National Republican., 1882-11-15
The Prnrinns Question.

NoW lnaJ ble hepuDllCHn party naS
been so mauled and keel-haued as to be
incapable of doing any present harm,
would ii be in order to pro pound the fol-
lowing questions TO those experts in
virtuous indig nation who edit some Of
the great dailies? Has the Democratic
party ever done anything wrong2 Ought
its character to be alluded to? Is ii I'M
der the influence and control of men who
at one period exhibited want of wis
dom2 Conceding as we must that the
Southern Democracy were honestly of the
opinion that the United States ought
to be blotted from the map Of the
world, and that the Southern Con-
ederacy embodied the true Demo-
cratic idea, why were such Northern
Democratic leaders as Samuel ]. Tilden,
William w. Eaton, Jere S. Black, Daniel
w. Voorhees, Thomas A. Hendricks,
George II. Pendleton, Allen G. Thurman,
and others, unwilling to concede that fel-
low-Democrats like Ben Butler, Stephen
A. Douglas, John A. Dix, Daniel s. Dick
inson, and others were equally honest in
believing that the Nation had right to
shoot back when shot at? Were the
first above-named gentlemen good adj
visers then? If they were unwise coun-
selors then on great question, when did
they become wise enough to be trusted
as guides on any other question: Is the
republican form of government desirable? ?
If the majority of the voters in South
Carolina are Republicans, as the Bourbon
organs there freely admit, and yet the
State government is usurped by the mi-
given by bogus State officials to the nine
defeated Democratic candidates for elect
ors in 1884, what difference would there
be between that and refusing to count
nine Republican electoral votes in
the North? Or put it this way: 1t
cannot be seriously denied that the fol-
lowing States, with the following
number of electoral votes, have each q
large majority of anti-Bourbon votes, viz:
Alabama, 10; Arkansas, z; Florida, 4
Louisiana, 8; Mississippi, g.; South Caro-
lima, 8. Here are AZ electoral votes which
are to be boldly seized at the next Presi
dental election by the Bourbons and
fraudulently transferred from the Re-
publican to their side. This is not only
a loss of AZ electoral votes at the South,
but it neutralizes an equal number at the
North. This is equivalent to wholly
throwing out the electoral votes of Iowa,
13; Wisconsin, IL; Nebraska, 5; New
Hampshire, 4; Rhode Island, A; Ver-
mont, 4, and Maine, 6, in addition to the
loss of the Southern States named. Be-
sides this there is no fair struggle per-
mtted for the electoral votes Of other
Southern States. We ask the Reformers
of"political methods" to say whether they
see anything Objectionable in all this? If
they do, we suggest that they suspend
the war over the party offal long enough
to allude to it. We do not wish to seem
importunate over trihes. We know that
change of ninety-four electoral votes in
struggle between the Old and the New,
between Nationality and Provincialism,
between a government by the people
and a government by baffled faction
MuiGll hdLSS thc pSoplc, 40 hot W DS
compared in importance as a public
question to the removal of construc-
tive laborer from some department or
the defeat of some hungry office-seeker
in party convention. But yet the selec-
ton of President and national legislators
by legal methods is not without interest to
many. We regard the attempt to intro
duce into the public service 5000 clerk
who cannot calculate an eclipse and
chant Solomon's song in Hebrew as
sufficient cause for revolution. We be-
lieve in rank and caste, and that "the
better class" consists of all who have the
cheek to publicly demand to be SO re-
garded. But inasmuch as each citizen
has but one vote, and rs nineteen in
twenty of the Republicans either do not
understand or do not relish the dodge
of labelling themselves "better class"
we throw out the suggestion that re-
public based on the ballots of the quail
fled voters is the government provided
for by the Constitution, and that the
right Of citizens under the Great Charter
to voice in the government is to many
of as high importance as the right of
self-constituted better class of snobs to q
ladle in the government soup.bowl. This
is not reference to the bloody shirt. 1t
is simply call for the previous question.