Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1881-06-17
AN OpPORTUNTTY.

his maxims that every man had an ample
opportunity in this world to show his .capa-
city. In his address, as Lord Rector, to the
students of Edinburgh, he babe them give
their whole thought to fitting themselves
for their chosen work, resting assured that
the differences in fortune are due not to the
opportunities which men have, but to the
respective abilities with which they i'm
prove them. No possible demand for opera
singers, he observed, will help the person
ignorant of music, nor will any number OF
wars raise to real military eminence the
man who is not good soldier. As life APP
peared to the deceased statesman, incom-
petent men are like stranded hulks on the sea
shore; tits nothing to them how the tide rises
or the wind blows. Only the good ship and
the skillful navigator can profit by favoring
breeze. Carried into the domain Of politics,
this principle seems to apply not less than
in the commercial world. When statesmen
are in demand, the bungler who rushes to
the front merely shows how little fortune
can do for the foolish; and what is true of
individuals is evidently quite as true of
parties-all the advantageous circumstances
in the world are of as little use. to a brain
less party as ammunition to a dead army, or
fine growing weather to a lifeless tree.
This consideration of tie relation between
ability and opportunity is suggested by the
performance and the respective positions of
the two great parties that are seeking to
control and shape the political fortunes of
this country If Beaconsfeld had lived to
witness the movements upon our political
chess board, National and State, he would
have deemed his aphorism carried to the
dignity of mathematical demonstration,
for all things considered it is doubtful
whether men called politicians ever fur
nished more amusing spectacle Of drivel-
ing imbecility in the presence of great emer-
gsncies With the Republican party torn
by internal discussions, with new questions
of the first importance waiting to be formu
lated, with every intelligent citizen, pre-
ferring TO put behind him the passions of the
past and enter upon wider field of action
Democratic "leaders" are not bringing to the
front that ability and harmony that is essen
tial to capture the opportunity.
1t is easy enough to see the bearing of the
Conkling fight on the future of the Repub-
lican party. Any man who. has eyes at
all should be able to discover that, happen
what may to the Senator, the attitude of the
organization to the American people has
already been radically changed. The war
and its issues are gone forever from ur pol
itics The South solid or in any other shape
is definitely eliminated. The prejudices
which have carried so many campaigns can
no longer be appealed TO. At bottom, the
battle between Conkling and the Admins
tration means that the alliances heretofore
maintained successfully are at an end. Dis
solution has Enthusiastically set in, rendering
reformation on an essentially different basis
inevitable. Thousand upon thousands of
old time Republicans, having been brought
TO see that the days of so-called stalwartsm
are over, that their affection for liberty, for
the colored man, for the Union soldier was
merely played upon by politicians who
cared for none of these things, are now will
ling to act with any party irrespective of its
antecedents, which is honorably prepared
TO address itself to the plain matter of fact
questions which bear upon the commerce,
the labor, the wealth of the country.
These men, now that the veil has been
removed, see monopolies overshadowing the
industries of the whole people, absorbing in
hideous disproportion the produce of the
common toll. controlling the Senate of the
United States, conspiring to seize the au-
thority of the Supreme Court ard in vari-
Gus ways rendering the right of suffrage
destruction of the people to whom it has
been entrusted. Ii the Democratic party is
in position to do battle against these
wrongs they are prepared to listen to its
declaration and ready to join forces. Men
never were in mood more favorable than
now to give dispassionate ear to the voice of
honest common sense, and with their CO.
operation there is no power that could pre-
vent complete Democratic triumph in the
early future The opportunity is now at
hand, and when such an opportunity comes
unsought, when it is here as the result of
disintegrating forces at work upon the oppo-
sition, what Is TO be said of the party
leaders" who are as powerless to lay hold of
it as the sick man was to enter the pool of
Bethesda when the angel troubled the wa
tiers. This, we confess, is an exhibition
which may well set the self-supporting
masses, who have so long sustained the
cause, inquiring whether the time has not
arrived for them to look for leaders who
have the heart and the ability to improve
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