The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-04-04
The Democratic Majority.
prospect before the Demo

party, with its large majority In the
House of Representatives at the next
session, is not q particularly brilliant
one. he responsibilities which faH
upon the party-which. indeed, have
a ready fallen upon it-are not sucn ss
it Is prepared to meet Certainly 1t
cannot be sail to have met tn m n the
measure that they were developed dur
ing the past session with either courage
sagacity. or consistency. The two
que -tions as to which the party WIS
called upon TO take definite post on.
from which its policy conld De judged.
we the reform OF the Civil Service and
the reform of the tariff. II was d ssst-
isIactiOn with the course OF the Repub-
licans as TO these questions which. more
than anything else rave the Democrats
their surpr sing and unexpected victory
in the elecl ons OF last fail, Yet on
nei her o; these have the Democrats
shown themselves capable or desirous
of salts. .ying the demands of public
opinion. On the contrary, the only
serio IS opposit on t) the law for the re
form of the Civil ser ice which has Just
been ,.assed, or to tn T'incipie on which
that law is based. came from the emo
Gratis. 1t is true tn 1t there were many
Democratic votes for the bill, an I that
3tNcEd DCLh4OCLdb-C OChoOOAo tn11C "a
cellent arguments in its avor, but it is
also trIe that Brown and voorhees,
were he leaders OF the opposition. and
hat the WI gar and greedy tone of their
utterances found an echo in the Demo
cratic press.
On the tariff the action of the Demo
Gratis has been hating and divided
Mr.. Beck stood almost alone in the Sem
ate for the principle of a revenue tariff,
and the efforts OF Messrs- arlisle, Nor
rison an I Tucker, in the House. were
feebly SUI ported from heir own side.
In neither branch of Congress did the
Democrats have any concerted policy,
and they were quite unable. even when
opposing Republican propositions, to
bring forward any practicable substi-
tute, or even to indicate any INTEL gible
principle on which q substitute could
be framed. They had leaders, and in
the House especially these leaders were
men of force and conviction AMI char
acter, but there was no leadership, be-
cause there was no disciplined or req
sonably harmon ous following. The
fact that the Speakership of the next
House was at axe ought to have in
ducel the Demo rats to arrange them
selves in some ective manner, but it
split them up, domoralized and par
alyzed them A party which goes to
pieees the m Iment it is required to
choose q leader, is in a bad way. 1t
approaches the moment of action un-
prepared to act. Already the 5 eaker-
ship is the sub ect of bitter con, ention.
and each a lion is denouncing the 9TH
er much more heartily than IL is oppos-
ing the mon enemy. On the NOR
row of adjournment the voice of Mr..
Abram S. Hewitt is raised to warn his
party that it will be ruined If it doe
precisely what there Is ev, ry reason 10
ex ect that It will do 1t is the voice
of CasSandra, despised and ridicu ed by
those in whose ears it is ringing; hut
the roian pro hetess was right, after
all. and those who sneered at her pre-
dict ons were crushed under their re j.
Lation.
There is no room for the conclusion
that the diilicu ties which beset the
Democratic party will lessen wi b the
Iassage OF time. They will rather in
crease. iecisions much more impor-
tant than those presented at the late
session of Congress will be constantly
pressing upon them. and there is no in.
iii at on that they can be met with any
greater degree eof-resolution- 1 he work
o the next session of Co lgress. SO 81
as concerns the Democrats. will be to
make positive record on which to go
be ore the people n the great ! at onal
election of next year. From what ma
ter al will they make it9 In what di.
rection will they turn their efforts? II
j. impossible to say. 4 he Republ cans
have not done all that they ought tc
have done, but they have done enough
to leave very little Tor the Dem Gratis tc
do. /, nd that Ii tie the latter will find II
very di cut to do. They could not Il
they were willing to do so, e tend ma
terially the re o m pr ncip'e in the pub
lie service. On the contrary. they are
much more likely to violate that princi-
pie in the treatment of the oi.ces lie tic
the disposal. Thev could not if they
w shed lake up the tariff again and
make a more thorough revision n the
d rect on of reform, 'or they are not suf.
ficiently united with reference to il.
They might bring about considerable re.
ductions in expend lures. but they are
not likely to do so. They are much
more ] kelly to push internal ''im rove
ments' to an extravagant extent.
Yet purely mega i've opposition and
| persistency in barren criticism viii avail
them very little. II. as is probable,
| judging by the past, the energies of the
more conservative and enlightened
leaders of the party are exhausted in
| preventing their followers from commit
ting some extIaord nary folly, Iht
liam of the party on the confidence ol
the people will not be or atty strength.
| ened Meanwh lie the attitude the
great body of independent citizens will
| be one OF critical scrutiny not unm xed
with suspicion, and it will be extremely
| interesting 10 see how tn will be sup.
ported by the party which finds itsel
in partial possession of the National