The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-10-03
THE GRAND OLD PARTY.


The history of this country, splen.
did as it is in the passage of sale,
wise and helpful legislation, con-
tains no example in times Of peace OF
a session of Congress so remarkable
for good as the present one. Its work
has been done quickly, quietly, reso-
Iutely, and in the face of an oppOsi-
tion which has been bitter and I'M
scrupulous in an equal degree.
A hundred issues might be pre-
sented as a result of the differences
between the two parties developed
during this session of Congress. These
are the paramount ones:
Shall congress be deIiberative as
sembly wherein public measures may
be properly considered, duly de-
bated, and then, without waste of
time, actually voted upon and
wherein the American principle of
"majority rule" shall be respected,
or shall it be mob, incompetent to
act, powerless to carry out the public
will, with a majority so overcome
by its own rules that it is dependent
upon the minority for its authority
and power
Shall we allow the Capitol to be
filed up with men who obtain seats
in Congress not as the result of a free
ballot and fair count, but by tie
forcible suppression of franchise
rights. by wholesale frauds, by muir
der, arson, brutality and other
crimes?
Shall we abandon the policy of
Protection after all it has done for US,
to enter upon policy which we have
tested many times to our immediate,
unfaiing and tremendous loss?
Shall we again rob ourselves of the
rewards which have so richly come
from the restoration of silver, and
once more play into the hands Of for
eigners who haye been for years buy
ing our silver at low prices and using
it against us in the grain markets Of
the world?
Shall we pay our money, $50, 0OO,-
600 a year, to build up the merchant
marine of England, 10 increase her
strength upon the sea and her hold
upon the foreign markets of the
world, when we might as we'll as not
be paying it for our own advantage
in all of these respects?
Shall we keep our plighted faith
to the loyal men who offered their
lives in defense of freedom and union
and to the protection of whose fami-
lies from want and misery we gave
our word as a nation?
These are the chief and the most
sharply defined issues upon which the
country is asked to cast deciding
ballot this fall. Every effort is be-
ing made to side.track them, to enve!-
ope them in clouds and to carry the
people away from them here and
there on false pretenses. The Demo-
Gratis start off in the next Congress,
AS usual, with thirty-one stolen seats.
They have that number of seats to
their credit without campaign.
By infamous gerrymander especially
in Ohio. Maryland. kentucky and
Indiana, they expect to steal twenty
one other seats. This gives them an
immense advantage, To the Repub
licans it is an awful handicap. But
if the intelligent, thoughtful and pa
triOtic people of the land will do their
duty as citizens. if they will stand
sturdy by their guns, if they will
vote as they wish and think, the re-
suit will be glorious Republican
victory ard prompt and happy
completion of the work which Presi-
dent Harrison and this Congress have
carried forward so wisely and so well.