The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-11-16
THE GAUgES.

in the following, what it deems the
causes of the political revolution ON the
9Th: The general result through the
country is unquesiionsble. The result
IN OHIO has been repeated with even far
greater emphasis in New York, Massa-
| chusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and
New Hampshire, with lesser losses and
defeats in Michigan, Wisconsin and per
haps in Illinois. These defeats are due
to causes which. unlike that in Ohio,
we're largely local aud special. They
were due 10 a combination of reasons
all contributing to the same general dis
gust with the entire Republican party
government since Guiteau revolutionI-
zed the government in 1881.
1t required but little knowledge of
public sentiment 10 foresee the result of
Yesterdays elections. In 1878 the Re
publican managers INDUCED in riot of
public defiance. Intoxicated with the
success Of the election Of 1872, they put
the public at defiance and INDUCED in the
famous back pay appropriation and re-
jected every restraint upon extravagaDce
and personal government. They seemed
TO regard the voters of the nation as
mere serfs If the men In
power, and as creatures who ought
TO be proud OF the men who condescend.
ed 10 govern them. The election of 1874
was the popular response. The coun-
try elected Democratic house of rep
f.iaafaA To-. L..
lures In twenty states, and Democratic
state governments in even a majority of
the northern states. The elections yes
terday were almost u repetition of those
Of 1874, and the revolution yesterday,
like that OF 1874, WAS accomplished by
Republican votes. IN Republican states.
1t is not difficult to state the various
causes which, combined, produced such
a result. First in the list, and having
the earliest effects, Vas the Ohio, Kan
sas, Iowa, and Indiana folly of prohibl-
tioD, causing the stampede OF the whole
German population throughout the I'm
ion. The universal dissatisfaction with
the violation of all sense of civil-service
dccency, justice and prupriety, by the
notorious HubbelI committee, which
proiesscd To act in the name of the par
~ and Disguised every honest and re-
spectacle voter in the land not only with
its cxtortiOns, but also with the official
insolence with which it repeated and
persisted IN its illegal robberies
The popular dissatisfaction was in
creased by the prompt Steps Of the ad-
minIstratiOn of Gen. Arthur To cast aside
all that remained of the policy and
principles of the administration of Gar
field, aud the indecorous proceeding of
the president in interfering personally
with the selection their own state tick
q 10y the Republicans of New York.
In Pennsylvania the Republican party
was under the domination of an un-
scrupulOus, selfdictator, Ia whom the
president surrendered The power and
the patronage OF the administration
In the absence of any live issue upon
which to maintain cohesive and party
discipline, the attempt u coerce sub
mission TO personal government through
the agency of local rulers of doubtful
public morality, alarWed the whole
country. Was the Republican party to
be ruled from Washington by deputies,
reduced to the condition of mere person.
al servitOrs of favored chiefs? To re-
move the control of the party as far as
possible from the people and perpetuate
it in the hands of the few, there
followed the most scandalous sys-
tenn of frauds and perjuries at primary
meetings and conventions, followed by
weak nominations 50 often as Ia make
them as much rule as an exception.
The failure of the Republican party to
maintain the high character it had
gained in 1881, the degeneracy of the
party management into a mere machine
for personal mastery, and countless other
reasons Of more or less force, all con-
tributed TO the belief that purging was
perhaps wise if not the needed remedy
for the party evils, and that remedy was
applied in all those states where the evil
was the most prevalent.
The self-inhicted chastisement cannot
fail to be beneficial TO tine Republican
party. 1t will teach the men tempo
rarIly elected to power and place that
they can be deposed as readily aud
promptly by the same popular will that
lifted them from obscurity. The lessons
of this defeat will be instructive. 1t
will but clear the way for renewal by
the people of the policies of the Repub-
lican party and the restoration of the
government to the control of that party
in 1884.