The Portland daily press., 1881-09-22
PARTISANSHIP.
Congressman Reeds Speech at
Worcester.
A EULOGY OF PARTISANSHIP AND A
COMPARISON OF PARTIES.

| OO04E AIS40ON Ut EAfbI1hSs
Gentlemen. l am here to address you to-day
| because [ could not be 1nsensibe to the honor
| OF your invitation. But at the outset you
| must permit me to say that the lot could not
have fallen to me in a more difficult time.
/ This is party Convention met for party pur-
poses to begin campaign to end in q party
| vi3tory. And yet for the last three months
| this nation has been almost oblivious of party
| disputes, has almost forgotten partiZan dissen-
tions. BY one of those wonderful transforma-
tions of which free people alone are capable
we passed in a moment of time on the End of
July from loud sounding bitter internecine par
W strife and rage into the solemn hush with
which for all these long and mournful weeks
this great nation awaiting the issue of life
and death have stood by the bedside OF its
stricken chief. During all this time men have
forgotten the past and dsregarded the future
nave stood side by side as if the partizanship OF
the past had never been and the partiZanship
OF the future was never to be. Though mourn
iul beyond language in its cause this spectacle
has comfort to us as a people. The black cloud
of our disaster hath this silver lining that it
gives new proof to those who doubted that gov
ernment by all the governed will always prove
equal to any crisis. This is not the first time
we have stood altogether aud it will not be the
last. Every great crisis begets the great en-
thusiasm which meets and masters 1t. But it
is idle.to expect that exalted feeling like this
earthly 1t perishes with the using. 1t works its
work useful and benefcent and goes its way
Twenty years agJ when Sumter was fred IN,
this whole northern land seemed in the twink
ling of an eye welded at white heat into solid
indivisible enthusiastic unity But before the
four years had gone by party drill and organiz-
alton were as much needed in the rear as army
organization and the manual of arms were
needed at the 'front.'
Some people, mostly those who sit serene
a how ne oil 0fffO Of fhn AsrQf of 70
call these moments of national unanimity ris-
ing above party; as If party purposes, party
principles, party means, and even parties
themselves, were igneble, unworthy and base
This is gross misuse of words. This is no
rising above party. 1t has no relation to party.
1t is only the application to crisis of the same
common sense on which alone parties must
rest for their ultimate success Party battles
are on disputed questions. National unanimi-
ty is either about questions on which all are
agreed or happens where in time OF great peril
the some man or set of men holding office
mustact and take the responsibility, and we
all agree TO stand by them, because there is no
other way, reserving to ourselves the right to
abuse them and belittle them after the danger
is over. We can all remember when We stood
by Grant as he fought it out on that line all
Summer! Some OF US however seem to be exer-
cising our reserved rights on him at present
While your ships are sailing over the sea in
safety there may be much sensible dispute over
freights and charges, about rigging and en-
gines; but let a ship strike and everything
changes Every energy is bent to lift the
ship. Even the very cargo, for the carriage OF
which the ship Is built, must take its chances
with the rest We don't call this rising above
commerce. 1t is only applying the same man
hood to save that we were applying to improve.
Unanimity is the heroic treatment for acute
disease. Time and parties are for chronic
cases. In national life it is as necessary o i'm
prove as to save. Improvement is salvation.
Progress and improvement are indispensable
and essential. We must always go on We
cannot go back. We need no history of Greece
and Rome, no Assyria, no Persepolis or even
"Tadmor in the Wilderness" to teach us this
lesson. 1t is fact inherent in the nature of
man, in the very constitution of society. And
my friends 1t is very troublesome fact 1t is
said that there is no peace for the wicked.
That must be so, although have seen some
of them in very comfortable circumstances; but
it is equally certain that in this world there is
no rest for the righteous. What you do of
progress to-day, only lights up more vividly
the pathway of the duty of tomorrow. Every
true reform puts the rest of the world out of
line and it has to be brought up Hence the
world hates to be reformed. 1t tries all sorts
of short cuts to peace and never gets there.
