The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-08-11
Will the Republicans VIM

Ii the hepuDllcdDS OF tnlS Sldle APP
appreciate the significance of the
events that are now taking place in
the Democratic organization, and
make ready to take full advantage of
them. the State of Maryland may, at
the next election, be redeemed from
the domination of party that has
already been in power too long,
Democratic disorganization is COM
plete; and though there are two great
factions, yet there are several sub di-
visions of each faction. and even the
sub divisions are broken up into
cliques. The contests of the past
year have so intensified the hatreds
and rivalries of ambitious chiefs, and
made them so reckless in the pursuit
of their plans for preferment or re-
venge, that the rank and file of the
party are INVOLVED in the quarrels OF
the chiefs. Nor does the fact that
some of the influential chiefs are just
now driven into quasi-eXile tend to-
ward harmony. Each one carries
with him a certain following; each
one has his wrongs to avenge, and
each one-whether he confesses it or
not-would prefer to see a Republi.
cessfuI rival.
These facts will be sure to take the
life out of the coming Democratic
campaign. The successful faction in
the primaries and convention will,
of course, try to get up hurrah and
enthusiasm, but the experienced
managers and leaders that "the BOYS"
have heretofore been accustomed to
follow will sulk and perhaps even
give negative aid to the Republican
party. The successes won last fall by
the faction which now has the upper
hand in the Democratic organization
were won with the assistance of Re-
publican votes. The Republicans
who acted with that faction did so
under the assurance that it was a
movement for publication and re.
form. But the events of the past few
weeks have gone far to dissipate that
illusion. The convention primaries
and the convention itself showed
that the same sort of bargains that
the reformers had denounced during
the campaign were resorted to for the
control of the convention. Old friend
SHES were broken and new ties form.
ed. There were changes of bosses.
but the SUBJ bosses remained, and are
still powers in the new organization.
The upstart of all this is, that the
hopes of those Democrats who sin.
cerely desired reform and purity have
been rudely shattered. 1t is not
that influential leaders, good
and bad, have been driven out of
power, but because many of the yo-
ters of the Democratic party have
become thoroughly disheartened. and
have come sadly to the conclusion
that the Democracy of this State
needs the chastisement of defeat to
purify it. The Democratic party
must go.
Even wnen the Democracy polls its
full strength, the state on fair vote
is Republican outside the city. At
the last election the Republicans
elected two out of the four Congress-
men from the rural districts. and
made very close shaves of carrying
the other two. The Fifth and Sixth |
districts are now safely in the Re-
publican column. The First district
might have been carried if a yigor. !
BUS campaign had been made. The
second district was lost to us through
Encouragement. The Third and
Fourth districts, in this city, were
Democratic by less than their former
naiorities, and there are independent
Democrats who contend that only the
independent Democratic movement