The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1883-01-17
sTALwARTIsN.
The Republican Disease That Can't be
Cured.


Cured.
Washington POST
The aiImeDt that sffiicts the Republican
psrIy is Stalgartism. To this disease, far
more than to all its other troubles. that
party owes its present miseries. So long az
the Stalwart faction remains at the front, the
work of disintegrs,ion will go on. So long
as the leaders of that faction, with their
brazen insolence of bearing and their
hearty contempt for all that is decent
and reputable in politics, remain the
recognized opponents of Republican senti-
ment the decadeDce Will continue.
The great mistake was that the Stalwarts
grasped the prize drawn lin the lottery of
assassination" as if il had come to them
sanctioned by q majority in the Electoral
College at the close OF \ Presidential cam
paign. Coming into power as . result of
the Stalwart war waged sn President Gar
field-a result not less real because il was
unintended-they could only hope for popu-
lar tolerance by putting on quiet, subdued
air and preserving a respectful demeanor.
Such a course would not il is true have
won for them large measure OF public con-
! hdence, for they have previously ''siDned
away the day ofgrace;" had forever forfeited
the good opinion of the country.
But bad they been possessed OF sufficient
sagscity to understand the real situation
and act IN accordance Herewith, they might
have avided the disasters that the grossness
of their ways and offsnsiveness of their tone
have bFoaght on their party.
The Ssalwartism OF to-day is the disease
that went by the name of Grantism two
years ago. and no change of name can de-
ceive the people. 1t is true that the man
| whose name the disease bore has retired
| from politics, but the men who used him
and who sOiled his name are still in the
Stalwart front line, and they and their
principles and their manners are as cordially
| detested now as they ever were-are even
| more heartily condemned low than when
| they were stamped into the mire of crushing
defeat at Chicago; for they have added
good many bad chapters to their utterly bad
record since that day of their dire disaster
Two years ago Stalwartism was packing
StaIe Conventions TO forestall public opin-
ion. was doing this four or five months be-
| fore the time for nominating a ticket. A
few months later, Stalwartism with its little
army of delegates from Democratic strong
holds, was at Chicago trying to force the
odious third term down the thrOats of an
overwhelming majority of the Republican
party. Defeated there, Stalwartism retired
TO sulk and use demOralizing influences on
the party until Majority of the people bad
decided to elect Hancock Then, when the
day was almost lost TO Garfield through the
perfide of the Stalwart leaders, they rose up
land with great effort among the monopo-
lies created and fostered by the Republican
party, they raised an enormous amount of
money and bought the Presidency for Gar
field, bought it as OPENLY and undeniably
as ever a sheep was bought IN a live stock
market.
The subsequent course of the Stalwarts
need not be recounted here. for il is more
deeply imprinted the memory of the
| American people than almost anything else
in our history They made cruel, relent-
less fight on Garfield because he would not
submit to their dctatiOn, and when that
war going beyond the wish or thought of
the men who made il, had sent Garfield to
his grave, the Stalwarts strobe boldly in as
Is they had been called by the voice of the
people
The Post has said more than once, and
repeats now, that President Arthur has de-
served well of the country for his quiet,
firm resistance of Stalwart pressure. But be
has not been able, and no man in his place
would be able, to change the tone, aspect,
bearing, manners spirit and policy of the
Stalwarts. The spots of the leopard can't
be painted out The odor of the mephitis
Americana can't be successfully disguised.
AS "pigmies are pigmies still, though
perched on Alps" so Stalwar5ism holds lis
distinctive qualities under all possible con-
ditions
The Stalwart press does not seem to under
stand, when il drescribes for the Republican
party, that there can be no hope of recovery
so long as the Stalwart faction keeps its hid
eousness II public view. Such however, is
the fact. A hated minority, incapable of
learning by experience, Is on top OF the ma
, jority that triumphed in the last struggle OF
the tactic S. The circumstances attending
the suppression of the majority must newt
ably keep alive the fires of hate. The iuso
lent airs of the minority installed over the
majority by the bullet of an assassin, can
only tend to drive further and further from
the party the men who have failed to vote
for its candidates this year. When the dis
ease takes the lace of the doctor it Will be
fitting for S alwartism to tell the Z publican
party what it must do to be saved.