The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-01-05
VOLUME XXI.
Louisville Courier-Journal

elected us to do nothing.
! If it be often a good thing TO let
well enough alone, it is occasionally
a wise thing to let bad enough alone.
We shall have two years to deter
mine what we ought to do before we
are required to choose a new Con-
gress and four years before we are
required to choose a new President.
Meanwhile, and particularly in the
hour of defeat, only selfish, small
and captious spirits will fume and
worry over the irremediable. This
is decidedly no time for mock hero
les, except among the Republicans.
Among Democrats, it should be a
time for sober inspection and serious
reflection, taking in the whole range
of the political field.
There are those who think, or af-
feet to think, that the battle was
lost to us on account of the tariff is
sue. If that be true, it were better
SO; for brave and honest men, who
| fight for cause, can afford to be
beaten, sure that truth will rise
again and they with it. There are
those, again, who think that defeat
might have been averted by better
management; the more's the pity;
since this view leaves behind it the
sting of that kind Of remorse which
comes from a sense of lost opportuni
ties. Our own impression amounts
to something more than conviction,
being, indeed, the result of know)-
edge in detail, not in the possession
of the public, and immaterial now,
seeing that is no longer of any avail;
though it may not be improper to
say, in answer to some ill-advised
detraction, that among those who
had charge Of the practical workings
of the campaign. there are not two
opinions about it.
On this point the least said the
soonest mended Nobody, inspired
by an intelligent and just RESPONSE
bility, will pretend that there was,
with perhaps single exception, pre-
meditated or conscious treaeherv in
the party anywhere. From the Pres
ident down, everyone connected with
the campaign did his best, according
to his light, to do his duty; and,
but for personal and local troubles
in the State of New York, the politi-
cal conditions of the moment would
be exactly reversed. So much for
our side.
But as the Democrats have not
found their migrations between Dan
and Beersheba the last four years an
uninterrupted round of picnics, we
imagine that the Republicans will,
in turn, find the Jordan ahead of
them an exceedingly hard road to
travel.
In the first place, they will have
to deal with an enormous and ever
increasing surplus in the National
Treasury-wrung from the.people by
unjust taXation-and there are but
two ways of disposing of this, either
by removing the source of it, or
wasting its substance on riiaatons leg
islation.
Fake whichever horn of this di-
lemma they please, they may exploit,
but they are not likely to enjoy
themselves.
In the next place, they are com
mitted to what they call free cleo
tions and fair count in the South
ern States, and this involves new
sectional and sentimental crusade,
the end of which will be the destruc-
ton of all business interests, North
and South, and such financial con-
vulsion as the country has never
seen before.
We do not believe that the policy
of negro domination, tried unsuccess-
fully by Gen. Grant during eight
years of absolute power, can be made
to succeed now.
In the third place, Gen. Harrison
will be no happier in tackling the
patronage than Mr.. Cleveland has
been, and, when the Republicans in
Congress come to meet the affirma-
tive responsibilities Of legislation,
and to set up policy of creation,
the sectional and belicose inspira-
tions which held them together dur
ing the campaign will break before
the needs of large geography, and
the mercenary demands of the shent
per silent monopolists.
On all these lines they will be
met by united Democracy.
Taxes must be general, not spe-
cial.
Expenditures must be frugal, not
wasteful
At all hazards, local self govern
ment must be maintained.
In the long run, the country will
accept no trumped up pretext for
the evasion or subsection of any one
of these immortal principles Of our
organic law, holding that, under the
system of checks and balances es-
tablished by ton the one hand
through the National Government,
within its orbit, and on the other
hand through the State Governments
exercising that right of home rule,
which is as essential to Pennsylva-