Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-08-02
YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS.
The Contrast Existing Between the Two
Parties and Their Candidates.

Thousands OF young men will cast
their first vote next November. Many
of them will do so intelligently, while
others will be Influenced by parental
preferences, the solicitations of friends
or the representations of newspapers
and campaign orators.
Voting is the highest prerogative of
| citizenship, and therefore one of the
crises in a young mans life is the day
when he goes to the polls and for the
| first time puts into the ballot-box the
little strip of white paper containing
the names of the candidates of the par
ty with which he has decided to cast
his lot. The step then taken usually
fixes his political status for years, as
comparatively few men leave the party
they unite with in early manhood. How
important. then, that this critical mo-
ment be preceded by careful, consci-
entious study of the history, platforms
and candidates of the parties asking for
his suffrage.
The Republican does not believe that
in any one party are embodied all the
political virtue, wisdom, honesty and
sagacity of the day; that the candi-
dates of one are altogether good and of
the others altogether bad. Nor does
it hold that the records of all but one
are full of mistakes, blunders, broken
promises, disreputable measures, dis
honest legislation and unpatriotic
teachings. Good and bad are unques-
tionably in all, and every one has good
and bad men for leaders. A party must
be judged by its fruits, by the results
of its policies when in power, by the
trend of its principles and professions,
and by the general character of its
leaders. So judged, what should be the
conclusion of the truth-seeking, patri-
otto young voter?
OF the two parties the Democratic is
the older. 1t was founded, as now con-
stituted. in the days of Andrew Jack
son. During the more than half a
century it has been on one side or the
other of all the great issues before the
people, moral and economic. On the
slavery question, which overshadowed
all others until the war of 1876, it
was committed to the fortunes of the
men who dealt in human chattels, and
was responsible for the war with Mex
leo, the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, the bitter feuds in Kansas
and Nebraska, the Fugitive Slave law,
the bred Scott decision and the great
rebellion. As party it justified
rebellion, opposed coercion, obstruct-
ed the prosecution of the war, OBJ
jected to the emancipation of the
slaves, encouraged the rebel leaders,
and pronounced the war failure at a
time when Grant had Lees army in
his Tightening grip and Sherman was
in the midst of the Atlanta campaign.
After the war it opposed the adoption
of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and
Fifteenth constitutional amendments
and the enfranchising of the colored
race, opposed the Reconstruction meas
ures and the Civil-Rights bill, and
justified the dominant white popula-
ton of the late slave-holding States in
their persistent Withholding from the
colored people their legal rights. 1t
the issuing of the greenback
and National bank currency and the
resumption of specie payments. 1t
has set its face against the investiga-
ton and punishment of Southern bull
dozers, Ku-KluX, ballot-box suffers !
and tissue-ballot frauds. 1t has
throughout the half century been the
of European and American |
free traders, and to-day is committed |
to policy which is anti-American,
pro-British. and which, if adopted, |
will contribute to the industries of |
other countries at the expense of our
own. 1t is, as party, opposed to |
such measures as the Blair Education |
bill, the suppression of polygamy, the
speedy payment of the public debt, |
and, through the solid South, to the
canal.
The Republican party was born when
the slavery agitation was at its height. |
1t was pre-eminently the party of free
dom and espoused the cause of the
slave. 1t opposed the attempt to make
slave States of Kansas and Nebraska,
opposed all of the encroachments of the
slave power, denounced the bred Scott
decision, and when the Government
passed into its hands and the South re-
belled accepted the gage of battle and
upheld the hands of the great Lincoln
the long and blOody'contest.
1t sustained the freedom of the slaves,
and conferred upon them all the rights
Of American citizens, made laws and
did all that was possible to secure to
them protection of life and property
and the ballot. 1t gave to the country
the greenback, made it Interchangeable
with gold and silver, and created the
best currency in the world. 1t passed
the homestead laws, which have turned
The deserts of the great West into fertile
fields, improved rivers and harbOrs, fOs-
tered educational institutions, fought
Southern kn-kluxing and ballot-box
obuiIIS anu NOflucTu cicCllOu lfduuS |
Of every kind and degree tits opposed
to keeping Southern poor whites and
negroes in ignorance, to the coolie sys-
5em, and to bringing the products of
European pauper labor into competition
with American free labor. 1t believes
hat the prosperity of he country de-
Ponds upon the equal enjoyment of civil
rights, good markets for farm produc-
ions, good wages for laboring men, a