The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-07-20
IN. Y. Tribune.1
Reasons For Being a Republican.

IWenty-S1X years ago, Wnen young
man asked why he should join the Re
publican party, he was answered:
"Because it means Free Soil, Free
Speech and Free Men," Twenty
years ago, when young man asked
the same question, he was answered:
Because it means loyalty to the
Union and defeat to a slaveholers' re-
bellion." Fifteen years ago, when
young man asked the same question,
he was answered: Because it means
loyal government in every State, based
upon impartial suffrage" Eight years
ago began the struggle Of repudiators
and paper money infationists to seize
the Government, and the battle for
public honor and honest money con-
tinued until the Republican party tri-
umphed in specie resumption, in the
grand prosperity which followed, in
the election of President Garfield, and
in the funding of S7OO,OOO,O0O of pub
lie debt at 81 per cent. within a few
weeks. Now what is to be answered
when a sincere young man asks:
'Why should [ become Republi
camp"
The history of the country suggests
one sufficient reason: Because it is
worth while to guard and keep the
fruits Of grand deeds in the past.
Freedom in the Territories was worth
much, but the Democratic party arm
ed border-ruffians against it. The
Union was we'll worth the life-blood
of our bravest and best. but every
man Of those who shot them down,
and fired upon the flag, and resisted
the authority Of the United States,
was a Democrat. There could be no
freedom for all without equal suf-
frage, but the Democrat party con-
tended then and still contends for a
white mans government. Repudia-
ton would have dishonored, wrecked
and cursed the land, but every repudi-
ator was Democrat or gravitated to
the Democratic party as his natural
home. To this day that party de-
nounces resumption as wrong, and
would undo the work if it could, as it
has shown in hundreds Of votes. 1t
is not true that every grand achieve
ment of the Republican party can
still be undone. Some Of them have
so changed the National life, and so
imbedded themselves in the very foun-
dation walls of the Government, that
no return to Democratic theories or
practices is possible. Slavery cannot
be in form reestablished, though Dem
ocratic laws might easily make colored
labor free only in name. The Union
can never be broken by secession into
warning fragments, but the Solid
South keeps alive, controls and owns
the Democratic party, and gives it the
only chance of success it has, and
Democratic victory would merely
mean the gray above the blue-a cap
ture of the Union by those who tried
to break it and failed. Reputation,
initiation, return to dishonored prom
ises having forced circulation as mon
ey,-all these are possible and proba-
bic results of Democratic success.
But youth often thinks lightly of
preserving the results Of past heroism.
To many young man it seems Ger
tain that the past is safe, and infinite
ly necessary that he should find a new
duty, and room for new heroism in
the present and the future. Be it so!
For such a man, honest, patriotic and
eager to make his country better by
his political activity, the Republican
party only offers field for work. To
Join the Democratic party is to go
down among the dead men at once,
and to chain ones self to the dead
,no,+ forovor Not tn q mast of rood
deeds nobly done, but to a past of cru
elty and treason, assassination and
perjury, dishonor and chronic defeat.
Above that past. the Democratic party
never rises. By it the better impulses
of the party are overborne, its best
aims are defled, it's ADLER men debased,
and all its action is shaped. He who
wants to do anything good for the
country must act in and through some
other party, or miserably fail.
1t is the Immediate mission of the
Republican party to make self-gov-
eminent real. For years suffrage has
been cheat and elections a farce, in
many of the States. There can be nc
other duty higher or more pressing
than to make sure that hencefortE
there shall be a free vote and an hon
est count for every citizen in every
part of the land. The problem is one
of exceeding difficulty ,and will re.
, quire, as it is well worth, the most pa
tient efforts of the ablest men. 1t i:
no child's play to establish real free
dom of elections in regions where /
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