Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-05-25
REPUBLICAN DILEMMA.
A scathing Arraiennient Of the
Party I'm Power.

MEX " DhhSaN
A Scatbing Arraignnient Of the
Party I'm Power.
Editorial in New York Herald, Independent Re-
publican.
The amusing situation into which the
Republican managers have got tbeirparty
they do not plsinly see how to get it out
Of. They have begged it, and so badly
that they cannot for the present tell
whether it is safer to drive ahead or
back out. The Albany sages have
serious responsibility on their hands,
and the general public, which is a little
tired of the Republican party, with us
everlasting fuss and faction hghting'
looks on with lively unconcern to see
how they will get out OF their scrap.
They are, as the phrase goes, between
the devil and the deep sea. If they re-
.lec, the two New York Senator'S they
offend the administration and lose Their
patronage; il they do not re elect them
t1ey off. nd a large part OF their party
The public, we say, looks on Win
amusement or careless uncOncern; Tor
the public is tired Of the Republican
parly. The old superstition that some,
thing quite too awfully dreadful would
happen 10 the country il the Republican
partv should cease TO mlsgovern IL mas
no longer nearly as niue! terror as u
nsed TO have. Dorsey dinners, brady
star routes, Indiana two-dollar bills anu
Hubbell letters have done COCO
deal in the last few months
to dlsillusion honest men xyR4
really believed that their parry
was the sole repository oi honesty ana
all the other virtues. The Republican
tricksters and jobbers have cried vol
while they were feathering their own
nests. but the respectable part OF the
country begins to see through them.
There is a rapidly growing conviction
that the Republican party is no mOie
necessary to the country than was bic
Clellan after Antietam, and that the
sooner it goes TO pieces and makes room
for another and better party the better
il will be for the real interests OF the
country.
People begin 10 ask themselves every.
where what has this great Republican
party done and what is it doing for the
country? They see it just now engaged
in a desperate fight over the public
plumber and neglecting every public
interest 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,
thew recall the fact that under Hayes 1t
did little else than carefully conceal the
stealing VIII ch it iostered, and that with
loud and interminab!e professions OF
virtue in 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, whisky fraud,
carpet. bag, salary grab and multitude
of other iobberies OF the basest and most
vulgar kind, mixed in with the most
abiect subsection to railroad and other
corporation influences. And in all that
time no one can recall without an effort
a solitary public service the party has
rendered. Ii might as we'll inscribe on
irs banners millions for plunder, not
one cent for the public interests
1t has resisted every reform; 1t has
prevented the repeal OF every bit OF the
obsolete and obstructive war legislation;
it has maintained every bad law on the
statute book; il has shown in every
imaginable way its total incapacity to
deal with public questions, and when
ever public opinion has pressed it to dO
at least some triflug good it has adroit-
" got up some new CXcitem ent about
the South, or some new, petty and un-
called for quarrel with the Democrats,
with the sole view TO engage the atten.
ton OF the people and draw their minds
away from public interests and real
iuess. ..s ---.-y..ss sr'v s-f'-
| eral opinion filled its mission. Why
should it not 20 to pieces? Why should
| any one OF its honest voters mourn over
| its disappearance? Ii may not be dead
| at this moment, but it is rotten. IL 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 GOulds,
Standards, HuntingtOns and others OF
that kind, VINO own aud control lis mana
gers and chiefs. To say that such party,
which deliberately chooses Dorsey as one
of its public manipulators aud un.
| b!ushingly gives him public dinners;
which has protected and hOnored Robe.
son, which openly courts the friendship
Of public plunderers, which during four
wears sheltered Brady in his star route
iobberies, and took part OF his gains for
its campaign fund after the exposures
made OF him in Congress; to say that
such a party, which scarcely conceals
its relations with a dozen Hobbies, and
many OF whose public men live by jobs
to say that this party, quarrelling
now over the spoils, ought to live is alb
surd. Ii has lost even the respect for
public opinion which leads jobhers
usually to divide their spoils in private
Some Republicans, We notice, lament
the resignation Of the New York Sena-
tors. We do not. 1t 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
meant by this resignation to show his
intention 10 abandon his relations with
a corrupt party he was right, and what
ever partisans may say OF him, or how
ever be may derange the plans OF mere
spoilsmen, il this was the meaning OF
his resignation the public will stand by
him and open a wider career for him.
Mr.. Conkling has never been accused OF
political corruption. He has the ermity
| OF the railroads and other corporate
| rings. He is somewhat unmanageable
politician-what the public justly COM
plains of is that some, indeed many
others in the Republican party, are but
too plant, too ready to serve private
interests at the expense and to the loss
OF the people.