National Republican., 1883-06-06
Concerning Bossism.

Apparently oblivlous OF the fact that an over.
whelming majority Of tho republicans in every
state aud, so far as known, all the republican
newspapers in the country, with two or three ex.
ceptions, are opposed TO political assessments aud
political bosses, the editor thus concludes The
coalition committees in Virginia aro really but
one In thought and purpose. Virginia will cast
hortwelve electoral votes for the republican can
ddate for president in 1884 II our national conven-
tion nominates n candidate who does not prefer
Virginia bourbous to their only antagonists and
treats the latter as political friends and worthy
associates. The nat onal convention will be com
PEELED to choose sides between the northern allies
oil southern bourbons and the sincere friends of
equal rights north and south. II there is no oh.
lection TO democracy in Virginia lot its northern
friends so over to that party. II they could con.
troll national republican convention IL would
prove that pirates had seized our political ship,
whose ordcrsr republican sailors would never obey"
-Wdshtngton correspondence NeD York Tribune.
Tho editorial thus quoted from and com
mented upon appeared in last Mondays issue
Of The NATIONAL REPUBLICAN. We ask
tho reader to scrutinize the words quoted,
and then SEQ il tho words which precedc It
do not in plain terms declare that in order to
oppose bossism it will be necessary to support
bourbonism in Virginia. Docs not tho Tribune
indorse tho declaration by printing it with
out discaimor2 Comment is unnecessary
The slave oligarchy was never more relent-
less tyranny than'is the Virginia bourbonism
of to-day. If slaves were "bossed " by over
seers; If free speech was denied to republicans,
and If northern democrats were tested by their
willingness to act as slave hounds then tho
cause which the Tribune espouses in the vir-
ginia Of to-day is boss system If Garrison
Phillips, and Greeley were right in fighting
the party which mado the divine right of
white men to hold black men as slaves its
chief corner stone, then Malone is right now
in fighting the party which has for its soul the
ghost Of slavery, and which would dissolve If
it could cease TO mourn over the freedom of
the blacks.
If James Russell Lowell was right when he
defined a northern democrat to be "a con-
tented lickspittle," then tho New York Tri-
bune is worthy to be, as it is, tho organ of the
northern defenders of the Virginia bour-
bons. Opposed to bossism, forsooth. The
hunted slave, determined to be free, and
turning successfully on his pursuors, both
dogs and men, was boss; and tho heroic
leader of tho great national movement in
Virginia, with his fifty thousand whito and
one hundred thousand black supporters, is the
boss of the bourbons, who vainly strive
to recapture him and put him in
political bondage. The northern dough-
faces who used to wall over the wrongs to
which the poor slave masters were subjected
solute despotism were heroes compared with
the mon of the north who now Join in the
bourbon hunt of Malone. Only liberty is at
stake in Virginia. Nay, not so--law educa-
tion, mems rights, free speech, in short, all of
modern civilization, these are all at stake Is it
not well at such q time that great newspapers
placable, irreconciable, and blatant bour-
bons, whose chief organ in Richmond re-
Gently declared that they had yielded moth
ing on account of defeat in the war? To call
any party which would harbor such papers
republican would bo to mock at reali-
ties and to insult honest men. The re-
publican party will stand by the men
who have made manhood suffrage fact in
Virginia, and who have brought that old
commonwealth back to her old place in the
union. The party will save its hottest
anathemns for the traitors and tricksters who
disgrace it by pretending to speak in its
name when they abuse tho foremost men in
Virginia in all good works. There is no
moro difference of opinion between the Vir-
ginia republicans and readjusters than
there Is between tho Tribune and the
white league democracy whose battles
it fought in 1872 as it is doing to-day. The
work. of amalgamating tho two wings of the
anti-bourbon party of Virginia is actively
progressing. Next fall will SEQ but one po-
litical organization in the state against the
democratic party. Let republicans give due
heed to this statement. If republicanism
outside of Virginia means what it does there,
then the liberals will be republicans because
the republicans are liberals Can this be dis
tressing to any except democrats and their
sympathizers? Let tho republican party
judge