, TO the ex-
trcmc verge OF utter ruin. From the
day of his second Inauguration ill he
retired from the White House the
whole history of the Republican party
was one of successive defeats and dis
asters. lie found il a strong, vigorous
and triumphant majority. lie left il a
feeble, dcspondent and dcmoralzcd
We need strong man IN
the White House.
Yes, n man was needed to lift tho
ship from the rocks, where
Grant had well nigh made utter ship
wreck of ii; to cleanse the government
Of the reeking scandals that had made a
stencil of il in the nostrils ofI
The nation, and to restore the Republi- |
can party to the confidence of the pco-
pic in its capacity to rule wisely and
The arduous task has been
achieved, not by a strong man in the |
sense in which Grant is conceived to be
strong, as the embodiment of physical
force commanded by a domincerine
cait.Uill hitf ha So 81.
in his uprightness, in his clear views Oft
the right thing TO do, and his unseliish
and firm persistence in doing il in spite
of all the howls of the hungry wolves
of faction. Three years of Hayes has
washed the Republican party of the
stains of Grants administration has
rebuilt it from bottom to dome on the
solid foundation of the public conf
dencc; has rcinvigorated it with the
pride of its fresh achievements and the
of the clear and sound convic-
tions which make il strong with the
people. The man whom the machine
politicians have agreed to despise as
weak, is precisely the man who has res
cued the Republican party to great
extent, so far as it could be done
the administrative machinery,
from the low moral temperature which
had chilled and bcnnmbed its vitality
during Grants administration poured
the heat and glow of summer in its
veins. and made not only its victory in
the presidential election this year possi-
BILE, but its enduring asccndancy prob
able, If its leaders are wise enough to
profit by the two contrasted lessons
that Grant and Hayes have respectively
taught them. That lesson is that the
strength of our government, or of the
party which is responsible for its ad-
ministration, rests not on the personal
might or grandeur or popularity of the