National Republican., 1883-02-21
How ,l,c Party Can IInrmonize,

How the Party Can HRrmOnize.
We hear much of tho need of harmony in
the republican party. Differences of opinion
are less common among reasoning people than
d ilorent uses of terms. The term party must
he understood, as a number Of citizens holding
similar views upon what seem to them the
lading questions of public policy. As any Of
the members lose interest in those questions
they seek to substitute others and failing to
secure attention TO what seems TO them of
first Importance, they drop out Of the ranks.
To illustrate: The bank and tariff
questions engrossed the whig and dcmoSa
ciatic parties from 1880 60 1916. From
1916 to 1860 slavery extension and nas
tional protection for il became democracy,
and every shade of opposition to these objects
contributed to tho formation of the republic
eau party. From 1860 to 1865 what question
but that of peace or war could be heard
From 1865 to 1875 the struggle was between
the two great parties to the civil war as to
which should prove that IL had secured the
advantage in that struggle The people led
the politicians, and tramped out all mere =
CSpedients Andrew johnson, who started
tho cry that "rcbels must take back seats in
the work ofroconstruction," and that "trcason
must be made odious,' voiced the hot wrath
of the union lcgions just from the
lattlefclds of rebellion, and when he
saw fit to recant and to receive rs political
friends the men for whose blood he had
clamorcd, he found his administration
wrecked in the elections and his "policy"
hurled under two-thrds vote of each house
Of congress. The party of "radicalism "
lated no jot Of its determination until in tho
southern states the temporary governments
erected in hostility TO the victorious nation
we're displaced by permanent ones framed by
The votes of those who had been for
Tho Union as well as those who had
been for the Confederacy, and by those who
had been slaves as well as those who had
been masters, and until these new govern
ments had been declared legitimate by con-
gress, the supreme political power. The mo-
montum Of this work did not cease until, in
the Union thus reconstructed, the civil and
political rights of citizens were secured by
constitutional amendments, and the incarna-
tion of the national feeling, Ulysses S. Grant,
had been for a second time declared the
choice of the nation for the chief magistracy.
From 1861 TO 1872 certainly there was har-
mony among enough people to produce a
series Of military and political successes which
marked an epoch in the history Of the world
But there was not, during all this time,
harmony in the republican party if by that
it is meant that men of conflicting views must
be brought to an agreement on exciting
questions of policy or Of personal pre-
ferment. The mon who did agree
carried the people with them, and
the dissenters, great and small, were left out
of consideration. The detection of President
johnson in 1866, although backed by the great
names of Seward and Chase and the lesser ones
,lof Doolittle, Browning Stansbery, Evarts,
Raymond, and a host of previously powerful
llocal leaders, only intensified the people in
their devotion to the views which were the
wanting in harmony marched on to victory
with increased numbers, because it upheld
tho ideas which tho PEOPLE had determined
should triumph. The people who did har-
monize became the party, and the men who
refused to harmonic went into the opposi-
tion, where they were powerless for harm.
What this generation is most interested in,
next to the protection of all American indus
tries, is the firm establishment of the UNION
for which such sacrifices have been made, and
the fulfllment of the hopes which were
aroused by the new constitutional guarantees
of civil and political freedom. The peda-
| gogue and his pupils need not neglect their
"sums," the solutions Of which are to be pass
II ports for adolescence into place, but the peo'
H pie of this great nation would have
4 already decayed if they could not be
aroused to tho impending danger OF
| tho restoration of the bourbons to power
n Not incompetent clerks, expensive scrub
| pers, shoTV hOurs VI ucP"iV VihehU ehiPioyhehV,
| or influence of leaders over followers-none
of these loom up, threatening national destruC-
tion. The great danger, for the prevention Of
which the people would gladly rally if leader;
would call, Is that VIII ich would come from the
return to power, for purposes of roprisal and
revenge upon the nation, of the bourbon
haters of free schools and lovers of free trade
Upon tho subject of opposition to this calamity
republicans can unite. Hopefully engaged in
this work, harmony would reign, even among
the men who differed in 1880 as to the presi
DENTAL nomination.
Claiming Il All.
An evening paper Is a lively bird that sit.