Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-07
"sTAND TO YOUR GUNs."


 "STAND TO YOUR GUNS!"
 "The Press" of New York, barring it's politics, one of the cleanest sheets com ing to our office, gave to it's leader yester- day the title Republicans, Stand to Yonr Guns" We thank thee Jew for teaching us the word" With a small paraphrase we adopt the appeal. Democrats, Stand to Your Guns," is our war cry, too, with the additional advice: Arrange your battle grounds and clear your decks for an effec- tive fusilade. The difference between our contemporary's order and ours is that the "Press" limits it's great party pronounce ment in the present to an onslaught on Lamar and drumming up against his con- while we would apply-and shall apply from this time forth-the words of adjura- tion to fight against Republicanism in all its forms and phases-personal and politi- cal; mot wasting ammunition on the by issue of an individual appointment, but entering the outposts and attacking the citadel at every point of vantage and every assailable loop-hole.
 Democrats, Stand to your Guns-but first arm yourselves with the guns by reor- ganization and discipline. It is not any too soon to take thought for the conflict. In five months the time of Convention for Presidential nominations will have come, and it will not do for you to remain inac- tive or negligent while the foe exhibits zeal and industry. The long, long succession of fights of quarter century's duration were disheartening in their progress, but crowned with success in the end; and the memory of the contest with the pride of ultimate vic tory should nerve Democracy now not to imperil what it so hardly won by any ex- hibition of the two great impeding forces the apathy of despair or the allurements of over confidence. No, we shall not waste the energies of our party on mere personal our objective point of resistance will be, as it is, against Republicanis1n as whole: Republicanism root and branch; Repubi- canism as the synonym of misrule- the embodiment of official guilt and greed.
 ''Stand to your guns' Democrats, in re- sistance of 8 restoration of the system which dominated the land from Lincoln's accession to the Presidency, to the defeat of Blaine There are many strange remi- niscences, some of them very damaging to civilized theories of Republican govern ment in America, associated with the pe- riod. The history of mankind since the earliest dawn of civilization contains noth- ing more sad and gloomy for contempla- tion among sober thinkers than the thous- and prominent events that occurred under the auspices of Lincoln, Seward, Chase and Stanton in the inception of the war waged against the States of the South That war however had in it, and surround ing it, the glamor of wisdom in the eman- cipation of the African; and this not only relieved but raised tho character of the President who was made martyr for his humanity. An, but the years that follow cd, when Republicanism became publ c robber-when offices were bought and patronage sold; when the peoples doma:n n was trafficked away and traded off for pri- vate interests; when in every department of government the example of mis-doing given by it's head was scrupulousIy imita- tod by subordinates; when the ballot was made to yield to the bayonet and bullet; when false and forged records of elections were supplemented by the manufactured figures of corrupt Returning Boards when in word onr country presented all the bad characteristics of an imperial despot- ism without any of the relieving attributes of an enlightened despot Yes, these were the conditions during the long years from Lincoln's assassination to the time when Garfield also met his death at the hands of murderer; and thence through the acci- dental presidency of Arthur and until the Nation awoke to a sense of its degradation and the assertion of it's Democratic digni- ty. Any one who should have predicted down to the fatal era of 1860 that such a system, under whatever combination of fanatical chicanery, could be possible in this country would have been branded as a lunatic. The Constitution of 1787 which alone conferred all the authority ever ex ercised by the Federal government in peace or in war was as completely set aside overthrown and demolished as was the sovereignty of England by the Declara tion of 1776. Under the system of author ity devised by the powers of the fedora compact of 1787 the Government, if ad ministered with honest and sober intelli gence would in good time secure the res pect and confidence of all peoples worthy to enjoy regulated liberty And indeed there would be no valid reason why tn, whole civilized world should not hav' initiated our example and resolved to supercede the principalities ant powers of monarchical forms with ibera representative organism in their autonomy But the abuses of the quarter century O unrepublican Republicanism destroyed O postponed the hope of "consummatiol so devoutly to be wished"
 We may yet revive the hope and restor fha aYnactation At any rate thera rn11s