The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1884-10-24

laEt. out pltuStu give 10 tnOst WHO trust
utmost benefits of pure and honest adminstra
| tion of national affairs GROVER CLEVELAND
Woe unto them that call evil good, and
good evil!-IsAIAH V, 20.
Let every republican in this hour think
soberly of the lasting degradation that
will be inflicted on his party by the cleo
ton of James G. Blaine to the presiden-
cy. The hand that cast vote for that
man casts vote against the honor of the
republican party.
Yes, it is on that party that the dis>
grace of such an election would fall the
heaviest. Shameful as it would be for
the whole country, the nations fair fame
would not be irretrievably ruined; for
there are plenty of her sons who have
risen up to fight the wrong, and to these
men she may look for regeneration. But
if Blaine is elected, the republican party
is stained beyond all cleansing 1t will
have put its neck under the yoke of cor
ruptlOn; it will have made alliance with
dishonesty. 1t will have sold its birth
right of honor for fat offices and the pro
fits of venally lax administration of gov>
ernment. 1t will be no longer apolitical
party; it will be no more than an organ,
ization for public rlunder.
We do not believe that republicans will
consent to this degradation of the party
that gave to the country universal liberty
andnatiOnal unity 1t is not at all neces>
sary for the healthful existence of a poll
| tical party that it should have the control
of the government, or even the balance
| nf 10 of OIL Of hn tot An
honorable poverty no more disgraces Il
party than it disgraces man. But it is
of supreme and vital Importance that, in
or out of office, the party should preserve
its integrity and its purity. Without
these it is lost; it will 90 under sooner or
later, as all false and impure things go.
At the height of its power, its mandates
obeyed with blind enthusiasm by people
who will blind their reason and their
conscience at its bidding, that party is
doomed to death which has sold itself to
corruption; and the day of judgment may
be put off. but not put aside.
The question for republicans is not:
Shall we elect Blaine president of the
United States? but: Shall we elect Blaine
leader of the republican party? That is
what consistent republicans should ask
themselves. All know that Blaine is the
worst man who ever went before the peo-
Pile as candidate for chief magistrate
All know the record of his indecent pros
titution of the powers of office. All have
seen the brazen impudence with which he
tglories in what should make him Odious
in the eyes of all men. All have seen the
hideous infamy to which he has resOrted
in his attempt to crush the
honest man whom honest men
| hope TO make president next November.
-Shamelessly he has violated the SAN
city of a mans private life; shamlessly he
has perverted his party press to the low
est purposes of scandaEmongering. Pit
lilessly he has dragged woman's shame
before the public. He has not hesitated
to use weapons which would disgrace the
foulest cause. He has not hesitated tC
J begin warfare which has filled the pub
lie prints with columns of unparalleled
indecency, spread out before the eyes Of
our wives and our daughters. This is his
work, and by his works all men shall
know him.
Is it not better-a thousand times bet
ter-that the republican party should suf
fer defeat to all eternity than that the
cause for which Lincoln died and the
stainless Sumner lived should be shamed
by such leader? Is it not better that the
party should go to its death clean-handed
than that it should change principles
honor and high ambition for such mar
, and his followers preach and practice il
in, their words and their acts? Let repub-
licans who wish that republicansm
should live hold their hands before they
bring upon themselves and their party
the curse that shall surely come upon al
, those who call Evil Good and Good Evil