National Republican., 1882-10-30
Great Public Question.

A Great Public Question.
After alludng to the collection OF
funds for campaign purposes, the New
York Erening Post says:
But 1t is certain that neither of these things nor
n combination of them would have driven SO
large number of voters from The Republican
ranks had there been n Ltat public question of
Cv,rshGdowng Importance on which the voters
would have felt compelled TO take sides, and
which would have made them overlook things of
less immediate consequence. But there being no
such issue, the ordinary Republican voter ceased
TO lie impressed with the necessity OF party
victory, and many thousands of them thought this
an excellent time to punish the party for its short
comings Il conclusion which some arrived Mt with
regret. and others with certain relish of the op
portunity.
This uttcrance by Mr. Carl Schurz's
paper half conccals and half discloses
the truth with which it pretends to
deal. 1t is not because of the absence of
great public question of overshadowing
Importance that many thousands of Re-
publican voters have ceased to be i'm
pressed with the necessity of party
victory" but it is because ofthe successful
efforts Of persons of the school to which
Mr.. Schurz belongs to make vital ques-
tions appear insignificant. Questions
of vital importance have been denied
q hearing with many because of the hol-
low clamor Of offended politicians turned
into professional reformers, seeking
notoriety and place by new paths because
the main road has been denied to them.
Mr.. Carl Schurz was a great Radical
philosopher, to the general public, and, to
the initiated, a thrifty machine politician
and negotiator for office until 1871. The
necessity for Civil Service Reform never
dawned upon him until President Grant
refused to delegate to him as Senator
the Federal offices in Missouri, with which
to subsidize Il mercenary following and
subordinate the Republican organization
to the faction which he had set up in re-
bellion against it. And so with the other
Republicans of prominence, who, in 1872,
without cause or decent pretext, went
into the Democratic camp.
The leaders of the Greeley movement
in 1872 were band of self-seeking poll
ticians who turned upon the Republican
party because they were denied Federal
patr onage for their retainers. The II cs-
sian of Hessians among them was Carl
Schurz, of whom Wendell Phillips has
said: "a Swiss soldier-always to let"
Muddened at being denied the key
to the government pantry, where the
viands of Office were kept, they have
been endeavoring ever since to reach the
same pantry by loud pretense of oppo-
siion to eating. They did not succeed
in 1872. But they kept busy. They knew
that in the presence of any great pub
lie question of overshadowing impor-
tance" they would cut no figure, and get
lio sweetmeats. They have, therefore,
devoted their whole time and skill to an
effort at belittling vital things.
The unperformed duty of the United
States under the Constitution is to guar
antee to each State a republican form Of
government" If the smallest State
in the North were to be forcibly
seized by faction defeated at the
polls, and its government usurped
through the superior aptitude of the mi
nority for deeds of violence and blood,
how long would Mr.. Schurz and his kind
be able to lull the people into the belief
that no great public duty pressed upon
the men of this country? And yet with
States at the South ruled by a minority
which insolenty admits its inability to
honestly carry elections, and defantly
proclams its intention to submit to
no majority opposed to it, we hear the
Satanic press, in which Carl Schurz has a
bad eminence, inviting the people to
scramble over the slops of Federal ap-
pointments because there is nothing of
any greater consequence deserving their
attention.
The men who were honestly misled in
1872 were many, and they have long since
retraced their steps. Most of the men
now living who willfully misled them
have since been back in the Republican
house doing their best TO set it on fire,
but still endeavoring to turn it TO personal
use until they could get the flames under
way. They made converts 10 their treason
aft they came back to the party, and
br, q in ii class of ambitious statesmen
who undertook to make themselves ac-
ceptable to the traitors by aiding them in
hostility to the central idea of the party
AS result of the work of the boilers of
1872, and such powerful recruits MS they
procured within the party after their re-
turn, no wonder il the "great question of
vital importance was lost sight of at
times, ard the people "ceased to bs inn
pressed with the necessity of party
victory"
The effort to enforce national laws for
the protection Of voters at the South
through national agencies having failed,
and been superseded by the better
method Of an appeal to the Southern
people themsel yes, the cause of justice is
again The subject Of sneers and attacks
at the hands of the same gang which
n sailed it before. The South is becom-
ing nationalized by internal forces, and
this very year Bourbonism will perforce