National Republican., 1883-04-02
The Faction OF Dcfemers.

In the days when the republican party had
sented ideas and followed great leaders, 1t had
grand triumps. When, in 1860, it was but
the instrumentality of the people who would
no longer submit tos tho government owned
by single material interest il made Abraham
Lincoln president, and reelected him whilo
yet the resistance to his first election was un-
subdued. In 1865 it vindcated tho cause
of the union by giving the hero of the
war all but so of the electoral votes, and in
1872 it rebulsed the ISLANDERS of him by giving
him 300 of the 366 electoral votes
From the date of Grants second election
until now-commencing with Mr. Blaine's
motion in December 1872. to investigate the
Credit Mobilicr and coming down to the latest
inquiries as to the relations OF guano to diplo-
macy in Chilli and Peru-the people have been
republican who has caught some other republi-
can robbinghen roosts or sucking eggs. ours"
complaccntly said Il republican member on
the floor of the house, sis the only party
which has ever punished its thieves" refer
ring at the time to the members charged with
having been bribed by OalSes Ames, Proudly
have statesmen of this pattern boasted of the
party thieves, as though these were acting in
their party capacity and We're being punished
by patriots at the party's hurt in the same
noble spirit of justice which made the Roman
magistrate inAict cruel punishment upon
his offending son.
So common did it become for such individ-
uals to descant on the total depravity of the
republican party, and to base upon their un-
supported assertions an argument for having
the government placed under their control
that thousands of unthinlSing people believed
their monstrous tales and went over to the
opposition. These defamers now offer to
take the republican party itself in charge and
to convince the people that it ought to be
further intrusted with power. it would
harbor such vermin it ought to be ground to
powder.
1t suffered defeat last fall because IL re-
fused to defend itself. The torrents of filthy
obloquy which poured out of the journalistic
sewers upon the republican candidates was
said by those who raised the sewer gates to be
necessary tonic for the party, and the me-
phitic gases which accompanied it were said
4. l., Gal 1n1
ozone. They fooled us TO tho top of our bent
1t is time TO take issue with these enemies
The republican party cannot live at all if il
is to live only by the permission of that low
grade of journalism which gives public men
the choice of being eithor owned and dis
honorably used or foully slandered by the
desperadoes who infest it,
If the party would repeat its grand victory
of 1872 let it appeal to the people, as it did
then on the ground of past services, good
character, good doctrine, and good aims, and
not, as it has lately done, base its claims OF
| profcssed rottenness and the leadership of IL
slandorers. If any considerable portion o
what forms the common staple of metropolitan
newspaper comment ON republican men, meas
ures, and purposes is true tho word "repub
lican" ought to be blotted from the language
and every man who ever figured in the part,
ought to be held up to public oxecration. /
the party is fit to live, then its dofamers ar
10 be denounced instead of accepted as coun
selors,
The republicans who refused to vote in Ney
York last fall were divided between thOs