National Republican., 1882-09-29
The Campaign.


Republicans will do we'll to remember
that there are other antagonists in the
field besides Republicans, and that, os-
tensibly at least, they are to make the
campaign against the Democratic party.
If the Republican party has any right to
a continued existence it is because it ap-
proves something right to which others
are opposed, and opposes something
wrong upon which others are bent. If
the party is not enough better than
its antagonist in its plans and
purposes, and in its ways and works,
to draw the majority to its stand
ard, despite the private griefs of the
disappointed and the chronic growls of
the ill-natured, then it will now 60 to
tie wall
The question arises, What do the two
parties represent? The Democratic party
represents the baffled enemies of Free
dom, Union, Equal Rights, Popular Edu-
cation, Honest Elections, Free Suffrage,
and Majority Ru lie. To every one of these
things the Dem ocracy have been opposed.
AS the evil spirits of the past have been
exercised one by one by the Republican
party they have cried out in the name
of Democracy against being so disturbed.
For more than twenty years the Demo-
cratic party has fought with desperation
to give this country over into the hands
of men who hate the rule of the
people, and who now, in the last ditch of
Bourbonism, hold out against the national
decree giving the ballot to the freedmen
of the South.
Congress, which makes the Nations
laws, and which controls the collection
and disbursement of the public revenues,
is no, composed of The peoples representatives.
The busy Republican millions of the
North who fancy that they live in re-
public find a large proportion oftheir po-
litical power neutralized by the presence
in Congress of Bourbon Democrats who
come from districts in which the Repub-
lican maj ority was not allowed to 60 to
the polls. If the rough elements in the
Democratic minority in Iowa or YER
mont should arm itself to the teeth
and inaugurate reign of terror among
unarmed Republicans, and should
carry the elections by force, and then re-
tain the election machinery SO captured
by gross frauds in counting forever after
ward, it would be an outrage upon the
Republicans of the other States, who are
entitled, under majority rule, to Republi-
can cooperation in Congress from those
two Republican States. Now, it was by
such means that the House had a Demo-
cratic majority from 1875 to 1881, and the
Senate from 1870 to 1881. 1t is by such
villainy that the Democracy manufac.
tured nearly one-half of the electoral
votes it gave to Tilden in 1876, and then
threatened civil war because Congress
would not usurp the function of State
officials aud declare the result of State
elections for Presidential electors.
1t is to break down this Bourbon usur-
patton in the South, in order that Con-
gress may be composed only of duly
elected members and that the real voice
of each State on the Presidency may be
heard and needed, that the Republican
party continues to battle with its ancient
enemy. To establish the Republic upon
"the consent of the governed" is the
still unfinished business of the Republic
can party 1t is agreed among Republi-
cans that public obligations are sacred ;
that the currency must be convertible
into coin; that taxation must be re-
duced that the duties on imports should
be adjusted in the interest of home in
dustry, and that honesty and economy
should prevail in every public depart
ment. But the Senate is tie. The Re-
publican party there finds the check to
Its power. The nominations of the Tr2si-