The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-11-29
The Effect and Its Remedy.

be done about it? In considering these
questions there is a disposition among
those VINO believe themselves to be
molders of public opinion to discuss the
bearings of the late lamented election
on those who. have held Office, or are
now in office. or on those who expect to
or would like to hold Office. So far as
the feuds and resentments of the cam
paign are concerned this is all well
enough, because any man can see with
half an cye that one faction of the Re-
publican party exhibited fair degree
of skill in emitting the throat of the
other.
But the main point now to receive at
tention is that relating to the effect the
defeat will have on the Republicans who
have never held Office and who never
expect to hold office-on that great
army of active workers who have
grown into the habit of voting as mat
ter of principle. How will the spectacle
of the old party tumbliDg downstairs
strike the average man who votes the
Republican ticket?
1t is not easy to answer this question
in wayto extract comforting sort of
a lesson from defeat The voters of the
party are somewhat dazed. it must be
admitted-have lost their party legs, as
it were-and if they were called into
line tomorrow for another such contest,
not very heavy blow with feather
would knock them down.
Fortunately no important contest will
take place for a year. This gives time
for recuperat:on, but under what condi-
tions will the rank and file fall into line
III best shape for the heavy work that
will be asked at their hands? After all
other features of the upheaval have been
considered and discussed this question
will overshadow all others in its import
ance and significance. Putting aside
the right or the wrong of this or that
faction, all who center their hopes in the
future of Republicanism will admit that
the very first step in reorganization is to
reassure the great army of voters.
Those most concerned in the recent fac
tional fights may be expected to nurse
their resentments and to uncover the
secret intr;gues of each other, but the
mass of the party cannot be kept face TO
face with the mistakes or blunders of a
canvass that resulted so disastrously.
Had the Republican party never be-
| fore INDUCED in eccentricities the wild
| freak might well create dismay. But in
the trying days of 1862, when the rebel
armies were overrunning Maryland and
threatening Washington. and when Lin
I coin had issued his emancipation proc
lamation, the party that had elected the
President was defeated at the polls
Maine. New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois, the States of
Blaine, Seward, Cameron, Chase, Nor
ton and Lincoln, all gave Democratic
majorities. The surprising, startling
result was paraded by the Democrats as
! a rebuke to President Lincoln, and a
condemnation of the war policy of the
/ Republican party. Soldiers sat around
their camp-tires dazed, distressed, and
discouraged, and the stanchest of the
Union men at home were troubled with
misgivings, and puzzled by questions no
one could answer. Were the loyal peo-
pie opposed to the war? Did they dis
/ approve of the emancipation proclama-
tion? Were they dissatisfied with the
removal of McClellan? Or did the peo-
pie of the great war States distrust
President Lincoln?
However it might be, there was one
man who made no complaint and in
dulged in no recrimination. That man
was President Lincoln, and he went on
doing the best he could, and murmur-
| ing not at the dissatisfaction of the peo-
pie. And the people themselves after
that exhibition of irritableness became so
heartily ashamed of themselves that in
1868 every one of the States named
above gave overwhelming Republican
maiorities, and in 1854 every one voting
squarely on the issue of 1862 (the policy
of Lincoln as against that of McClellan)
gave tremendous majorities for the man
for whom it was said the rebuke of 1862
had been intended. The plain truth
was that the people were dissatisfied in
1862 because they could not under
stand the President nor comprehend the
difficult es in his way nor the magni-
tude OF his undertaking.
In 1856 and 1867 Johnson's change of
policy threw the Republican party for q
time into such confusion as promised
certain disasters. but the people sepa-
rated the man from the party and re-
buked johnson bytriumphantly elec:ing
Grant in 1858.
In 1874 there was q reaction from the
intense party feeling of 1872, and
through indifference or dissatisfaction
on the part of Republicans, Massa-
chnsetts, Indiana. New York, Ohio and
Pennsylvania gave democratic MAORI
ties. This was then regarded as a re-
buke to Grant, but curiously enough in
1875 Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and
Ohio gave Republican maiorities.
In 1876 the factions of the party made
treaty of peace over the nomination
of Hayes, and in 1877 New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, went
sguarely against the party that had
elected him. The dissatisfaction then
was with the Pres. dents Southern pol
icy, and when this cause had been re-
moved the. party got in good shape for
the fight in 1880, and. after bitter
fight among the factions, buried the
batchet in the nomination of Garfield.
The revolt of 1882. however, is like
none that preceded it. While some pi
the reliable Republican States have slip
ped their cables, no two have had the
same reason for indulging in the
eccentricity. St John was not defeated
in Kansas for the same reason that
Folger was in New York, and
certainly the Republican candidate for
Governor in Michigan was not slaugh.
tered for the same reason that Beaver
was in Pennsylvania. The quarrel in
p Ohio was not between Administration
men and nti-Administrat;on men, mol
was it in Indiana or Kansas or Michi-
gan.
There are several States on the sick
list, and each will require a different
medicine ON the shape of restorative.
The New York experts who know al
} about their own sore spots should moi
insist on pouring their medic ne dowr
The throa.s of Republicans in Ind ana OF
Michigan or Kansas. Every possible
experiment in the way of high jinks ha:
been tried, and if Republicans are no
heartily ashamed of the record made
: they ought TO be. he hope for 1884 lies
in the probability that the party, having
gone to extremes in the wav of ode
capers, will now settle down to business
-ChicdJO Inter Ocean.
One of the tricks for the evasion O