Mexico weekly ledger., 1883-01-25
THURSDAY, JAN. %, 1888.
LATEST PHASE OF BOSSISM.

LATEST PHASE OF BOSSISM.
In the present condition of the
Republican party, it may be taken
for granted that every matter agltat-
ing it sustains some relation to the
advancement of one Of its factions.
Great significance, therefore, attaches
to the recent action of the national
committee of that organization affirm
ing its existing basis of representation
in presidential conventions, and con-
filming the call for that of 1884 to
those who favor protection and pledge
themselves in advance to support
whatever candidate may be selected
for them.
There was abundant evidence be-
fore the committee that the majority
of the northern rank and file of the
Republican party are tired of having
presidential candidates forced upon
them by delegates from districts that
send Democrats to Congress, and the
refusal to give them stronger repre-
sentation indicates determination on
the part of the bosses to run the gov
eminent, with the help of Southern
Republicans in the future, as has been
done in the past; but this policy on
their part, to be successful, must at
least be acquiesced in by the great
Republican states at the North. If
these withhold assent, nothing short
of permanent division or subsistence
of bossism can issue.
In taking this step the bosses seem
to have ignored the fact that at no
time have Northern Republicans de-
sired a powerfully concentrated gov
eminent gathering enormous annual
revenues for purposes outside the
constitution, marshaled by bosses
and sub-bosses, and sustained upon
the hastings and at elections by on
tributions from overpaid officials and
supernumeraries. Everything of that
sort has been tolerated by them IN
the past only on account of COM
plications that were supposed to in
volve the safety Of the union. Neither
was the Republican party a party of
centralization when it became a sutton
for popular support. Its first battles
were fought against federal laws and
authorities with states-rights weapons.
1t was only after the war that it be-
gar, upon plea of necessity, to assume
u~nwarranted authority in the opposite
direction, and, having inconsiderately
done wrong, the temptation to repeti-
ton of it has been irresistible until,
as the ultimate result, there has been
put forth an avowal of determination
on the part of Republican leaders to
use the powers of government-if
they can be retained-to advance the
interests of certain classes at the ex-
pense of the producers of the wealth
of the nation. This is their bid for
votes, and is a step in advance of what
either Wing or Federal dared to take,
and,i if carried into effect, will convert
government into a combination of
special interests, using its powers for
their special advancement.
Now, if there was any significance
whatever in republican opposition to
third-termism, it was unwillingness to
permit the powers of the general gov
eminent to be used to secure presi-
dental reelection, and, if the recent
elections meant anything, they indi-
Gated that patriotic republicans would
no longer tolerate such methods as
those by which the bosses propose to
retain position. These are the feel
ings that burst with a single effort
the bands that hound the Republican
party but the bosses pay no atten-
ton to the stand of the millions that
held back this fall, and hope they will
again follow the Republican flag, even
when carried IN a direction contrary
to their convictions. In this way the
Republican party, or at least the Stall
wart portion of it, goes into the next
campaign under the direction Of its
worst elements, and there would seem
to be no place in it for independence
Of sentiment, or for those that hold
sound or liberal views of economic
questions.
The incubus of a solid democratic
South has been and still is the one
great detriment to reform of the Re-
publican party. Its extravagances
and corruptions, its advancing Gen.
%tralization are due mainly to infiu-
ences excited in conventions by rep
resentatives of nominal supporters at
the South, when for all practical pur-
poses the Republican party in that
section consists mainly of place
seekers and their assistants who sup
port those that keep them. These
men make a show of strength at home
by running after temperance men,
workmen, greenbaekers and other
theorists opposed to the democracy,
and when by that mean they secure
a congressman, they usually elect one
more corrupt than a republican would
be. The respectable elements of the
Republican party in the North and in
Missouri have demanded reform, and,
as q means to obtain it, insist upon
the recognition of men and not dis
tricts as objects of representation.
1t is too much that fifty thousand