Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-03-20
T1NsLEY g. MORTON, Proprietors,
FRIDAY MORNING. MAR. 20. 1885.

81. c. TINsLEY,
A. S. MORTON.
FRIDAY MORNING. MAR. 20. 1885. |
The NET GAIN OF THE DEMO-
CRATIC PARTY AND
THE COUNTRY.
There seems to be marked but spora-
die ferment in the Democratic party over
the delay of President Cleveland in making
q change in the government, by which is
meant change of the officeholders. This
fermentation is most noticeable where
those in pursuit of Office are abundant; it
is not general Inflammation of the body
polite Of the Democracy. AS truth,
most patriotic truth, the Democratic party
of the nation is looking more to the new
era Of the country than to the success of
the office seekers Notably is this true of
the Democracy of the Southern States.
Notably, and strange too, for at the South
federal Office holder, AS such, has been re-
garded, and In most cases justly regarded,
as an active political agent for the reten-
tion in power of a sectional and unpa-
triotic national administration which gov
erned that section of the Republic more
IS territory than as numerous body of
sovereign States composing the American
Union. We don't know that we state it
too strongly when we say that in many
sections of the Southern States the Repub-
lican officeholders, from the power which
they represented; from their isolation re-
sulting from the peculiar constituency
with which they we're surrounded, and
from their cooperative acquiescence in.
and support of, all measures taken by the
Federal administration, however repugn
ant to the States in which they lived, had
become little less than eye-sores to the
great bulk Of the intelligence of thu South.
It Is not surprising therefore that even the
best intelligence of the South had come to
regard Democratic victory as even more
q deliverance from the official presence of
these agents, than as security agains
the partizan and unpatriotic legislation of
which they were always the upholders land
often the suggestors.
But we, of the South. must remember
that we do not constitute the whole
country, nor majority of it, and that the
present Administration is in power more
to address itself to the publication of the
general government, land redressing wrongs
to the Nation. than it is to avenging local
wrongs. The latter must come as result
of the former. One of the national griev-
ances which President Cleveland will first
take in hand, it being nearest to him, is
the extravagant, partizan, Inefficient, and
in many cases corrupt civil service that
has grown up around the government in
the twenty-five years of Republican power.
There has been good deal of speculation
in this connection over protected
CLASP of officeholders who rest secure IN
der the wing of the Civil Service Act. We
hazard nothing in saying that before Mr..
Cleveland g administration is over it will
be found that that law has not been able
to "protect" single dishonest, incOm-
petent, or superfiuous man in his position,
nor to prevent a general, thorough, and
merciless elimination of otficeholders,
whose best re commentator was their own
political activity or that Of their friends.
If all that the Republican, las we'll as Demo
cratic papers have charged upon the agents
of the national government i'll all parts of
the country is true; if but fraction of
what has cropped out in congressional in
vestigations from Republican witnesses
be verified on a larger field of search,
there will be quite enough Offices to go
around, which, after all, seems to be the
chief apprehension of those who are most
pressed by haste about this time.
And having given that much comfort
to the waiting ones, let US say that there
are much higher blessings than Office, for
the South to congratulate itself upon.
There will be doubtless many things in
Mr.. Cleyeland's four years, upon which it
will not agree with him and his cabinet;
already there are two or three-but On
what follows there will be 70 disagree
ment:
His, promises to be a national and not a
sectional administration. This is an
inestimable gain for the South.
In its cabinet appear representatives
from the Southern States that is an ad-
vertlsment to the world Chat we are as
much part of the Republic as the
East, or West, or North. There have
been Southern men there before under
Republican rule, but they were mere
absentees, and not representatives of the
section from which they came.
We will have free elections; U. s. Mar
shals will not be quartered on States with
revolvers and posses to arrest Democrats
simply because they are Democrats, as was
done in Ohio last fall.
Federal ofice-holders as active political
agents will disappear.
The material prosperity of the South
will not be retarded by reference to it in
Presidential messages as turbulent Sec
tion of the country in state of emi-insur-
rection against the national government
The fact that man is from the South
will not operate as bar to his represent
ing the nation abroad.
In short, the South will be set up in the
eyes of the world as component part of
the United States, having voice in the
affairs of the Republic.
All these are gains of inestimable value,
which we hardly dreamed of attaining
eight years ago. With these safe, the
Southern Democracy at least can we'll
afford to let the President take his time
about the Offices, hold his own opinion