Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-08-07

Republicans Of Ohio, and elsewhere,
seem to find something fascinating in
harping upon the fact that Judge Hoad-
ley, the Democratic candidate for Gov
ernor Of that State, was once Republi-
can. We are not aware that there is
anything peculiar In the fact except
that the conversion of Judge Hoadley,
and OF so many thousands Of American
citizens who were also for time Repub-
licans, shows conclusively the drift Of
political opinion among those members
Of that organization think with their
own heads, and who are not enthrallod
TO political masters, nor any longer car
ried away by partisan cries now only
empty words. Those men have acted
with the Republican party so long as, in
their opinion, IL advocated principles In
which an honest, though misguided, man
could believe; for, as said Carlyle, the
truth is to each one Of us that which he
believes to be true. But, as has been
well said by the able editor of the st.
Louis Republican.
Republicanism has outlived its time.
II has grown fat, rich, indolent, pr oili-
gate, tolerant Of abuses, unprogressivo.
II is not an old partyi but no other party
ever made better use of its time in en-
ricbing itself and it's followers. IL start
cd out as radical party, and challenged
the support of the masses by its bold
avbwal OF uptuning politics. But IL
dropped this habit when its leaders
grew rich, and became transformed from
seedy adventures into millionaires, and
for fifteen years IL has affected a moneyed
conservatism, and so entaneled itself
with alliances with capitalists and cor
porations as TO estrango the popular
sympathy. is is decaying party. IL
has not even managed TO retain the sup
port of tho southern negroes, whom it
claims to have emnncipated. Its follow
ing grows smaller and smaller every
year; one by one It loses the States
where it was once all-powerful; and II
looks now as II one more Presidential cam
paign would finish il as n national party"
Nor is the disintegration Of the Repub.
hcan party new thing; it had its be-
ginning almost at the timo of the birth
Of that organization. 1t is very sig
nificant fact that, with one exception
only, every member of Mr.. Lincoln's
original cabinet left the Republic an
party. For score of years the Repub-
lican ranks have been recruited mainly
by blatant politicians, while the states
men who once gave it q place before the
people have been leaving it. The very
TACT that they have dono so while that
party still controls the nation; while its
leaders, though for a rapidly lessening
time, yet have place and power to be-
stow, proves beyond cavil their sincerity.
To him who has watched closely the po-
litical signs of the times, this movement
has the force and grandeur characteriz-
ing in the physical world the irresistible
sweep of the avalanche. Slowly moving
at first, it gathers to itself particle after
particle until, pressing steadily onward,
it carries with it at length every moving
thing adjacent. So, when the political
calender of the coming year shall have
come and passed, we shall behold even the
reduced Pr@torian legion, till then faith
ful to Domnitian, most eager to engae in
the work of throwing from its pedestal
every image of the tyrant dethroned
and dead.