The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-09-17
The Republican Break. Up.


Grant the country was told by one fac
ton of the Republicans, now known as
the half-breeds, that the stalwarts were
responsible for the misconduct of those
Admin; strations, and that all would be
changed when the reforming Republi-
cans came into power. The stalwarts
were defeated in the Republican Ma
tional Convention of 1876 by the nomi-
nation of Hayes. Hayes was beaten
at the polls by Tilden, but Hayes was
nevertheless inaugurated as President.
What happened a.ter March 4, 1877
The bayonets were withdrawn from the
Southern States. That price Mr.. Hayes
was compelled to pay for a ratification
of the action of the Electoral Commits
sion which frauduleutly counted in the
HAYES Electors and fraudulently counted
out the Tilden Electors by vote of
eight Commissioners to seven, General
Garfield being one of the eight. A
majority of the heads of the depart
ments appointed by President Hayes
were as hostile to President Grant and
his Administration as the latter had
been to the Administration of Andrew
johnson. Under President Hayes all
the executive departments displayed
persistent ill-will toward Grant and the
stalwarts. Mr.. Conkling and his friends
wcre bitterly prescribed. The Hayes
Administration put the ship of state
thoroughly on the half-breed track. so
far as that could be done by the Execu-
tive. The outcome is partly to be seen
in the Star-route frauds and in the
frauds which have been already un-
covered in the Treasury Department.
Already two Republican journals in
this city, now under the control of two
prominent members of the Administra-
ton of Hayes, have loudly commended
the Garfield Administration for what it
has done in the way Of exposing the
frauds perpetrated under Mr.. Hayes
and in the way of reforming the OK
ecutive Offices <x
In the Republican National Conven-
ton of 1880 the stalwarts rallied to
their flag SOC members, but by COM
bination of the friends of all the half
breed candidates on General Garfield
he was finally nominated and. in &C
cordance with the practice of Rcpub-
lican National Conventions ever since
| 1864, political enemy of the candi-
date for the first Office was nominated
for the second place on the ticket in
the person of General Arthur, in order
to make sure of s.the spoi!s." The
half-breeds having Intentionally put a
stalwart--an opponent of General Gar
field and supporter of Mr.. Conkling
lon the ticket in order to get the
goodwill of the stalwart '.workers."
now since the election, denounce Gen.
A ~~kl~, L s,x xl..e .Io<.r
faction struggles inside Of the Repub-
lican party, he has acted as stalwart
and with the stalwarts and against
the halt breeds. The theory on which
Republican National Conventions. ever
| since Lincolu's second nomination,
have constructed their tickets, has been
that the Vice President was to be ex-
! pected to antagonize the President.
| Andrew johnson was hostile to Lin
coin Just as Arthur is hostile to Gar
field. A really honest half breed Re-
publican Convention in 1880, really in
spired by principles and not by mere
| greed for the spoils, would have
| insisted that the candidate for Vice.
| President should be half-breed and q
| friend of General Garfield, and not q
stalwart and friend of Conkling like
General Arthur. Party radingand dis
honesty at Chicago in 1880 produced
their natural consequences of party
troubles in 1881. These party troubles
were intensified by the Indignation of
the stalwarts at the breaking of the
| pledges of General Garfield made during
the campaign at the Fifth Avenue Hotel
conference, and by the fact that the
stalwarts had chiefly provided the funds
which were used to carry Indiana, as
General Arthur SO emphatically ad-
mitted at the Dorsey dinner. I'm
mediately after the Cabinet of the new
President had been announced the
public was startled by an exposure of
certain things done by Mr.. Window in
connection with the wrecking OF the
Northern Pacific Railway and tor the
benefit of holders Of certain "old
proprietary shares" Mr. Window hay-
ipg been appointed Secretary of the
Treasury and having ostentatiously
posed before the country Us kind
of st. George bent on Staying the
Dragon of railway monopoly, what
ever in practical affairs '.railway mo-
nopoly." may mean. The Senate was
convened in an extra session. Both
President Garfield, leading the half
breeds. and Mr.. Conkling, leading
the stalwarts, made haste to
curry favor with the Repudiationist
Malone, and a coalition was finally
made with that Senator on a basis
of ''spoils." the terms being that Mr..
Malone should vote to give the COM
mittees of the Senate into the control
| of the Republicans, and that the united
stalwart and half-breed Republican vote
should make Mahone's friend Riddle
berger Sergeant-at Arms of the Senate.
Malone executed his part of this inn
moral and disgraceful bargain, but the
Democratic Senators prevented the
execution of the other part Of the
agreement into which Republican Sena-
tors had entered in order to divide the
power and the spoils of the Senate be-
tween themselves and the Virginia
Regulators. A number of offices and