Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-06-14

= Inc uueaion ns 10 Nhht rattlcuIhT
man shall be elected President compare
lively amounts to very little in this cam
paign. II is true that President has
the power to shape the policy Of his adj
ministration aud to impress his individu-
al ideas upon the government during his
incumbency to n marked extent. But
the great issue after all is between par.
ties, and not between mere candldntes--
between ideas and not men, II Blaine
is elected, no matter what Innovations he
may introduce into public affairs, the nd
ministration will still be Republican, nj
though few persons may change places.
There will be no overhauling of the bal
ance-sheets of the government. There
will be no scrutiny of the public books
no investigation of the rev
enue and treasury accounts-no expos
ure of the fraud and corruption that have
held high carnival at Washington for
over twenty years Who knows within
hundred millions OF dollars how much
money should now be in the United
States Treasury Who knows what stu
pendous robberies Of tho public money
may not have been contaminated? Who
knows within hundred millions of dol
lars how many greenbacks ought to he in
circulation In fact, who knows any
thing about the way the government has
been run for twentytbree years except
the charmed circle Of honest Republi
cans who have been plucking the nation
al goose all that time and industrlously
feathering their own nests? II may be
said that Republicans are too honest TO
steal--that they belong to the party of
great moral ideas Yet we all remem-
her the Credit Mobiler iniamy, and how
Schuyler Colfax and his guilty associates
basely sold their votes and influence to a
fraudulent corporation, formed for the
sole purpose of robbing the government
Of its land aud money. We have not for
gotten the st. Louis whisky ring, nor
how Brady, high government official,
and Dorsey. Republican United States
Senator and the manager Of the Garfield
campaign, stole millions from the gov
ernment in the Star Route frauds. 1t is
human to err, and the idea that the Re-
publican parry has honestly admins
tered the government during all these
years, with no check upon them, is too
ridiculous for belief. We are not pre-
pared to say that abuses and corruption
would not creep into any party that held
On undisturbed lease of power for twenty
years. Much more is this true of n party
that holds the common people and the
general public in contempt, and That be
lieves in the divinity of the central gov
ernment-a real, central despotisn, ms it
were--and thinks whatever is done by
those in power is right, no matter how
monstrous it may be. No Republic can
remain healthy or pure, or survive long,
where there is not an occasional change
of the party in power. II the office.
holders are so firmly entrenched in
power that they can never be turned out,
and their official acts investigated by
their successors, OF different politics, then
the Republic is ut an end, and we are
subject to an office, holding oligarchy
from whose tyranny there is no escape.
To elect Blaine is to continue the exist
ing oligarchy. With four years more of
power, can the people ever displace
them? They have now all the advant.
ages that wealth, power, influence and
prestige can bestow, aud they are more
firmly fortifying themselves daily, With
Democratic President the Augean
stables would be cleaned out from top to
bottom, and the searching aud purifying
light OF heaven would be let into every
dark crook and Granny of the govern
ment that has been kept secret from
public gaze for generation. The peo-
pie demand change of parties, that
they may "see the books" and know
what has been going on; and they can
never know this without a change of
parties. They demand change of poll
cies, which the party in power will
never give, We believe they will ac-
complish both in the year of grace 1854.