The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-22
THE REPUBLICAN pARTY's POSITION.

the Republican party as a national organiza
ton. About 10000 900 voters thought it was
good enough for them as recently as in No
vember last, and but for the impracticability
or worse Of faction of enthusiasts, the apathy
of few New Workers, who were hostile to
Mr. Blaine and the imagine ed superior virtue
Of handful of ''reformers" in New York city
and Brooklyn, the State would have been car
ried by Republicans, not by less than LOO,
but by thousands. The electoral vote in that
event would have stood, Blaine, 213; Cleve-
land, 1873. moments reflection will demon
strate the cowardice that would impel any Re
publican to change from or to abate any of
the righteous demands that have been insisted
upon since the day that the Republican party
came VIGOROUSLY out of its fight for these
principles in the early days of 1865 One of
the cardinal principles Of Republicanisrn is
that this is indeed Union, not only indis-
solubla. but right. Time was when this idea
had 10 be fought for most desperately.
1t was terrible duty, but the
party accepted the gage, and called on loyalty
to aid it in the struggle. It is Of history that
by force of arms the Union idea triumphed.
There is enough of bitterness in the reccllec-
ton of the destruction and desolation of that
war to make all men want to avoid another
like issue, and to heartily set about inculcat-
ing such sentiments of loyalty will pre-
clude the possibility of repetition of the
horrors of rebellion and bloodshed. The Re-
publican party is for honorable peace For
the new South it has fellowship and friend
ship. For the old South it has the determi-
| nation to hold on tc the results Of the war so
long as they seem to be imperiled. Republic
ans are not ready to abandon old issues until
they are settled, and settled beyond contro
versy. 1t has been declared within the pres
ent year by representative man, that ''the
war for the Union was a gross and bloody vio
lation of public rights" When Republicans
rebuked this infamy, Democratic papers in
all parts of the Union commenced a course of
Safeguarding in his defense, and the Presi
power The honor bestowed upon him
was all the more significant from
the fact that he and his friends
had simply asked for consulate for him. 1t
appears, therefore, that his disloyalty was a
passport to official preferment. There are
not less than 5000, 900 voters in this country
who object to honoring such men and to en-
couraging such hateful ideas. There is
principle here that cannot be surrendered
without humiliation to every loyal man and
eventual danger to the Republic. Precisely
the same agencies are at work that eventuated
in war quarter of a century ago. A few
hot-heads in the South, overriding the calmer
judgment of the people, were arrogant and
boastful. They were anxious to defend the
principles" for which the South contended,
and fell down in blind worship before the idol
of State sovereignty. The parallel between
ante bellum days and now goes further
continually cried "Peace! Peace~ and, by
their very moral cowardice, encouraged the
South to believe Chat everything they de-
manded would be conceded if the demand
was only pushed strongly enough. tits hard to
say now which were the more responsible for
the slaughter that followed-the men of the
North, too cowardly to stand up for the right,
or those of the South, emboldened to under
take to set up separate government
The parallel between now and the years. be-
fore the war has been carried far enough
The Republican party would better stay out
of power thousand years than to consent to
the proposition that treason and rebellion are
not infamous, and that the rights written in
the Constitution by the bloody hand of war
are not real and vital rights, to be forever
maintained, and to be actually enjoyed by
those to whom they are nominally guaranteed.
1t will be time enough to cry ''down with the
bloody shirt" when all men, South as we'll as
North, abandon their love for that estate SOW
ereignty" that vaunts itself above justice
and the authority of the Nation, and when
every man stands absolute in his constitu-
tional rights.
The Republican party has not been un-
mindful and is not unmindful of what the peo-
pie need in the way of tariff reform and civil
service reform. They were both safer of per-
Torrance in the hands of Republicans than
Of Democrats. II there was any
doubt on this point it has been removed since
Democracy came into power, and made the
latter farce and burlesque. These things