Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1883-01-25
A Decades Record.


In the year 1872 the misdeeds of
General Grants Administration became
SO intolerable as to threaten the over
throw. if not the destruction. of the Re-
publican party. It's chief leaders and
friends demanded reform. but their de-
mand was treated with contempt by
the mefcenaries who represented the
President, and Charles Sumner and the
galaxy of men who joined him were
obliged TO prosecute the r aim from a
position outside the party they had so
long served and honored. The revolt
ment inaugurated at Cincinnati, with
Charles Francis Adams as its standard
bearer, might have averted the dispen-
sation OF organized plumber and theft
which, have nee so woefully afflicted
every branch of the Civil Service. But
this was not to be. George William
Curtis and the Republican reformers of
his type demanded '.reform within the.
party" and could not tolerate the idea
of bolting. They said the way to re-
form the party was to stay in it. and
that to join the Democrats, or unite in
formingsa new party. would only open
the way for the return of the re0eks to
power. The Republicans had put down
the rebellion and emancipated the
slaves, and it was better to endure the
maladministration OF the Government
under Grant than to surrender the
country to the enemy. The same cry
was raised in 1876. The work OF 'sre-
form within the party'' had made no
Roadway, and Grantism, with all that
that word implied, had more complete
1y than ever secured the control OF the
party: but the same policy OF reform
ING from within was still insisted upon.
and the same Reproduction of boiling
was everywhere pronounced. The
''rebels' must be kept out of power and
the fruits Of the war preserved, and this
could only be done by Loyalty support
ing the old organization.
The organs and the leaders played
the same old tune in 1880, and the Re-
publican hosts kept step to the same
music. 1t looked as if this deplorable
party infatuation would be able to per-
petuate itself indefinitely, and by the
power of the spoils and the skillful use
of the machine, esta )l;sh a political serf-
dom over the people from which there
could be no peaceable escape. s.ss
But great light has finally dawned
upon the lind, and 1882 sends its greet
4.
party is as "a tale that's told.'' Mr..
Curtis gives it up, and his fellow labor
ers and fellow boilers are now numbered
thousands. The leaders of these indie
pendent masses tell us that their act on
is like that of the Conscience Wings
and Free Sellers thirty-four years ago,
and that reform within the party can
ho al h
They say that as long as parry sue
ceeds by corrupt methods and unprinci-
pied leaders, it will continue and wax
first thing to be done is to crush it.
This is exactly what the Republican
boilers. of 1872 told their political
brethren, and it was just as true then as
it is today. But time makes more
converts than reason" 1t took the old
Wings long while to find out that the
Free Sellers were right; but at last they
made the discovery, and were glad to
be admitted into the new communion.
So it has taken the Republican boilers
of 1882 ten years to find out that the
men they SO bitterly denounced in 1872
were right, and that boiling is divine
prerogative. but they have at last
been enlightened, while they have album
dant reason for following in the foot
steps of their Wing predecessors in their
future political action. The change is
wonderful. The elections of this wear
will be remembered as a great epoch in
American politics. They show that the
sober second thought of the people can
be trusted, and strengthen the faith of
good men in popular institutions What
a pity it is that Greeley and Sumner
could not have lived to witness their
splendid vindication in the political
revolution of 1882! It is almost enough
to make them turn over in their graves.
They were hunted to death because they
rebelled against the political buccaneers
at the party helm. They were in
solently reminded that 1.-THE Republican
party is stronger than any man in the
party and that they must obey it's
orders or be shot as deserters. They
were branded as apostates, rebels and
renegades: but they were right. after
all, and history has already SO made its
record, while Cameron, Conkling and
the other once famous Republican bosses
have tumbled themselves and their
machine into common ditch. Let us
rejoice. a.sr~#=@s
This rout of the Republicans is final.
They talk about rallying their forces for
another engagement, but they do not
believe their own words. They feel that
the bolt which has shirered their or
ganization is the bolt of death. Their
defeat is like the de eat of the Wings in
1852. when they carried only four States
and forty-two electoral votes. They
said it was not much Of shower and
that they would again rally, as they had
so often done before; but their forces were
never rallied. Hatred of the Democ-
racy had long held the party together,
but it was dead in its trespasses, and no
hand could save it. The Republicans
talk about gathering new life from the
blunders and mistakes of the Democ-.
racy; but this ammunition has been
used too often to be any longer availa-
BILE. 1t is not safe to count on extensive
Democratic laundering, and no amount
of it would reconcile the Republican
boilers of to-day to the longer rule of
their leaders. These leaders, no doubt,
are quite ready to change their base since