Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-06-01
. Vitality of Corruption.
Galveston Nelcs.


The recent rather unseemly shunt
taken by the New York Herald as a
champion for Conkling in his quarrel
with Garfield is in measure atoned for
by that papers latest incursion into our
putrid and mepaitic politics. Whatever
motive may have actuated the Herald
in supporting Conkling and assailing
Garfield, it seems to have been led by an
inexorable'lo of facts into general
indictment of the Republican admins
tration and the Republican party The
Herald is constrained by the force of
this logic to say that the Republican
party long ago survived its usefulness,
and that ''the sooner it goes to pieces
and makes room for another and better
party, the better it will be for the real
interests of the country" Below are
the leading counts in the HerdLd's indict-
ment:
at has resisted every reform; it has prevent
ed a repeal OF every bit of the obsolete and
obstructive war legislation; it has maintained
every bad law on the statute book; it has
shown in every imaginable way its total inca
pacity to deal with public questions, and
whenever public opinion has pressed it to do
at least some trifing good, it has adroitly got
up some new excitement about the South, or
some new, petty aud uncalled for quarrel with
the Democrats, with the sole view to engage
the attention of the people and draw their
minds away from public interests and real
questions. The Republican party has in the
general opinion fulfilled It's mission. Why
should it not go to pieces? Why should any
one OF its honest voters mourn over its disap
pearance? 1t may not be dead at this moment
but it is rotten. 1t is the creature of railroad
and other corporation and monopoly in
| fluences. Its most intimate relations
are no longer with the people. but
with the railroad and telegraph kings, the Jay
Goulds, Staufords, Huntingtons and others of
that kind, who own and control its managers
and chiefs To say that such a party, which
deliberately chooses Dorsey as one of its pub
lie manipulators and unblushingly gives him
public dinners; which has protected and hon
| ored Robson; which openly courts the friend
ship of public plunderers; which, during four
| years. sheltered Brady in his star route jobbe-
| ries. and took part OF his gains TOR it's cam
paign fund after the exposures made OK him In
| Congress; 10 say that such a party, which
| scarcely canceals its relations with a dozen
| Hobbies, and many OF whose public men live by
| jObs-to say that this party, quarreling now
| over the spells, ought to live is absurd 1t has
lost even the respect for public opinion WHICH
leads jobberS usually to divide their spoi!s In
| private"
1t may be- as the Herald observes, that
'the old superstition that something
quite too awfullY dreadful would hap
pen to the country if the Republican
| party should cease to misgOvern 1t, has
no longer nearly as much terror as it
used to have" 1t may be, as the Herald
further observes, that dorsey dinners.
Brady star routes, Indiana 50 bills, and
Hubbell letters have done a good deal in
the last few months to disillpsion hOn2st
men wns really believed that their party
was the sole repository of honesty and
all the other virtues" 1t may be that
the mass of Republicans outside of the
hierarchy of spoils grabbers and profes.
sional jQbbeis would gladly sFe
the party go to pieces and give
place to a purer, more wholesome
| and more useful organization. No
| question, b4t thQ intestine 2fr nov rag
ing in the Republican camp, so far as 1t
tends to the disorganizalon and final
dissolution of the Republican party,
should be a gratifying spectacle to all
good citizens, whether Republicans,
i Democrats, Creenbackers or IndepeE
dents. But let not too much be expect
ed from this battle about the spoils. A
well trained army of political brigands
is usually found ready to compose its in:
ternal auarFeis at ms anpFoac4 Of g SoAt-
mon danger, and to aldse its ranks when
occasion urges for either offensive or de.
fensive operations against the common
enemy. The remark of the Herald.
that the Republican party may
not be dead at THIS monaeng, but IL is
rotten" implies great deal that 10 not
particularly reassuring. A chronic cor
ruption in politics. like chronic disease
In the human body, acquires vitality,
| an organic stability, conservative force,
an aggressive and recuperatiye energy Of
its own. Let it not be SUPPOSED. then.
that the Republican party is HoribYnd
simply because it ia rotten, What else,
| indeed, has given it buoysncy to keep
afioat up to this time but the intelligent,
fertile and thrifty rottenness of its spoils-
men. machinemen end j"hhers S :..s1 d
like rottenness among like classes in
other partlss intefted with the sp1ils
system9 Wonderful aud terribly fOrmi-
dable are the powers and resources of rot
teupess for conservation, for diffusion,
even for conquest.