New-York tribune., 1885-01-05
REPURLICAN CLUBS.

or course, the De1liOcIu's anu "'''oA =.
of the Republican party are anxious 10 nave !.
believed that there must be some dark anu
dreadful design beneath the organization oi
Republican clubs. The Democrats nave 1oriheu
and maintained clubs for long time, III con-
siderable number. That was all right; a
nerfectly innocent ana patriotic thing.
The free traders have maintained ther
leooues and Clubs. moreover, and have con-
trived in them the treachery by which victory
has been given to the shotgun party. but
that was all right, also. When Republicans
propose to do the same thing, then it becomes
eminently dreadful!
The particular phantom that just now haunts
the Democrats and Dependents apparently Is
supposed by them to be the ghost OF the man
they kiled-or thought they killed-by lies ana
blackguardism all last summer and fall, ana
nv fraud in October and November. Let
them be at peace. 1t is not ghost
Mr.. Blaine is not dead-no thanks
to thcm-but particularly alive, and employing
his time in more honorable and useful WORK
than any of his maligners ever performer
work which will instruct and gratlfy the
Nation, stimulate patriotic feeling, do hohor
to the statesmen and heroes who nave
gone before, and elevate the stand
ard of thought and public discussion
That is what Mr. Blaine ia doing. And next
the clubs are not composed of the friends or
followers of any man; they are simply Rcpnb-
lican clubs. They are composed OF men VINO
love truth, cherish real regard for
Republican principles, and hate traitors.
One of the principal objects of these club is'
or ought to be. to place within reach OF mem
bers social and intellectual enjoyment without
the necessity of contact with persons VINO
delight in vile ISLANDERS about larger
men than themselves, and rejoice to
profit by frauds and assassination. There
are q good many people in this country
who profoundly despise those who pretend to
want reform through a triumph of the shot
gun. Ii will be pleasant for such people to meet
frequently. to listen to entertaining debates or
instructive lectures to keep alive among them
a regard for common honesty and for he Con-
stitution, and to do what they can by organized
effort to secure hereafter the defence of Ameri-
can citizenship and the protection OF American
industry If these clubs are rightly conducted
they will come TO be permanent centres OF IN
terest and sources of elevating social enjoyment
i'm the towns in which thcy EXIST they
will bring together the wives and moth
crs rs well "a the husbands and fathers,
the Young women "a well as the young mon;
they will cultivate the faculty of intelligent
discussion, and enlist the efforts of the most
thoughtful and. eloquent; they will organize
bands of singers to lift political music above
the level of old-timc campaign songs,
and to kindle feelings of true patriotism.
Such clubs will have "a power which cannot be
measured. With them, well planted all over
the North, the Republican cause will be ire
sistiblc.
| 1t is to be hoped that these organizations will
give as little attention as possible TO the per-
sonal side Of politics They will take it for
| granted from the start that all will not
| agree in preferences as to men. The one
thing upon which they will rigidly insist,
we trust, is that opposition to Republican
principles shall involve Immediate separation
from the organization that all who support
those principles faithfully and truly are friends.
and all who do not are foes. II the Democrats
and pharisecs dislike the existence and influence
of such organizations, much the better.
| II will be evidence that they are neither false
| and treacherous, like the free-traders who con
ccaled their motives in order To make their
ISLANDERS effective, nor willing 10 rely upon
| fraud and assassination for success, like the Sc
cret Democratic organizations at the South.
|