New-York tribune., 1888-04-15
rHE INpEPENDENCE or MR. LOWELL


THE INDEPENDENCE OF MR.. LOWELL.
| Mr.. Lowell does not understand that his per-
| sonal conduct and his expressions of opinion
60 far to render what he calls independence"
offensive to patriotic citizens. The American
dude who worships everything that is $50 Ing
lish, you know" the American politician VINO
thinks it reform" to stigmatize as robbery the
kind of tariff favored by Washington and every
prominent statesman OF Revolutionary times,
NAV be able to find in Mr.. Lowell satisfactory
teacher II does not occur to Mr.. Lowell that
he is trying to vilify the noblest and best
Americans of the past and the present-eyen
him "whom posterity will recognize as the
wisest and most bravely human of modern
times.n Abraham Lincoln-when he speaks of
the tariff which Mr.. Lincoln favored and signed
as "robbing Peter to pay Paul" A National
policy which has so uplifted American labor
that it is no compliment to millions OF Amen-
can worl1ingmen TO say they know more OF
their country and have sounder and higher
conceptions of the duties Of citizenship than
Mr.. Lowell with all his scholarship, policy of
which they would feel ashamed to speak as iG-
norantly as he does, will not be the weaker for
the censure of one whose melancholy distinc-
ton il is to have pleased the ruling classes irS
Gxat Britain better than any other American
Of his time.
Independence was the theme Of Mr.. Low
elPs address at Steinway Hall on Friday even
ing, and no small part Of his criticisms of
poitical parties and their conduct was correct.
Just such criticism, at least as candid and fear
less and more impartially clear-sightod, may be
found in the columns of hundreds of influential
Al, Of p1yl,
men, who have no sympathy with the course
of Mr. Lowell. They do not find that indie
pendent speech or effort makes it necessary for
them to join the "holier-than-tho cotenc.
To their honor be it said both Republican and
Democratic journals not few can be found
which do not shrink from constant and scaeh-
ing criticism Of their own parties or from frank
and untiring efforts to correct evils within
Them and they have the more power with IN
telligent citizens because of their frank criti-
cism and earnest effort, when they recommend
the principles and the worthy candidates of
those parties, in spite of faults which they do
not hide nor pardon. This genuine inde-
pendence recognizes the essential integrity and
purity of the American citizen, and his fitness
to have pant in self-government. 1t knows
that government by parties is necessary and the
best attainable government, and seeks progress
by raising the parties to higher plane. Only
an American with English eyes in his head can
be blind to the fact that great progress has
been made.
Mr.. Lowells idea of independence" is to
CRY "holier-than- thou; to fight the better OF
two parties because it is not perfect, and thus
to give power to the worse of the two to set
up the private judgment and limited knowledge
of an individual as the only safe guide in
action, and to substitute isolated guerilla war
fare for loyal service with a disciplined and
patriotic organization. 1t is we'll for Amer-
cans that the vast majority of them have far
too much sense to initiate him. They know,
if he does not, that the calm judgment of mill
ions of plain citizens, who had confidence in
Mr.. Blaine in 1884 was a sOunder and safer
guide than the inhamed vanity which some
men mistook for virtue. They know that the
eeotistical independence which made some pro-
fessonal rcformers give bonds for Grover
Cleveland as pure reformer has wrought more
harm to the cause of reform than all the hos
tility of all its foes. They know that it IS
moral treason to the Republic to help leaders
who seek success by suppressing the votes Of
a great body of citizens or by forged returns,
on the pretext that Independents" must re-
buke some other and less grave offence. They
know that the practical sense of millions of
Americans is worth more than the scholarship
of one who declares Mr.. Cleveland his ideal OF
noble and pure American craftsmanship