New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-08-03
wealth of Great Britain? Or will they go on as
we have done and develop their own industries
THE DEMOCRATIC KALEIDOSCOPE.

Democracy is this year more Kaleidoscope
than ever. Four years ago, at the edge of the
campaign following the Presidential election
the Democratic party, with general assortment
of issues on hand that had been left over--lISe
the greenback question and the labor question
and various others that had accumulated with
the absorption OF sundry small political Joint
stock companies-was really concentrating its
energies upon the "Grear Fraud by which it
was pretended that Mr.. Tilden, the Reforn,er.
had been cheated out of the Office which he had
been unsuccessful in purchasing. The leaders
skirmished a little on the side issues, bat threw
their entire weight on the Fraud" Mr. Til
den had committed himself to the proposition
that it could not be cOndOned SO far as he was
personally concerned; Mr.. Hendricks had
refused to condOne the fraud upon himself,
while intimating that so far as Tilden was con-
cerned he did not care copper about it and
the party generally had expressed willingness
to condone everything except the great crime
which kept the Government payrolls ont of
reach. They took the fraud" on Tilden and
Hendricks with great philosophy but when it
came to the outrage upon the party at large
they were more strenuous even than the de-
feated candidates in refusing TO condone The
conspicuous feature in politics was the general
refusal to cOndOne.
All that has gone by. Either because the last
election has been accepted as a popular con-
donation, or because the Democracy have rid
themselves of the delusion that they were de-
frauded, the talk of condoning or not cOndoninc,
has gone entirely out OF fashion We presume
that oven Mr.. Tilden himself, if he should be
called out on his front steps bare headed unex-
pectedly, would hardly reiteYate his oft-repeated
refusal to cOndOne. And Mr.. Hendricks in n
recent interview gave no indication of remem-
herring that he had anything to condone In
the absence of this great issue which our
Democratic friends made so much of from 1876
to 1850, 1t ia interesting to note that they have
taken up other issues in the several States.
making up in variety what they lose in earnest
ness and intensity. For instance, in Virginia
they are making Bourbon fight, ostensibly for
the payment of the State debt, but really for
the perpetuatiOn of the Bourbonism that ruled
the State before The war and proposes now to
ignore the wars results In North Carolina
they are attempting entirely new dodge
playing the rolo of temperance reformers and
prnhibitonsts. Here are two of the most re-
marhable phenomena that ever occurred in tho
history of this phenomenal party Having re-
covered from the shock of seeing this hard
son and Jackson appear as the party of inAa-
ton and irrcdecmablc currency, we are treated
to the spectacle of seeing the Virginia Bourbons
appear as debt-payers, and the Rum Democracy
OF North Carolina rs Prohibtionists.
Here in New-Yorl appearances now Indicate
though III the next siswceks the whole aspect
OF Affairs may chauge-that they will attitude
nizc rs Civil Service Rcformcrs, and give us no
end of moralzing over the late Senatorial con-
uoversy and the need of purifying politics by
bringing into power the lineal descendants of
the Tweed and Canal Rings. In Ohio, Mr.
Bookwaltcr, their candidate for Governor
seems disposed to make his canvass upon a
muddle OF things, principal of which and most
muddled, if We may judge from his letter of
acceptance, Is the Tariff question. SO the party
much less intense than when four years ago it
rose up with united voice and refused either
to condono or be comforted, scattors its energies
upon all these varied issues. It's homogeneous
ness lies in its name and its hunger its hetero-
gencousncss is manifest in the variety of things
1t takes up and tries to make people think it
believes in. On some one of these questions, in
some one or these States, it ought to succeed.
But suppose it should what would it demon.
stratcf Why, in Virginia, that it is n Debt
Paying party, which would not do in any other
Southern State; i'll North Carolina, that it is a
Prohibition party, which would not answer in
Nov York in Newly DIRK, that il is q Civil Ser
vice Reform party, which would not do any
where; and i'll Ohio, that it does not mean any
thing whatever, which would be consistent with
its traditions. But what Il Kaleidoscope it ist