Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1884-11-14
THE RESULT OF THE NATIONAL
ELECTION.

THE RESULT OF THE NATIONAL
ELECTION.
The result of the election IS to every
thinking Democrat much higher victory
than the mere success of his party, for it
decides question long in debate in the
minds of patriots-whether the control of
the government, after being lodged for
nearly quarter of a century in
one political rarty. could be quietly
and peacefully transferred to anoth-
or. The transfer is a test of the
strength OF American institutions and
of the truth of the political aphor-
ism. that the government is ''Of the
people, for the people, and by the people. -
It is not to be denied that, notably since
the election of 1875. conviction had i'm
perceptibly taken possession of the minds
OF the mass of the Republican party that
the government and its future conduct
were the property of that organization.
In this opinion there were men of the
other party who 90 faith in the people was
not overstrong and whose hopes Of
change had faltered. found to acquiesce.
Such conviction creates the situation,
lican press and the more prominent men
of the party, it attracted to its ranks great
monopolists, great corporations, great Ca
ritalists, and great spectators WHO saw
in such an organization the party Of
the future and the party to which
they must look for favorable legislation
which would forward their enterprises
and increase their field and their wealth.
It has often been remarked that the DEM
ocratic party was the party of the poor
man, and it has been true. Great cor
porations and great spectators have
little use for minority party. Of late
year the simple voters of the Democracy
have been cowed and disheartened by
hearing of the immense gifts, reach
ing into many thsusands, made by
Wealth to the Republican campaign
funds. Another cause had contri-
buted to foster this delusive ex-
pectation of national government of
sixty millions of people being the personal
property of one political party. In the
twenty-four years of existence ct the Re-
publican, party. there has been an annual
accretion of Office holders until the num-
Der amounts now to nearly one hundred
Thousand. Many of these have in that
time grown old In the public service and
have learned in their long term to think
and speak of their party as the country
itself, and to look upon the Democracy as
merely turbulent organization of the
humber classes. who love their country
SO little that, to crafty their thirst for
Ofice-for that is all Federal office-holder
even credits the Democracy with having
in view-they would disturb the quiet
and prosperity of the nation by upsetting
the whole working of the government by
change. This class has been the more
convinced of the perpetual lease of their
party by the fact that it has not INDUCED
to any very great extent in changes in
subordinate officials. but simply created
new Offices when more places were wanted
Perhaps nothing better illustrates the feel.
ing that had taken possession of the Re
publican party than the genuine contempt
for the Democratic party, into which they
had been educated by long control Of the
government, notwithstanding the fact
that at almost every national election for
the last twelve years the Democratic party
has come closer and closer to victory,
md iv,I nh off, fI,oSo,
the fact that one and sometimes both
houses of congress have been in possession
of that party, and Notwithstanding the
fact that the Democracy have had control
at one and the same time of two-thirds of
the States of the Union, the Republican
National Administration, the leaders of
their party, and particularly the Office
holders thereof, have continued with fatal
blindness to hold in contempt and flout
the idea that it could ever gain control of
the national government, or be able to
administer its affairs wisely and properly
if it did. A party that could furnish
Horatia J. Seymour to the country could
not conduct a government that U. S.
Grant conducted!!! A party that put
Samuel J. Tilden up could not furnish an
equal to Rutherford B. Hayes, now passed
into obscurity! A party that had such
statesman as Samuel ]. Randall could not
match James A. Garfield Indeed the
blindness of Republicans had reduced
them to just this; that there was no saliva
tion for the country and no hope of its
success except in their own party. To
their eyes the Democratic was the party
of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, - with
just what those three words mean to the
narrow and bigoted mind of the genuine
New England Puritan Yankee, and when
the Rev. DR.. Burchard made that fatal
ALTERATION in public he only uttered the
true sentiment of the shriveled, bigoted,
arrogant and intolerant heart OF the Re-
publican party of the United States.
The leverage of sectionalism which |
the Republican party has welded to
its fullest capacity has also gone far
to create the delusioD that it owned, |
and in fact was, the country. The |
Supreme Court, the highest tribunal of |
the country, with one section without a
single representative. The Court of Claims !
without one. Look at the U. s. Circuit |
and District Courts-Alabama, one Judge |
from Ohio and the other from Scotland, |
the clerks Of the two courts from Penn
sylvania and the Asst District Attorney
from Maine, the Marshal from Ohio and |
two other court clerks from Illinois; !
Judge from Indiana,
one Marshal from Michigan, Court Clerks
from New York and Illinois, another mar
shall from Germany. And this distribu-
tion will hold good through the far South
ern States. Look at the list of representa-
L;uou abroad. indaod Won NOV Iooly Of IN, |