National Republican., 1882-12-14
Republican prOsuects,

One trouble with the republican party has
been that it was so strong that it had within
it about fourteen factions, each one of which
felt reckles5ly independent of the other thir-
teen. Then, besides these fourteen wilful
factions, there were the masses of the party,
who did not care for any of them. The rival
managers were as powerless to discipline the
grand army of the party as brass band is to
make the bystanders fall into the line of the
procession for which it is furnishing the
music. At the recent election the re-
publican brass band marched along boldly,
unconscious of the fact that goodly
portion Of the procession had dropped
| out These were not of any class or
kind. 1t will never be known toward
which of the numerous factions there was
the most displeasure. Nor is it essential to
find out The trombone player may exult-
ingly declare that the cornet drove more away
than he did, or vice versa. What matters it :?
1t is enough to know that the procession must
be reformed. Those who for the time left it
did not swell the ranks of the democracy.
When this paper said few days after cleo
ton that the republican party might not find
anybody anxious to take its nomination
in 1884 the words were well considered,
and are here reiterated. The reason for
this belief lies in the fact that the
party has been so prostrated that, instead of
each petty chief considering his claquerS the
party, each one feels that the followers of
all would not, if united, constitute a majority
Nv I'm would In nrSln IN
success, that great body of voters who only
prefer the republican party when it stands for
some objects the attainment Of which they
desire. Not to stuff with offices the noisy
advocates of an ambitious leader, nor to swell
the conceit of newspaper Bosses will the next
president be chosen.
If he is to be a republican, as VIC confidently
believe he will, he must be one III whom the
great body of the people believe, and for
whom they have respect The knowledge of
this is Christening the destructive spirit which
was consuming the republican party. Not
one of the fragments into which our party
was shattered last month has now any hope of
going alone. OF course this docs not apply
to those idiots whose own noise makes it i'm
pOSSlDlS tuau lney sHoulu KNOW tndG tue
screaming Of others has ceased Such fellows
are still on what the confirmed inebriate in
the police court called the same old drunk"
But leaving out half dozen newspaper
bosses, and few hangers-on of worn out
and discarded politicians who lay superfluous
on the political stage, and there is growing up
feeling of mutual dependence among repub-
licans, and real anxiety to move only in the
direction that the masses who are opposed to
democratic rule may approve. This is real
strength Our party weakness grew out of
its great strength, which tempted the ambi-
ton ofunscrupulousm men, backed by the cupid
ity of the wealth which desired to share power
with them. The party has been rent in the
struggle for its possession. No man will now
consider it worth his while to attempt to
| seize its convention. Each man will distrust
his own ability to combine the elements nee
essary to success. If this is really the condi-
tiOn of affairs, ii seems full of promise. If the
party can only be left free to put its best foot
forward, without being dragooned by self
constituted captains who consider a nomina-
tion equivalent to an election, or dazed by the
gong-beating of empty-headed newspaper
Bosses the democratic party as at present or
ganized will be buried in the ocean of the past
- deeper than ever did plummet sound"