Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-08
THE RESULT OF The ELECTION.

AaG hEO N.
At this writing it appears TO admit of
no doubt tina: the people of the Uaited
States have determined that the Republican
party shall be returned to the seat of au-
thority. Assuming this Judgment to have
been arrived at, and believing that it has
it is fitting to look at General Harrison in
the new attitude he assumes by reason Of
his election.
As we said repeatedly during the late
campaign, we believe that the cleanliness
of his life, his high character as a citizen,
and the calmness and wisdom of his uttered
thoughts, his personal courage and his fine
sense of justice, guarantee an Administra-
tion of the very best order They assure
us that neither passion, hatred, revenge
nor hot partisanship viii control the Ad-
ministration, and that the judicial calm
ness of the true statesman will dominate
at the seat of Government.
If the indications-which appears to Us
to be very near certainties-proye reality,
and the Republican party is again in
trusted with the administration of the
affairs Of the nation, the party will be put
upon trial, as it has not been since the
days of 1861 and 1864
The people Of the United States who in
terpret the constitutional guarantee of a
republican form of government to mean
something more than formality, will ex-
pect the Administration to so use its pow
ers and direct its influence, as to secure to
every man in the land, North or South.
the right to cast his ballot without fear,
let or hindrauce, and TO have his Vote
honestly counted \ republican form of
government is not assured to the people
Of any State, where any of its citizens are
persistently deprived of the right to ex-
press themselves unrestrainedly at the
ballot-box. The State violates its
compact with the Federal Union
of States, to give repub-
lican form of government to the
people within its own bounds, so long as it
connives at, condones or affirmatively aids
repression of the votes of free citizens.
That in many of the Southern States the
vote cast Is not otrepresentative of the mass OF
the people is a fact, and that it is due to the
most outrageous intimidation of, interfer-
ence with and repression of the voting right
of the freedman, is matter too notori-
ously true to be even debatable question.
The Republican party will be looked to,
also, to restore crippled civil service re-
form to It's former estate and to advance
and uplia it to the plane it should occupy.
Upon this very question of the reform OF
the civil service the incumbent of the
Presidential Office has been criticized
most severely for his lack of firmness and
adhesion to voluntary pledges he made.
The reform OF the civil service is a ques.
tion that by very large proportion o
our people has been treated as of indiffer
ent concern except when it served pur.
pose in a campaign. They have appar.
emily given it too little thought to per
ceive the immeasurable good for the
nation that lies within it. Scarcely Sec
ond in Importance to the security of the
citizen in his right to freely vote, and to
have his vote honestly counted, is the ne.
cessity that servants of the Government
shall be taught that their duty is first and
foremost 10 the people; that they are
given place and invested with trusts by the
the people to be used in promotion of the
public good along the lines of prescribed
duty, and not to be laid at the feet OF
party rulers, boss dictators and political
cars as means to the accomplishment OF
partisan ends
Upon the fiscal questions of the day, ii
is enough to say that the stormy debate
through which the country has passed
and the result of the election, indicate tc
the new administration with sufficient
clearness the policy it will be expected to
pursue. They do not demand, however
any radical proceeding, any rushing to ex.
tremes, nor any violent changes in our
commercial system. But they do demand
such procedure as will, by wise tariff adj
justment, place American labor, industry
and production in an attitude to enable
them to fairly compete for their own mar
ket, and such as will conserve their vigor
and highest development.