Our political history is full of examples. Ev-
erybody remembers the election of 1852 All
our influential men agreed that this slavery
agitation business was TO end and the people
all ratl06Q IL. fOOr G1orc0 was elected Dy
an overwhelming vote, and everybody said we
have got rid of these Abolitionist howlers aud
will take rest. But wrong never gets settled
attirmativeiy, right never gets settled mega
lively We could not by any device dodge the
contest of the last twenty years. We had to
have it with all it's horrors and all its unspeak-
able blessings
1t is the fashion nowadays, among'indepen-
dent gentlemen at intervals of kicking across
the trsces OF the worlds team, to sneer at par
\
party organization. For my part L believe
that parties are not only the greatest helpers to
the worlds progress, but that no progress is
possible without them. / do not mean parties
merely, mean party organization as we'll
even party drill and party discipline. THIS is
a government of the people, of the whole peo-
pie. We have heard tha expression before
perhaps, but as a nation we don't half believe
it. II you were to listen to the gushing Green
backer you would think we were prostrate at
the feet OF capital. II you listen TO the CAPT
taliSt you would think only communism was
in store for us. Ii you listened TO the politi-
tician you would think that newspapers were
absorbing all power Ii you gave ear to the
newspapers, you would see only The wide-open
mouth OF the ward politician, devourlng all
before hlm. None of these things is the truth.
Neither the politicians, the newspapers, the
capitalists nor the Greenbackers, neither the
best men nor the worst rule US. 1t is the
average knowledge and sense OF the whole peo-
PIC WHICH fuloS. Anu our SOV6Tum6nJ Is
founded ON the theory that that is the best
rule. Oar doctrine is that the best govern
ment is not the government of the bost men, |
not the government OF the wisest or of the
most learned, but the government of all
Where, then, is the hope OF our progress in the
IuJure? lG Is nvt only in tue Increase but in
the spread of knowledge among our whole
people. What, Lnen, Will best spread kuowl-
edge? | answer discussion full aud free, not
only candid discussion, with $ nse and without
temper, but discussion without sense and with
temper III men thinking without sense,
The sooner they talk IL out the sooner We Can |
beat it down. But somebody will say all luis
hot talk OF partisan newspapers aud party ora
Tors on DoLh sides leaves every body wnere
they were before. do not believe that. No |
Two men i'll a corner grocery ever vexed the |
nelghborhood with loud dispute wltnouC |
noulfying the opinions of eacu other, and |
Without getIing nearer the truth, if the truth |
TO lie between them. Party Orgaul |
zallon promotes discussion both puDlIc |
aud private. We cannot say they arrive AT
absolute truth. They tend to IT, There is no |
absolute truth in secular things. Even the |
Polar star is not due north, and the best CON-
passes have local variation. People COM |
plain OF the turmoil and cost OF Presidential |
but they are worth all they cost. To |
20 through one OF them is liberal education |
How can il help being 50? When all the able
public men, ali the editors everybody with
faculty for discussion, devote their whole en-
srgles for months into throwing lIgnt on pub
lc Questions, present, past and to come, now
:an the nation help knowing more than it'did
before?
But if there must be parties we have got to
choose which one we will belong TO. OF course |
que can be golden butterfly OF glory and dit
from one 10 the other, or, as WhlLeiaw Reid
said OF another class of clLizens, one can sic on
The fence and throw stones impartially aG'ootn.
But there are odds IN parties, nevertheless.
Party ac ion in matters OF government in the
past has not been an accident. Party actIon i'll
5he future will not be an accident. lG Will al
ways arise from the nature and character of
;he party. Ii you will permit for moment TO
beg question of which l shall offer some
proofs why it is that for the last twenty years
,he Republican party has taken the right side
IA the main and the Democratic party the
wrong side. The Democratic party has as able
eaders as the Republican, but every party
acts, not from direction OF its leaders but Iron
Us average of knowledge and sensc; and tue
sverage OF knowledge and sense OF the RepuD-
lean party Is niguer tnau tue average Of
and sense in the Democratic party.
don't mean to say thai the average is much
higher. think We are great ways short OF
We have had our whlskey thieves
n one administration and our Star Route plum
ierings in another, although L confess snail
% better satisfied about the last when L see
ust what is proved by trial by jury as well as
~ trial by newspaper. The difference between
PARTIES may be- slignt, but it is great enough to
10 the difference between progress and malt
ng, between good government, prosperity anu