The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1881-05-31

From the New York Herald, Ssd inst.
The Republican Dilemma.
The amusing situation into which the
republican managers have got their par
ty they do not plainly see how to get it
out of. They have begged it, and 80
badly that they cannot for the present
tell whether it is safer to'drive ahead or
to back out The Albany sages have
serious responsibility on their hands,
and the general public, which is little
tired of the republican. party, with its
everlasting fuss and faction fighting,
looks on with lively unconcern to see
how they will get out of their scrape.-
They are, as the phrase goes, between
the devil and the deep sea. If they re.
elect the two New York Senators they
offend the adninistrasioi, and lose their
dear patronage /; if they do not re-elect
them they offend a large part of their
party.
The public, we say, looks on with
amusement or careless unconcern; for
the public is tired of the republican
party. The old superstition that some
thing quite too awfully dreadful would
happen to the country if the republican
party, should cease to misgovern it has
no longer nearly as much terror as It
used to have. Dorsey dinners, Brady
star routes, Indiana two-dollar bills and
Hubbell letters have done good deal
in the last few months to dislllusion hon.
est men who really believed that their
party was the sole repository of honesty
and all the other virtues. The republi-
can tricksters and jobbers have cried
wolf while they were feathering their
own nests, hut the respectable part of
the country begins to see through them.
There is q rapidly growing conviction
that the republican party is no more
necessary to the country than was Nc.
Clellan after Antietam, 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.
People begin to ask themselves every
where what has, this great republican
party done and what is it doing for the
country They see it just now enga-
ged in desperate fight over the public
plunder and negiecting every public in
terest in this disgraceful scramble. And
as they look on with contempt at this
exhibition, which has about as much
dignity as first-class dog fight, they
recall the fact that under Hayes it did
little else than carefully conceal the
stealing which it fostered, and that with
loud and interminable professions of
virtuein the last dozen years it has only
produced scandal after scandal, until the
whole history of the party in this period
is made up of Belknap, Robson, Pacific
Mail, star route, whiskey fraud, carpet
bag. salary grab and a multitude of
other jobberies Of the basest and most
vulgar kind, mixed in with the most ab-
ject subsection to railroad and other cor.
poratieu Influences And in all that
time no one can recall without an effort
solitary public service the party has
rendered 1t might as we'll inscribe on
it's banners "millions for plumber, not
one cent for the public interests"
It has resisted every reform; it has
prevented the 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 i'm
aginable way its total incapacity 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 and uncalIed
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 n the gen.
eral opinion fulfilled its mission. Why
should it not 60 to pieces Why should
any one Of it's honest voters mourn over
its disappearance 1t may not be dead
at this moment, but il is rotten. It is
the creature of railroad and other cor
poration and monopoly influences. Its
most intimate relations are no longer
with the people, but with the railroad
and telegraph kings, the Jay sGoulds,
Stanfords, Huntingtons and others of
that kind, who own and control its man.
ayers and chiefs. To say that such q
party, which deliberately chooses Dor
sey as one of its public manipulators
and unblushingly gives him public din
ners; which has protected and honored
Robeson, which openly courts the friend
ship of public plunderers, which during
four years sheltered Brady in his star
route jobberies. and took part of his
gains for Its campaign fund after the ex-
posures made of him in Congress; to
say that such party, which scarcely
conceals its relations with dozen lob
bies, and many Of whose public men
live by jobs-to say that this party, quar-
relIing now over the epoils, ought to
live is absurd. It has lost even the re-
spect for public opinion which leads
|jobbers usually to. divide their spoils in
private.
Some republicans, we notice, lament
the resignation Of the New York Sena-
tors. We do not. It was doubtless a
grave mistake in Mr.. Conkling TO resign
as he did, for it was slap in the face
to his friends in the Senate. But if he
means by this resignation to show his
intention to abandon his relations with
corrupt party he was right, and what
ever partisans may say Of him. or how
ever he NAV derange the plans of mere
spoiIemen, if this was the meaning Of
his resignation the public win stand by
him and open wider career for him.
Mr.. Conkling has never been accused of
political corruption. He has the enmity
! of the railroads and other corporate
rings. He is somewhat unmanageable
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