Daily globe., 1882-06-16
ST. PAUL. FRIDAY. JUNE 1s. 1889.
POLITICAL UPHEATALS.

cal upheavals of 40 and so and in the elec-
tion OF Harrison aud Pierce to the Chief
Magistracy of the country, were OF minor
Importance in their bearing on the political
and material interests. OF the country when
compared with the causes which precipitated
the conflict between the Grant and Blaine po-
litical interests at the Chicago conven-
ton in 1SS0-the first signal defeat
of the hero of Appomatto1-and the su5se-
quent nomination of Gen. Garfield as the
standard bearer of the Republicans in that
memorable campaign. The issues on which
the opposing parties went to the country in
the campaigns of '32 and 'S6 went not only to
the integrity, but even to the very existence of
the government itself. The signal triumph
Of the policy of the Democratic party on both
occasions eliminated from the politics OF that
day the cause but not the effect of popular
discomfort; and the people in 1S40,
with the effects of the panic
OF 'S7 yet staring them in the face and for
getting that the heroic treatment to which
the Democracy resorted in SO was essential
to the life of the nation, sought relief in
change in the administration of the govern
son, the Whig candidate. The evanescent
causes, however, which led to Gen. Harrison's
election were buried with him few weeks
after his inauguration, and the
Vice-President, Mr.. Tyler, made no
effort during the term of his Office to defend
the political policy to which he was indebted
for the position he held, but on the contrary,
pursued the reverse policy. The election in
'36 resulted IN divorcing the financial inter-
ests of the government from those of the
national bank, ard the permanent establish
ment of the present treasury system. The
remedy under the circumstances was q radical
one, but its application was essential to the
independence of the legislative department
of the government, if not the
independence OF the government itself, and
the wisdom of the measure is sanctioned by
the experience of the last half century'of our
national life. To the subsequent withdrawal
of the notes of the defunct bank from general
circu alton, was no doubt due the more serious
phases of the panic of 1887, the effects OF
which were still te be seen and felt, three
years later when the Wings took advantage OF
the prostrated condition OF the CONNER
cial industrial interests of the
country to ele ct Gen. Harrison to the Presl
dency The disiutegration Of the Whig party
may be stated to have commenced at the close
of the campaign of 1S40-a campaign con.
Quoted from first to last under false pretensss,
and from the fatal consequences of which it
only temporarily rallied in '4S to expire on the
accession of Mr.. Pierce to the Presidency in
1852.
The causes which led to the dissensions in
the Republican party in rs, the
defeat OF Mr.. Blaine at Cincinnati
and the nomination of Hayes-followed
by the nomination of Gen. Garfield four years
later-were in many essential particulars not
dissimilar to the causes which led to the de-
moralization OF the Whig party during the
administration of President Taylor, and its
final dissolution in 1852. The demoralizing
influence of the National Bank on the govern
ment, from the date OF its organization to its
final overthrow in 1886, was far less fatal to
the vigor and integrity of the Republic than
the bayonet policy of the Republican party
enforced in the Southern States subsequent to
the full restoration of their relations with
the Federal government. The enforcement
of the provisions of the act
OF March ID, 1867, marks an era in the his
tory of this country when the "higher law"
announced by Mr.. Seward was recognized by
the legislative department of the government
as The supreme law of the land. Mr.. Stevens
and in fact the representative men of the
Republican party generally-never claimed for
the Reconstruction Acts the sanction OF the
Constitution. The repudation of this
policy by President Hayes in 1876,
taken in connection with the frauds
that were resorted to by his party
in order to seat him, and followed by the de-
feat OF the bayonetrule faction of the Repub-
lican party at the Chicago convention in 1880,
was undoubtedly the Inauguration of the dis
integration Of the Republican party. The
Hayes. Garfield policy, and the Tyler policy, re-
cogni1ed the fact that the Republican and Whig
parties had outlived their days of usefulness.
The Republican party has temporarily rallied
from the frauds of '76 and the
bloody drama which made possible the
present administration; but that it has sur
vived the days of its usefulness, and is now in
the haze of dissolution. is so patent that even
"he who runs" may read as one OF the con-
spicuous signs in the political horizon of the
countrv