The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1883-06-20
The Partr Outlook.


Of his proper way to remark that 4" the
Democrats are about to take control of
the country Similar observations
drop now and then, we notice, from the
careless lips of other Republican states
men who have resumed their law prac-
tice. Almost every dav i'm Washington,
some one of these melancholy patriots
shakes his slow, conclusive finger in the
face of the country and declares that
the Democratic party can hardly fail to
elect the next President There are
even occasional cases of men in Office,
and therefore presumably of good di-
gestion, who voice this gloomy view Of
the situation; and altogether the thing
is getting to be a trihe tiresome, not to
say provoking The prophet of evil is
disagreeable at BEST which is at a dis
tanCe; but when considered at a short
range and as family boarder, he is apt
to take on in time the suggestion of a
nuisance.
1t would be different if these croalz-
ers furnished any valid reason in justi-
tication of their lugubriOus fOrebodings.
But they do not. They simply stand
around and eXclaim, like Launcelot
Gobbo: "Be of good cheer, for truly
yOu are damn'd" If asked to specify
the facts which warrant such a cOnclu-
sion, they toss their wise heads in air
and 90 to talking about last year
birds nests. Their grounds Of appre-
hension, when put to the test, usually
prove to be the outcome of personal
disappointment, and a queer hallucina-
tion that because their services have
been dispensed with the party can not
expect to continue in business. They
do not themselves always realize that
such is the essence of their philosophy;
but other people may easily find it out.
1t seems never to occur to men of this
kind that parties do not go up and
down as individual ambitions are graft
fed or frustrated. Their mistake lies
in miscalculating the connection be-
tween their own little speculations and
the general scheme of the universe.
The candid observer looking abroad
for signs that ''the Democrats are
about to take control of the country
will have considerable difficulty, we
think, in finding them. 1t is true that
the Democrats will be dominant in the
next House of Representatives; but that
has happened hefore, and still they
have not secured control of the country.
1t is also true that the Democrats
elected several more Governors last fall
than usual, but the circumstances
which contributed to that result were
not of the kind that indicated a popular
intention to restore the Democratic
party to National power two years later.
The Republicans who bolted or staid at
home in 1882 did not do so because they
had turned Democrats or thought for a
moment of voting a Democratic ticket
in 1884 They had other reasons for
their conduct: and it is far more likely,
from general appearances, that the effect
has been a wholesome one on their own
party than that it has veXed the sky with
an assurance that "the Democrats are
about to take control of the country"
Since its pronounced and terrible de-
feat in the last Presidential election, the
Democratic party has certainly done
nothing to inspire respect for its char
acter or confidence in its purposes. 1t
is in all senses the same party that it
was when that unmistakable verdict
was rendered. The same men are at
the head of it, the same infamous rec
ord behind it, the same crawling and
sinister influences at the heart of it.
Every argument employed against it in
the Garfield-HancOck campaign is
equally as applicable to it now. There
is not single thing to be said in its
defense to-day that was left unsaid
Them and after hearing it all the people
declared it insufficient with an empha-
sis that signifed not disapprOval sim
ply, but downright aversion. The atti-
tude o, the patriotic, intelligent and
progressive majority of American citi-
zenS toward that party has been plainly
and systematically shown every four
years since the first election of Lincoln.
These quadrennial judgments are not
to be accounted for on any other theory
than that of a settled and well-dehned
hostility to the Democratic Organiza-
ton. 1t is idle, therefore, to talk about
the people deliberately spiting them
selves and repudiating their own splen-
did and consistent triumphs by permit
ting such party to "take control of the
country
The Republican party has not avoided
making mistakes or escaped acting the
fool 1t has been undulv headstrOng at
times, and forgetful of the gracious vir-
tue of prudence. With all its derelic-
llDuos uOMtNtI1 IL Has tblluuClGu lut
Government for half a lifetime with
more of wisdom, integrity and frugal
ity in the main than was ever known be-
fore. There is infinitely more to be said
for it than the bitterest ObiectOrs can
fairly allege against it; and in compari-
son with its unsavory and shameless adj
versary it shines out like star of the
first magnitude. If it has blundered, it
has also manifested the disposition and
the capacity to correct itself, and to har-
mOnize its actions with the admonitions
of an enlightened and conscientious
public opinion. The story of its services
in behalf of liberty, philanthropy and
| human happiness is the proudest to be
/ found in National annals any
where Granting the whole burden of
| its faults and shortcomings, with a
/ liberal allowance for the sake of argu-
ment, the beneiicence and glory Of its
achievements must still be esteemed in
| comparable. To say that the loyal and
thinking people who compose this party
and have a personal share in its history
are preparing to abandon it and trans
| fer the control of the country to the
very elements that they have been re-
| sisting and overcoming for nearly a
| quarter of a century is not only to
question their patriotism, but to im-
| pugn their common sense. The
. prophets with a dyspepsia win confer a
general favor by recognizing the fact
that a little modest stiffness and hui
! uiIit,5'i op their MART yvou1d u1uch hot