New-York tribune., 1882-04-07
IN ISSNE IT L1NT.
lonesome,

Traces of transient CLEAN of JOY fit across the
melancholy visages of our Democratic friends,
TO whom life has so long seemed a failure ;
a bitter cup brimfull of gricis since Jefferson
died and the pay-rolls passed. The faint dawn
of possible cheerfulness, OF coming consolation,
flushes the faces of the mouiners. They may
be happy vet TO the Democratic Sarah, long
ing for an issue through years Of weary walt
ing and of barrenness, there comes am
foreshadowing of fulfilled desire. hat
savs tbe withered and stale old dame "Shall
"we who have gone chldless since slavery
"dicd-we who. in despair Of legitimate issue
:" of our own, have gone on adopting every
"comc-bv-chance that struggled i'll our way
from the Granger 10 the Grccnbacker-shall
we at last have real legitimate live issue
" of our own!" Not as the earlier Sarah re-
ceiyed such message from the angel OF ihc
Lord-vith a smile of incredulity-but with
the savage grin of eager expectancy does thc
barren Sarah of Democracy read the prophecy
of an issue in the veto of the Chinese Dill.
The wrinkles deepen in the beldame's face,
she turns away from the tomb Of Jefferson,
the voice Of her wailng over the decadence OF
public virtue ceases, she lifts, as one who
'
she slSips sends forth her banner cry "The
Chinaman must go"
Our weeping friends grow cheerful. These
many years they have been viewing with III
creasing alarm the prevailing tendency and
general condition of things but the thing
they have grieved over most extensively and
been almost inconsolable about WAS the abb
sence of live issue upon which they
could agree among themselves and pre-
sent solid front to the enemy.
They have tried every aspect and all
sides of every possible question, from the ex-
tension of slavery to the coinage of silver,
and with each endcavOr have succeeded only
in showing their own lack of any bond of
unity or principle of cohesion. Most of the
disturbing questions upon which they have AZ
raved themselves in the past twenty years are
settled, and settled in opposition to their no.
tions. This of itself was discouraging, and
more discouraging still was the fact that
whenever they seized hold OF what they
fondlv boped would be the popular side
of something that seemed like ly-
ing ISSUE it either died on their hands,
bringing them nothing but undcrtaller's bills,
OF produced dissensiOns in the party winch
proved fatal. But their great hope, rs has
Cften been remarked, has been based not so
much upon any positive benefit they could boast
os having conferred upon the country, or could
even promise to confer, as upon some source OF
popular dissatisfaction with their Republlcan
opponents. For twenty years they have been
saddcned by everything that tended to show
the prosperity Of the country, and delighted
with everything that had the appearance OF
calamity or distress.
Their chief joy to-day is that the veto of
the Chinese bill has created dissatisfaction III
the Pacific Coast States. They hear with graf
ification that the President has been burned
in cli,y in San Francisco, and say that 8"
serves him right -; and they chuckle over the
report that there il a prospect of an anti
Chinese riot In some Of the cities OF the Pa
cific The veto is a precious boon to them.
Not that they care the toss OF a copper
whether the Chinese go or stay. or what bap-
pens to the labOrers in California and Oregon.
The simple and only consideration with
them is how much dissatisfaction may
be created by the acts Of Republic
can Administration to make capital for the
Democratic party. The party that hoped tor
reverses to our arms during the war of the Re
bellion, that has lived upon the public distress
and business and commercial depression ever
since. and that openly confessed in the last
Presidential campaign that the chief cause Of
its discontinue was the prosperity of the
country lives now in the hope that the veto
of the Chinese bill will produce labor riots in
California. They think they have found an
issue, a real live issue, at last Wen, we shall
see.
ONE OR TITO ERRORS CORRFCTED