Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-15
LINCOLN AND .srALwARrIsM."

4
Republican party in its fresh, vigorous,
"bright days, when it did not tamper with
wrong, and knew no halfbreeds in its
franks. [Cheers, and cries of Three
s''hundred and six 1t was party sired
e:by Freedom, and there could be no cross
"in snch stock y This looks like an at
tempt to claim for Lincoln the merit (if
merit il be) of stalwartism." Bat the
actual fact is that if there were no "half-
breeds" in the Republican party in Lin
coln's time, it was because there were no
'stalwarts" either. 1t is necessary for
Emory Storrs and his school of politicians
to realize that however meritorious are the
attributes which they have undertaken to
distinguish by the term " stalwartism,
the great majority of the Republican party
have never appreciated those attributes,
and have always looked upon them with
distrust and suspicion. In Lincoln's time
the party was great because it had great
cause because represented the patriotism
of the North because it had not then begun
to harbor those ignoble tendencies which at
later period corrupted it /; because it was
singls-minded, earnest, unselfsh, and hon.
est. And SO gulf.wide is the difference be-
tween Lincoln's Republicanism and that of
Mr.. Emory Storrs and his friends that had
Lincoln lived until now he would, almost
beyond doubt, have been found in the
ranks of the half-breeds" instead Of
in the ranks Of the "Stalwarts." Mr..
Storrs does not comprehend that revolu-
ton has occurred in the Republican party
during the past sixteen years, and that
while the Lincoln Republicans have gradu-
ally been thrust further and further back
from the front, and from the rewards of
place and power, the substantial possessions
of the party have been as gradually monop-
olized by set of political charlatans and
adventurers who have been trading upon
the old watchwords and war-cries until
they have brought the latter into discredit,
and have been Wanting their I" stalwart.
ism" in order to cloak designs which have
nothing in common with the aims of the
organization or with the principles of re-
publican Government.
Mr.. Lincoln, indeed, who was genuine
republican if ever there was one, would
have found it difficult to understand the
spirit which was exhibited in Mr.. Storrs'
ailusion to the lf-breeds, and which
was shown still more openly in the cries of
Three hundred and six, which greeted
his fractional remarks. The democratic
principles of Mr.. Lincoln would have re.
volted from the persistent sycophancy and
man. worship, the un.American subserv-
ienoy TO name which has long since
ceased to stand for any great thought or
issue, which nevertheless constitutes the |
chief pride and boast of the /" stalwarts."
He would have failed to recognize in these
men representatives of the great and earn
est party he had led. He would have
gazed in open-eyed wonder at the brass
medals adjoining the breasts of the "Grant
"column." Perhaps, had he been sud-
denly introduced to this banquet, he
might have thought for moment that the
republic had ceased to exist, and that Gen.
eral Grant, following the example of Louis
Napoleon, had made himself Dictator. But
assuredly the simple, sincere, democratic
| citizen, Abraham Lincoln, would have had
no sympathy with the sham patriotism and
the brass.mounted hunkeyism which has
| in these latter days issued in the political
monstrosity called stalwartism, and he
would have turned away from its quackery
and corruption to seek, among the I'M
tainted half-breeds," the only kind of
Republicanism congenial to his own noble
spirit.
The "stalwarts," in their stupid inso-
lence and arrogance, in their characteristic
incapacity to read the mind of the nation,
in their blind adherence to the one-man
idea, are preparing for themselves great
catastrophe. We will not say that they
are preparing this catastrophe for the Re.
publican party, because the existence of
that party is conditioned by the approval
of its majority, and because when the ma
jority ceases to approve what is done in its
name they will simply withdraw their sup
port, and let the fabric fall to the ground.
But of this we are confident, that Republi.
can success cannot be obtained hereafter on
the basis of stalwartism." The rank
and file of the party have already made it
clear what they think of that imposture,
and when the time comes they will again
reveal their convictions Dissatisfaction
with "stalwartism" was the cause of that
great break in the Republican strength
throughout the North and West which
marked Grants second term. That break
would have put Democrat in the White
House but for the Electoral Commission.
1t showed what the Republicans thought of
the kind of government the "stalwarts
had been giving the country. 1t showed
what they thought of Grant as an admins
traitor, and what they thought of his
friends.
And now, if we are to have "stal
wartism Haunted in our faces because
great crime has put a friend of Grant at
the head of the Government, and if it is
to be given out that the methods and the
politics of Grants second term are to be re.
established, it requires no prophetic gift
to foresee that the Presidential Election of
! 1884 viii mark the close of the Republican
ascendancy. There are no longer any
living questions to divide parties. Con-
siderations of honesty, efficiency, capacity,
| will therefore come into greater promi-
nence than ever before. And it is at such
junoture that we are threatened with the
return of those bad and corrupt methods
which have already SO nearly wrecked
the party. The Emory Storrs and the
"three hundred and six will do well to
put on more modesty, and prepare to play
less conspicuous roles in the immediate
future. If they do not, if they persist in
| their present yainclorious course. IL they