The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-06-30


that the two great parties differ wide
Iy in their tendencies and aims as In
those questions. Yet it seems quite
impossible to get the issue sharply
made as to either of them, so that the
plainest voter must perforce under
stand it.
The difficulty is not with the Re-
publican party. Either because of its
courage, as its friends claim and
many of its foes admit, or because
of its shrewdness in judging of the
public will, or because its aims could
not have been concealed through
many years of full control of the Coy
eminent, it is at any rate the fact
that no person of common sense can
be in the dark as to the purpose of
that party. It seeks honest govern
ment, because for twenty years it has
exposed without hesitation and pres
ecuted without mercy, not only mis-
behaving adversaries, but evil-doers,
however high and influential, in its
own ranks. 1t seeks reform of civil
service, because it has enacted law
framed by the advocates of that re-
form and intrusted its execution to
it's known and active friends. 1t seeks
protection of American ind1sRy
through a discriminating tariff, De-
cause every act to that end that has
been passed for the last forty yars
has been passed almost who'll by
Republican votes, sustained b Re
publican organizations and erorced
by Republican administrations Thus
it is simply impossible for aman of
common sense to doubt whafhe ten
dency or aim of the Republican party
is on those questions.
The trouble now and all ne time is
that the Democratic parry tries to
hide its tendencies and aims. 1t
claims to be something which its
acts prove that it is not. 1T contrives
false issues to seduce voters who
would otherwise support the Repub-
lican policy. 1t plays juggler's
game with tricks of words, puts up
as candidates men who represent
nothing but its desire for Office, and
takes as its leaders men who are
strong protectionists in Massachu-
sets or Pennsylvania and men who
are strong free-traderS in Kentucky
or Indiana. Again and again the
people have condemned this course
as a dishonest one. But the party
still sticks to it, and seems likely to
do so in the next Presidential cleo
ton. Many times we have warned
that party that trickery and evasion
would not pay, that the people of
this country did not like it, and that
more of them would vote for bad
cause frankly and manfully upheld
than for any knavish attempt to get
the favor both of those who favor and
of those who oppose it. But the par
ty has gone on, year after year, in
elaborate trickery to assured defeat.
There is chance in the Ohio cleo
ton to take new departure. 1t is
but justice to the Democrats of that
State to say that they have three
times tried to screw their party up
to more manly course. They set
up Vallandigham, as a representa-
tive of "peace at any price," and it
was courageous if not a very loyal
thing to do. They set up Pendleton,
and proposed payment of bonds in
greenbacks, which was as plucky as
the course proposed would have been
runious. They set up Allen and EW-
ing, and declared fatty for soft mon
ey and against specie resumption.
The enormous vote that they polled
was evidence that manly course
was appreciated, even though the
people were not quite ready to wreck
their prosperity and their honor on
the treacherous sands of "fiat mon
ey.' If the Democrats of Ohio have
the courage of their convictions again,
and wish to lift their party to some
thing like a manly attitude, they
will adopt platform something like
this:
L. Resolved, That any duty levied
for the purpose of protection wrongs
millions of consumers for the benefit
of few producers. A tariff that shall
raise necessary revenue with the least
possible tax upon consumers or dis
elimination between producers is the
only one that Government has any
right to impose.
II. RESOLVED, That public offices
ought to be given exclusively to the
party that has been intrusted by the
people with the charge of the Gov.
eminent. Those who are most zeal
Gus and effective in the work of that
party should be placed in Office as a
means of giving the party greater
strength.
III. To secure for the Democratic
party full control of the Government
of the United States is the HIGHEST