San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1884-11-27
Too Long Deferred.

had ended seven years before, anc
the mission Of the party for good
been fulfilled. Grants second tern
seemed TO have filed tho full mea
sure OF its sins, and swift retribu
ton should have followed. Had
some such conservative statesman az
Charles Francis Adams been
nominated at Cincinnati, in 1872
the combined forces OF tho Liberal
Republicans and Democrats would
perhaps have won the race and Horace
Greeley, instead Of lying in his grave
all these years, the victim and martyr
OF a fruitless contest in O noble cause,
would have been at his proper post
at the. helm Of the Tribune, to mark
out the chart for the ship Of Reform.
Then that great journal, instead Of
being as now the tool of Jay Gould
and other monopolists, would have
continued to stand firm in behalf Of
the rights Of the people.
The need OF reform-the force and
validity Of the movement Of 1872
were fully indicated in 1876 by the
election OF Samuel j. Tilden and
Thos. A. Hendricks on the same great
leading principles which had impelled
to action four years previ-
GUS. But tho people as well as their
candidates were counted out of the
fruits of victory, and the corruption
of the party in power was destined
to reach q still higher tide. The new
administration, however, felt 80 far
constrained by the current of popular
sentiment to assume for short times
to carry out, in its southern policy,
the principles advocated by the Dem
ocrats and their liberal allies. Hypo-
crisy has been defined as "the tribute
which vice pays to virtue" senti-
ment which happily gives the key to
this turn of the fraudulent executive.
The general Generalization of our
politics was fearfully manifested by
the fact that many Democratic lead
ers, especially at the South, became
parties to the presidential fraud, pre-
ferring their chances with the hum
bug Hayes to what they well knew
would have been the firm reformatory
hand of the President elect, Tilden.
Hence the electoral commission, and
and hence in 1880, the determine
ton of political traders to thwart the
will of the democratic masses by plot
ting to prevent the renom-
nation of "the old ticket"-Til-
den and Hendricks. Their renomin-
alton was SO clearly the duty and
best policy of the opposition to the
party in power that "the wayfaring
man though fool" could not fail to
recognize it. Yet it was defeated by
the means we have indicated, and O
military chieftain, with but small
qualifications as statesman substi-
tuted. Even he, however, would
probably have been successful, had
it not been that the enormous steal
ings Of the star-route conspirators
were shamelessly used by the Repub-
leans in buying up votes in the
doubtful States.
But however postponed, still "ever
the right comes uppermost." All
will remember the universal popular
chorus which rose the first half of
this year demanding the selection of
The sold ticket" to redress the wrong
md lead to victory and reform. 1t
was a grand rebuke to the political
and they no longer dared
face the music. His physical disa-
bilities compelled Mr.. Tilden to de-
cline, but fit successor was found
n his youthful and vigorous disciple,
to associate with the vet
eran Hendricks of Indiana. And
now, in the language of the st.
Louis Republican:
Times whirligig has spun out a
thread of poetic justice in the vote
oy which the democratic party takes
for the great fraud of 1876.
It has elected a President from
Samuel j. Tilden's State and elevated
10 the Yice-presidency the Indiana
statesman who was defrauded of that
office eight years ago. The victory,
too is won by carrying identically the
same states which cast their electoral
votes for Tilden and Hendricks. II
was New York, New Jersey, Connect
icut, and Indiana, with the states Of
the South which elected Tilden and
and which now elect Cleye-
land and Hendricks.
We will now 60 further AMI say
that those older pioneers in the work
81 reform who seeded from their
party because Of its corruption, Gree
ley, Sumner, and their compeers, also