The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-09-13
TIE PRINCIPLES OF rHE REfJBEIcAN
PARTY,
From the New York World.

L from the new 1Orh WOrl0
Hubbells documents which were to ex-
hibit the distinctive principles of the re
publican party do net seem to be in great
demand. They do not excite the tenth
part of the curiosity excited by Hubbell's
method of getting the money he pretends
| to spend circulating them. And yet there
ought to be a real thirst for information
| about the principles of the republican
party, such as formerly spurred on the
quest forthe Fountain of Youth or the
! Philosophers Stone, and in our day fol
| lows the wake of the sea-serpent. Their
| existence is SO generally disbelieved that if
Hubbell has any authentic proof that they
exist-if he has even seen a man who has
seen man who has seen them-republi-
| cans ought to be glad to procure copies of
| the evidence at the moderate rate of so
cents hundred"
| So far as anybody deprived of Hubbell's
pamphlets can discover, the outfit of the
republican party consists in the party ma
chine and the party name. III Mr.. Blaine's
| latest deliverance is accepted as official
and Mr.. Blaine, at least, is clear that when
| he is uttering himself the oracle is on tap
the republican party appeals for sup
port to the things it did long while ago
and the men, now dead, who used to be-
long to it. We have heard of potato
families. of which the best part was under
ground. Mr.. Blaine presents us with a
potato party. We ask for programme
and we receive threnody. Of what the
republican party is doing and of what it
means to do we hear nothing from repub-
lican orators or republican organs
Meanwhile there is no mystery about
either of these things. The republican
party is engaged in stealing and squander
ing the public money, and it means to steal
and squander more. These things do not
look as well in a platform as demands by
the thieves and squanderers for rigid econ
omy in the expenditure of public funds
If Robson is renomnated, the convention
which renominates him will no doubt make
this demand, and trust to the efficiency of
the party machine and the attractive force
of the party name, besides what there may
be of direct bribery, to insure his re-elec-
ton. We have by no means got so that
direct bribery can do anything considerable
towards affecting the popular verdict when
an issue is made upon which public senti-
ment is really aroused. And assuredly the
issue which is presented by the acts of the
republican party is an issue which ought
to have that result. With its leader in the
House of representatives a notorious and
branded plunderer, with a record
in that body which has never been ap-
preached in our history for impudent pro-
fligacy, with the present Secretary of its
National Committee and its former First
Assistant Postmaster General on trial upon
a charge of conspiring to swindle the Gov
eminent, of which everybody believes them
to be guilty, and will believe them to be
guilty. whether or not they escape punish
ment-the practical outcome of "the prin
ciples of the Republican party is not
doubtful to any voter who knows enough
to read newspaper. What is the use of
talking about the need of an issue when
validity of the eighth commandment is
practically denied by the dominant party
in the United States?
1t is true that the members of the Demo
cratic party have not kept as clear as they
ought to have kept of republican rascal
ties. 1t is the business of their Democra
tic constituents TO see to it that no man
calling himself democrat who has defied
public opinion by voting for republican
jobs shall be renominated to congress as
democratic candidate If the democrats
purge their party of whatever discredit I'M
faithful representatives have brought upon
it. by purging itself of those representa-
tives, there cannot be doubt of its over
whelming success ia the coming elections
to congress. The republican "claim" that
the democrats are likely to steal the
public money does not amount to
much in the face of the dem
onstration that the republicans have stolen
public money. When a man learns that
his cashier has robbed the till he does not,
if he is a rational being examine the Gre
dentials of the next applicant for the
cashiership before dismissing the cashier
and putting him in Jail. He is aware that
this example is the most effective admoni
ton he could convey to the new conner to
refrain from theft. People ought by all
means to scrutinize the character of demo
Gratis who offer themselves for their suf-
frages. But they ought to be especially
careful to beware of giving any aid and
comfort whatsoever to a party which has
no discoverable principles" apart from
the objects of its leaders, and the sole OBJ
ject of whose leaders is to retain their
swag and remain at large.