Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-07-08
The Doomed Republican Party.

| oDserNlnS lnulVldual, VINO Will Tor the
moment lay aside all party prejudices
and selfish hopes, and dispassionately
inquire into the present condition of
political affairs in this country, the
overwhelming defeat that awaits the
Republican party this fall must be-
come apparent and conclusive. Even
at this early period of the momentous
contest that is upon us, the signs that
point to this result are so numerous
and unmistakable that he who runs
may read them without trouble or en-
barrassment.
The strength of the Republican
party has been its weakness, and to-
day it is without policy or principle,
save to maintain its grasp upon power
to benefit its vast army of Office hold
ers at the cost OF the great body of
citizens. 1t emerged from the war of
the rebellion powerful in the ability
of its great leaders, the number and
zeal of its adherents, with every branch
Of the Federal government in its pos
session, nearly all the State govern.
ments under its absolute control, and
seemingly irresistible for all time to
come. Why is it otherwise now? All,
the boundless power of those years had
within it the seeds of decay. They
are the fatal feebleness of to-day, and
appear as a sign of the approaching
downfall that cannot be misunder-
stood. Light has began to dawn upon
the public mind, and people no longer
hesitate to inquire into the relations
of cause and effect. Why, they ear
nestly ask, has this once proud, COM
pact and powerful organization degen-
Grated into a mere mass of incoherent
factions and wrangling cabals, without
purpose or desire except to advance
the interests of some one OF the ambi-
tious, selfish and INSCRIPTIONS chiefs ?
Inquiry teaches them the cause. TAX
ing the close of the war as n starting
point in their researches, they learn
that since that time the policy of this
party has not been one of wise states
manship or purity in administration.
They learn that instead of deyoting
labor and thought to the preparation
and enactment of wise and benefcent
laws for the public good and for the
restoration of the broken and impov-
erished South, the lawmakers of the
times could think of nothing better
than measures to perpetuate party
supremacy by the destruction of the
reserved rights of the States, for the
Capitalization of all power at Wash
ington, and of repression and tyranny
to be enforced by the bayonets of the
army. They see that corruption has
been rife in the high places of the Ma
ton and in every department of the
public service that political intriguers
have usurped the positions that should
be filled by statesmen, so that the
course of the party has been down
ward with headlong speed from those
days until the present moment. They
know full we'll that the present Re
publican administration is the crea-
ture of fraud that it came into being
through the perpetration of as foul
and as desperate crime against free
government as the world has ever wit
messed, and they realize fully as we'll
that this monstrous perversion of right
and justice must meet condign punish
ment from an aroused and indignant
people.
Later still, they beheld the intrigue
ing, fighting clans of which the party
is now made up in deliberation at
Chicago. In the violence of the fray,
each faction determined upon nothing
else than the utter destruction of the
others, it was too painfully to be seen
how little any of them were actuated
by motives of patriotism or by a desire
to promote the welfare of the people.
For days the angry strife of faction
went on, growing in bitterness and in
tensitv with each nasaino hour. until