Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-08-28
Foa coScRrss. sxru DInmcr.
r. r. DEL VALE,
Of Los Angeles.
The Natural Republican Evoiu-
tfon-Not suited for Los Ansc-
-

Face to face with what promises to be
a crushing defeat at the polls In the
coming Presidential election, it tbebooves
the Republican leaders to take stock Of
the future. The election Of Governor
Cleveland to the Presidency will be ow.
ing, after the terrible peculations and
spoliations Of the Republican party
have been allowed for, to the detection
In the German vote which was brought
about by the attempt of the God and
Morality party to revive the old Blue
Law code Of New England. The effort
to introduce an era of sumptuary law
legislation in all States where the party
is powerful, will prove to have been the
rock upon which the party Of Seward,
Lincoln, Chase and Sumner split. The
fact is that the very breath Of life of the
agitators who established that party ran
in the line OF sms-of principles pushed
to the extreme of folly. The mere acci-
dent of the precipitancy Of the South
gave a party largely composed of
"cranks" an opportunity of assuming
the cloak of patriotism. II the South
could have restrained tho fiery tcmpora-
ment begottcn of its latitude
for few months, or, at the most, for
few years, the crank John Brown
Of Ossawatomie would have been fol-
lowed by an army of similarly disgrun-
tied beings, whose animus was pro-
claimed by themselves to be "highor
law" but which really consisted OF de-
fiance of all law. At no stage of its ex-
istence has the Republican party had
any regard for law. 1t had, it is true,
leaders of varying degrees of patriotism
and sagacity, but the animating purpose
Of the organization was at all times to
force extreme theories to the front in
contempt of all constitutions and con-
ventions. But for the too foolhardy and
premature action of the Southern leaders
one of the most noted sons of the South
would have been able to call the roll of
his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill, as
he hoped to do, and he would have
found himself there in the train of an
army whose purpose would have been
to establish In Massachusetts the su-
premacy of the Constitution and laws Of
the United States.
Beneficiary as it was of the supreme
luck brought about by movement
which many of the most sagacious South
crners tried to check, the Republican
party will find itself, on the election Of
Governor Cleveland, in a painful dilemma.
1t owed its inception to fanaticism, and,
only through the operation Of such fierce
impulses, can it hope to hold together
the distempercd spiritsof which its mem
bership is so largely composed.
What, then, is the natural evolution
Of the Republican party?
There can be little doubt that its ulti.
mate safe harbor and refuge is prohibi-
!. tionism. Extraded from power by the
Overwhelming popular aspiration for a
change and through the scandals arising
from quarter of a century of corrupt
administration, only in fanatic counsels
is there hope of cohesion for the varied
elements which compose this vaunted
organization, which eats up q claim to
all the honesty and all the decency of
the n-tion. The so.called temperance
people will draw the Republican party
like loadstone. Freed from the con-
servative and common sense influence of
its German contingent, this aforetime
: proud organization will drift like ship
without a rudder amongst the shoals of
fanaticism.
Whatroom is there in avine growinga and
wine producing region like Los Angeles
county for such an organization We
unhesitatingly answer, "None." The
people of this section are determined to
advance the cause of honest temperance
by producing good, light and honest
wines, and they will set their faces like
flint against the revival Of the sumptu-
ary laws which disgraced the statute
books of New England in the ''good
days of old" Certes Los Angeles county
has no use for party which, only two
years ago, tried to annihilate the pros
perity of this section by the entering
wedge of the Sunday law.