Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-11-16


During sixty-four of the first eight,
years of our national existence, it wa
customary to say that the history O
the Democratic party was the histor,
Of the country, and during the las
twenty GEARS the remark has been an
piled to the Republican party. 1t ha
been a mistake in both cases. Fro,
the beginning the country has had
history entirely above and Independent
Of the history of any partizan organi
cation.
The pole star of all partizan organi
xafion has been more or less really tn,
! Constitution of the United States
whilst the pole star of the real histor,
OF the country has been the preambl,
to the Constitution. Ignorance anG
disregard of this one fact have wrecked
in its turn every political party tn,
country has seen.
To write the history of the Republi
can party we must go back at least fit
ty years in the history of the country.
President Jacksan. while he squelch
ed notification with one hand, crushed
the United States Bank with the other
and the efforts of these agencies to re.
cover or perpetuate their power has
been the history of partizan organiza-
tons from that day to this.
The advocacy of United States
Bank and opposition to slavery de-
stroyed the Wing party. The Kansas
Nebraska Bill raised very strongly the
anti-slavery issue in the North, and
politicians of every stripe who were
out of office, and wanted to get in, rail-
lied to the anti-slavery standard, and
the aggregate was called the Republi-
can party.
For reasons too numerous to men,
ton, their attempt to elect Fremont in
1856 was bad failure, except in so far
as it showed them the necessity of par
ty drill and discipline.
In 1850 they came up again, rare
lot of incompatibles. Lincoln, Seward,
Chase, Cameron and Bates were their
candidates for President, it being ar
ranged. among the candidates that
whoever was nominated, if he was
elected, the others were to be Cabinet
officers.
Norman B. Judd, Chairman of the
Illinois Republican State Committee,
by sharp dodge, outwitted the Sew
ard men snd nominated Lincoln, who
was elected, owing to division in the
Democratic party.
In Lincoln's Cabinet Seward was
Secretary of State; Chase, Secretary of
the Treasury; Cameron, Secretary of
War; Caleb b. Smith (who seconded
nomination., Secretary of the
Interior; Bates was Attorney-G General;
Blair, who never agre ed
long with either himself or any one
else, was Postmaster-General, and Gid
con Welles was Secretary of the Navy.
Six incompatibles and one imbecile-a
Committee on Cross Purposes with the
President as Chairman.
The Sou tn revolted and threw fear
full war into the path of events. This
threw another incompatible element
into the Republican organization, in
the shape of the War Democracy; but
it furnished the Administration with a
policy, and held it together by terri
BILE outside pressure.
1t is interesting to see how those in
went out of Office. Bates,
as Attorney-General, was called to face
the question of negro citizenship, which |
was presented in another shape to
Seward at the same time by those who
were determined that the Administra-
ton, having been elected on an anti
slavery basis, should be anti-slavery. |
They made a corner on Bates, and he
resigned. Chase, having established a
United States Bank and thereby accom-
plished the purpose for which he was
put into the Cabinet, was laid up out |
Of the way of all harm on the Supreme |
bench of the United States. Cameron,
having provided in the way Of army |
contracts for himself and immediate |
friends, and fearing that the time was
about out when the war would he car
-ied on for the benefit Of army contrac-
tors, resigned. Smith consulted his
own comfort by dying; and Seward,
who had talent; Welles, who had none,
md Blair, who represented no one but
, ;p,aolf ramaine1
The war run the Administration in
% the ground, out of which it was ex-
ricated by appointing U. s. Grant
General, really military
dictator, who rescued the remains of
he United States Government by
the Confederacy to pieces.
All the gains made during the war
we're made by military DEGREES and en-
srced at the lannon's mouth. When
cti We hostilities ceased, Congress was
onfro rted by two problems. The one