The Elk Mountain pilot., 1882-06-01
THE EREPUBLICANPARTY

what the kepuDfcan parry neeos
more than any other one thing is the
truth. There was time in its his
tory when its thinkers and leaders
wrote and spoke fearlessly, and when
the party won Its battles by fair Ggh,
and no favor; even its enemies look
back upon those days and reverence
its power and greatness.
1t was not so much that it had giants
for Its leaders, as that it drew to its
standard the fearless thinkers and re-
formers Of the time. Young, bold
and vigorous, it acknowledged no
masters. 1t was conscious Of power
because it had mission. In its lead
ers it demanded martyrs, for the
party itself represented an advanced
truth.
For the last eight or ten years now
the party has been gaining victories
by lies and rotten political platforms,
and its sole excuse for icing and
gaining victories at all, has fallen to
this low level that its opponent is
still further gone in the dry rot, that
for twenty years it has had no other
function than dead stump to mark
the spot where once stood majestic
tree.
At intervals independents within
the party made spasmotic attempts to
change matters. The most memor-
able of these political contests and the
only one worthy of applause, was tina.
which sent Greeley to broken-heart-
ed grave. and which read the lion
hearted Sumner out OF the ranks in
disgrace. 1t was at that time that
the party reached its epoch Of pigmies.
These two antique figures lowered
above the wretched mediocrity that
had siezed upon this once grand po-
lldcal party. And this mediocrity
distinguished itself by making martyrs
of the two men whom the party in its
youth rcvered.
The party really died here. Is it
worth the candle to galvanize it into
lite? Shall We initiate this old Demo-
cratic party, which for twenty odd
years, in platform after platform, res
olut'on> after resolution, canvention
after convention, has declared itself
alive with the eternal principles of the
once great party of Jeferson7 They
have talked Of hard money, of liberty,
Of what not, and from ithas came only
this: secession, treason, reputation,
John. Morr'sey and that hybrid thing
Samuel J. Tilden.
The Pennsylvania independents now
rise up and say in a grandiloqdent
way that GIVE must put our grand old
party where the immortal Lincoln
found it, and where the immortal
Garfield left it," To our notion, with
the memories Of 81 coming back,
this is very low standard, and indi-
Gates, perhaps, more than any other
one thing, the hope|essness Of rcvlving
the corpse. 10 where the immortal Lin
coin found 1t, would be grand, indeed,
but can we do it? Have you the timber
to build with? And as for where the
immortal Garfield left it, "alas, are all
thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils
shrunk to this little measure p
Do you think to build great party
upon the memories of 1882 Why, it
was then that the party had sunk the
deepest in lies and mediocrity. 1t was
then as now that the parasites dictated
its policy. Organized, powerful,
hydra headed, they claim to be its
bone and sinew, and so persistently
and boldly that the Republicans of
old feared their Boosting to be only
too true, and in sad veneration and
hope that something would bring
about revival Of the old spirit, they
held their peace and even compromis-
ed with the vultures, who, vulture like,
croaked the loudest when the emptiest.
America to-day is cursed with two
dead political parties and their only
difference is that one died amid the
canon thundcrs of 1861 and the other
IN 1879, and out of all this moribund
condition comes the political corrup-
| ton. "organized hvnocricvn md ,nSsl;.