The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1883-02-17

In the year. 1872 the misdeeds O
General Grant's Administration becam,
90 intolerable rs to threaten the over
throw. If not the destruction, of the Re
publican party. Its chief leaders ant
friends demanded reform, but their do
mand was treated with contempt b,
the mercenaries who represented thu
President, and Charles Sumner and thu
galaxy of men who joined him were
obliged to prosecute Their aim from .
position outside the party they had q
long served and honored. The revolt
was formidable one. and the move.
ment inaugurated at Cincinnati, with
| Charles Francis Adams as its standard.
bearer. might have ayerted the dispen-
sation of organized plumber and theft
which have nee so wocfully afflicted
every branch of the Civil Service. But
this was not to be. George William
Curtis and the Republican reformers OF
his type demanded reform within the
party" and could not tolerate the idea
of boiling. They said the way to re.
form the party was to stay in it, and
that to join the Democrats. or unite in
forming a new party. would only open
the way for the return of the rebels to
power. The Republicans had put down
the rebellion and emancipated the
slaves. and it was better to endure the
maladministration OF the Government
under Grant than to surrender the
country to the enemy. The same cry
was raised in 1876. The work of ..re-
form within the party" had made no
Roadway. and Crantism. with all that
that word implied. had more complete
ly than ever secured the control OF the
party; but the same policy OF reform
ing from within was still insisted upon.
and the same reprobation of boiling
was everywhere pronounced. The
rebels must be kept out of power and
the fruits of the war preserved, and this
could only be done by loyalty support
ing the old organization.
The organs and the leaders played
the same old tune in 1880. and the Re-
publican hosts kept step to the same
music. 1t looked as il this deplorable
party infatuation would be able to per-
petuate itself indefinitely. and by the
power of the spoils and the skillful use
OF the machine, esta rsh a political serf-
dom oyer the people from which there
could be no peaceable escape.
But great light has finally dawned
upon the md, and 1882 sends its greet
ing to 1872. Reform within the
party is as "a tale that is told" Mr..
Curts gives it up. and his fellow labor
ers and fellow boilers are now numbered
by thousands and even hundreds of
thousands. The lenders of these inde-
pendent masses tell us that their act ON
is like that of the " Conscience Whiys''
and Free Sellers thirty-four years ago,
and that " reform within the party" can
best be accomplished by its overthrow.
They say that as long as party sue
ceeds by corrupt methods and unprinci-
pied leaders, it will continue and wax
stronger in its evil ways, and that the
first thing to be done is to crush it.
This is exactly what the Republican
boilers of 1872 told their political
brethren, and it was Just as true then as
it is TO-DAY. But slime makes more
converts than reason" II took the old
Wings long while to find out that the
Free Sellers were right; hut at last they
made the discovery, and were glad to
be admitted into the new communion.
So it has taken the Republican boilers
OF 1852 ten years to find out that the
men they SO bitterly denounced in 1872
were right, and that boltiny is divine
but they have At last
been enlightened, while they have album +
liant reason for following in the foot
steps of their Wing predecessors in their I
future political action. The change is \
wonderful. The elections of this year
will be remembered as . great epoch in
American politics. They show that the
sober second thought of the people can
be trusted, and strengthen the faith Of
good men in popular institutions. What 4
! pity it is that Greeley and Sumner
could not have lived to witness their
'plendid vindication in the political
of 1882! 1t is almost enough
Q make them turn over in their graves.
They were hunted to death because they
ebelled against the political buccaneers
It the party helm. They were in
olently reminded that 1.-THE Republican
'arty is stronger than any man in the
'arty," and that they must obey its
riders or be shot as deserters. They :,
we're branded as apostates. rebels and
enegades; but they were right, aster
H. and history has already so made its
ecord, while Cameron. Conkling and
he other once famous Republican bosses
ave tumb'ed themselves and their
Machine into q common ditch. Let us ,
ejoice
This rout of the Republicans is final. ,
hey talk about rallying their forces for
mother engagement, but they do not |
0lieV0 their own Uorda THAI f<<,1 <h.< :