Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-09-23
Assistant Democrats.


Every third party Prohibitionist will
no doubt instnctiyeiy recognize the
above appellation as belonging to
class of which he is one, and it will not
be necessary to uncerimoniously rub
his proboscis against it either. Most
Prohibitionists of the North would as
soon be reckoned as one of Beelzebub's
imps in the lower world as to become
straight out-and-out Bourbon Democrat
on this mundane sphere; yet they seem
to glory in the fact that if they can pos
sibly obtain sufficient number of wa
vering, dissatisfied Republicans to vote
for their premature, visionary scheme,
they will be instrumental in electlng
Democratic officers from whom they
neither expect nor desire any sympathy
or assistance. Their whole object at
present apparently seems to be to ac-
complish the defeat of the Republican
party. To do this in Wisconsin they
require and expect to obtain 20, 900 votes
at the next election. Most of them ex-
pect to obtain more, but they will be
satisfied with 100000 That will be suffi-
Gent to induce them to bring out their
cannon and have Jubilee. They will
exult in common with the Democrats
who will be perfectly willing to let their
allies or, more properly, assistants, :"
do most of the shouting, since they win
have all of the offices. The Democrats
can have their jubilee in the saloons,
while their assistants" can have their
Publications in the churches and in the
grave-yards. The assistants can de-
liver their harrangues where they listen
to their sermons, and can, for conven-
fence, fire their canuons where they
bury the dead, and where they soon
will find their party. If, perchance,
there should be q soldiers monument
in it, they can very consistently take
it as their target, and ever and anon as
the hollow reyerberation of the cannon 5
boom among the tombstones ceases,
they can shout in a chorus just as hol-
low eve did it, we did it! We killed
the Republican party!' But stopl Not
too fast. "Kiled the Republican party
indeed! Is the party such a rotten old
hulk that it would fall to pieces by o
single blow, as easily as some of the old
time-servers in Uncle Sans navy? Ii
so, the party is to be pitied indeed. If
the party that has done so much for the
prosperity of this land, so much for
universal liberty, is held together by
memories that are so easily forgotten
and ties that are so easily rent asunder,
the American eagle may, indeed, fold
his wings and bury his head beneath
his breast IN shame, and the Goddess of
Liberty may envelop herself within the
protecting folds of the Stars and Stripes
and seek to be engulfed in the openings
of some friendly earthquake.
The Republican party has always
been progressive party and in addi-
ton to keeping a watchful eye over its
work of the past, it has grappled with
questions that are continually coming
to the surface, and has always taken
such a position on them as was consis-
tent with the spirit that gave it birth
thirty years ago. Even on this ques-
ton that constitutes the narrow plat
form and single plank Of the .'Assis-
tant-Democrats,n the Republican party
of Wisconsin boldly and unequivocally
says, that it recognizes the evils of in
temperance and desires to adopt the
most effective means for their suppress
sion. 1t also afterward says, in SUBJ
stance, that as soon as public sentiment
will warrant it and as soon as there is a
fair prospect of state prohibitory laws
being enforced, the party will put its
shoulders to the prohibition wheel.
But that isn't what these ''Assistants''
want. They want to shut their ewes
and go it blind without a thought as to
the feasibility of their plan. They
want to butt their heads against the
solid phalanx presented by the whisky
power, and scatter their misguided
brains as Jumbo did his in Canada, and
they will no doubt meet with like
result-particularly so if they continue
TO adopt as their war-cry 1.-The Repub-
liean party be hanged Cor two dis
with dash between them). ALI that
is required to give a quietus to the
assistants" is a few more such victories
as the Republicans attained in Maine.
Let them shout once more with Mac
beth and meet a fate similar to his when
he cried,
Lay on, Macduff;
And damn be he who first cries Hold, ea0Hghf''
RprTurr-c