Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-20

politics, and there has been no party argr-
ment during the campaign, except an ap-
peal to tradition. The result is a tremen-
dous Republican rebuke to ssbosses'' and
rings" and to corrupt political methods.
1t shows that intelligent and independent
and patriotic citizens value party as
means, and not as an end ,and that they will
not hesitate to defeat the party to which they
are attached when they see that its success
would be an approval of methods and
managem ent which threaten the public
welfare. The elections of 1882 are COM
plete popular vindication of Sunday
school politics. They are a declaration
that the supporters of the party whose
record is the most illustrious for its
country and for constitutional liberty of
any party in any country at any time will
not tolerate executive dictation, or mean
and corrupt control.
Practical politics do not consist in cheat
ing and stealing and in profound con-
tempt for generous and honorable motives,
but wise calculation of moral forces in
the individual and in the community. The
Democratic party in the last generation
allied itself with slavery and with the
moral timidit& of trade, and, intrenched
III euO AAcoAOuoA RopAOAAo$5O1 OAAOSASN "e ORRo-
sition. But in five years it was totally
ment of the country, and for quarter of
century it will have been kept out
of national power. The Democratic party
was overwhelmed by Sunday school poll
tics. Those politics were discarded in the
second administration of Grant. The re-
suit was the narrow escape of the Repub-
10. / %ho@
election President Hayes and Sunday
school politics can into power. In "reg-
ular" Republican circles it was the fashion
to sneer at milk toast and Sunday schools
in politics, as the Democrats had sneered
at Woolly Heads and Brudder Bones twen-
ty years before. But the $4,000 majority
against Hayes in New York in 1876 was
reduced by Sunday school politics
in 1877 to 1000, and in
1880 the Sunday school majority for
Garfield was 21,OOO. Garfield was elected
because his career and the defeat of the
third-term plot at Chicago showed that the
Sunday school was still the controlling
power of the party. In other words, it
showed that the party was not Jet sub
dued by the politics of bosses and rings
and the patronage which makes them.
From L doubtful and disputed electoral
issue and Democratic popular ma jority
of quarter of a million in 1876, Sunday
school politics, in the teeth of sneering
bosses, gave the Republican l.arty
in 1880 an electoral majority of
fifty nine, and popular majority
also. The Garfield administration plomis-
ed continued and increasing Resub!ican
ascendency. But shot from the spoils
camp suddenly overthrow it, and installed
in power the sneerers at Sunday school
politics. They have had their way. They
sincerely believe that all is fair in politics
that every Republican is dog to come to
party whistle; that it is enough to say
that however corrupt Republican manage
mepti may be, Democratic management is
worse. They can not comprehend thai
the fate of the party is in the hand;
of clear-headed and true-hearte6
body of citizens who cannot be fooled, an6
without whose approval success is inpos
sible. The consequences are visible al
around us. The Republican parry which
in 1889, under the impulse of the Sunday
school, saw Il future worthy OF - ;'ass. j,
1882, under the control of the s.ieersrs :"
Sunday school politics. encounters Il ;se;~;;j
SO universal and overwhelming taaG it Il
supposed in some quarters to be Tie de.
struction OF the party. But it shows only
| that while Republicans do not expect
a political party to be al Ideal
association, they do intend that it shall
represent principles and progress and an
honest management, and not merely a
corps of Janissaries to execute the will OF
suitans, large or small. Mr. Cleveland
governor elect of New York, is not blind to
the situation. In the first dazzling mo-
ment of his success he wisely said, 'The
result in 1884 will depend almost entirely
upon the conduct of the two parties during
the intervening period" There is plenty
of time before 1884 for Democrats to throw
away the fruits Of this victory, and for Re
| publIcans to retrieve their defeat.
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