The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 18??-1882, 1881-07-29
A New Duty for the Republican Party

Revolutions, social, moral, or po-
litical, are more often peaceful than
violent. This is especially true in
lands where liberty of thought and
action is the birthright of the citizen,
apd where, as consequence, change,
which is necessary to all institutions,
takes place gradually and according
to rational law of development. 1t
often happens that the repressive
habits of monarchical governments
precipitate violent revolutions in
cases where the same ends would, in
free government, be attained by
the peaceable advance of a natural
and healthy public opinion. And
even in the slight and temporary
changes that lend new phases to the
ordinary and uneventful flow of af-
fairs, the transitions are made in the
one case with clamor and difficulty,
and in the other with almost uncon.
scious facility.
But, advantageous as is this char.
acteristic of free governments, it has
also its unfavorable aspect. The
citizen is likely to become a careless
actor of his country's history, and to
contribute his influence to this or that
policy without due reflection as to
what it is born of or whittier it must
tend. The course of events is so un.
rufiled that he loses sight of Their
Importance, and unless he is startled
by some unusual crisis or aroused
by some imminent danger, his politi-
cal duties are often performed in a
listless and perfunctory way.
The citizens of a free government
cannot afford to act from impulse.
Every man should have a code of
principles and ''policy." Political
consistency should be required OF
every voter no less than of those who
ask his vote. But it'must be a con-
sistency with principles and with
great, fundamental ideas, and not a
mere conformity to a partisan ritual
or a fanatical devotion to empty
names. No man that has studied at
all the elements of success in free
self-government can under-e estimate
the value of this political indepen
dence of the private citizen,--a con
scious, reasoning judgment that
weighs all things, a self-determinine
power of that dignity and impartia
rectitude which is appropriate to the
forum of ultimate appeal in affairs
that concern the welfare of whole
people. 1t cannot be too much t.
say that free government cannot
long endure without it.
Our history furnishes many con
firmations of what has been saiC
above. For generations the careless
and inconsiderate political conduc
of the average American citizen has
been subject of sorrowful reference
by our friends, and of seeming sup
port to the predictions of our enc
mics. Quietly it has been working
out its logical results, and compare
lively few have thought Of the rea
condition in which it has left us. A
reaction, almost as unconsciously t.
most Of us, is setting in. Perhap
under its influence we may realize il
part what we had permitted our
selves to do. "Bosses" had becom
necessities in politics. Office wa
regarded, not as sacred trust iron
the whole people, but as the abso
Lutte property of lucky political par
ties. We talked about men and par
ties rather than about principles AM
the public needs, and we too Otter
worked for "spoils" rather than from
a sense of duty. We were in a fai
way to mar the prospects of repub
lican government by a most sigma
failure in its last and greatest exper
iment. But it almost seems as though
the dreams Of the old enthusiast
were to be realized when the,
thought of a form of governmen
that should carry within itself th
antidote to its own ills. For rev
olution in political thought is Ger
tainly commencing which must b,
and by rescue us from our creates
danger. And it also seems that tn,
Republican party, which has alread,
written high its name upon the scroll
that records the deeds Of the bene
~ t nilt.