The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1885-01-23
s'AS DEAD AS CESAR"

The Iowa State Register says Prof
A. /. Perry, of Williams College, has
written an article for the Million, of
this city, in which he declares the Re
publican party dead as Caesar. WegIve
his exact language
at is as certain as anything in the future
can be, that the party will never 90 into
another Presidential election. A party
bearing that name may possibly and even
probably enter the next Presidential can
vass, but II so, it will be wholly different
organization in its structure and purposes
and leaders from that which has just been
defeated. 1t is no answe to this prediction
to say, that the Republican parry cast more
votes the other day than ever before in its
history. The great Whig party cast more
votes in 1852 than ever before in its history,
but for all that it never went into another
Presidential contest, and its very name per-
ished before there was another Presidential
contest
This is a very striking prediction. At
FIRST blush it seems extravgant, but il
we examine the Professors reasons, as
adduced in the article, we are not so
much surprised at his conclusion. His
vigorous English leaves no Obscurity on
the subject in hand. For instance, to
begin with the course of the party in
Virtually, tie only inducement offered to
the people to vote the Republican ticket was
that the party IN power would, il continued
in power, zealously keep up and heap on
the shoulders of the people the present bur-
dens OF national taxation,
And then in righteous indignation he
exclaims
What boon for great political party
to offer TO a sensitive and eDterprising peo.
lNE a In nrnNEa
home worse taxed than any other nation in
Cbristendom, already thrown of the ocean
as far as shipping is concerned, excluded to
their manufactures from every foreign port,
and depressed and harTassed as never be-
fore in every industry and enterprise
What a worn out party they must have been,
low empty of principles and obliviOus OF all
obligations to the Million, to haYe nothing to
say of sound significance whatever as a
ground for continuance Of power, except
'We'lI tax you, men and brethern, to the ut
most of our power and to the very limit OF
our lives
Sure enough. And then when Prof.
Perry goes OIL to mention that all the
great privilege corporations were mar
shalled on that side, this feature culmi-
mating in the golden dinner at Delmon-
ico's, we see the blessed tie that binds
the whole combination together and
makes a god of taxation. ''In one
word' he says, 1.-THE party has been
shown by that dinner and its sequels to
be aristocratic and piutocratic, and the
Many started up against the Few. A
thrill went thro' the land, and a will was
born in a day to thwaTt the privilege
ahd to stand for equality. Their rights
and no more for the rich their rights
and no less for the poor. No party in a
free country could stand such an exhi-
bition as that was, and least of all the
Republican party, whose drift towards
privilege has been pronounced for TWEEN
" years. II is doomed to die for its
manifold sins against equality. Let it
die. And echo answers, Let it die. -
We have space oGly for an extract of
that portion of the article relating events
Occurring since the election, which con-
firm Prof. Perry's horoscope. The par
ty knew" he says, "that one defeat
was death, and so it refused for a week
to acknowledge defeat" In conclu-
sion They died very hard, and ac-
cOTdingly they died very dead. The
whole country observed their unreas0n-
able contOrtlons and made careful
note of the death rattle too long defer
red"
The Professor concludes with a pre-
dictiOn that the Democratic party will
be impelled by the force of circumstan-
ces and of public opinion to adopt pol
icy of free trade, and thus it will OBJ
tain hold on the country that will last
through several Administrations.
1t is not often distinguished men of
letters like Professor Perry venture
such bold political predictions, and his
words will be widely heeGed. Inas-
much as Prof. Perry is as we'll known,
the world over. as any writer on public
questions in America, and has been the
college teacher of many Of our leading
public men. including Garfield, his pre-
dIctions OF the Republican party can
not be rejected or hooted at. But then
they won't fill the people with unmiti-
gated sadness.