The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1890-05-29

which at the last compelled the acqat
escence of the Democrats in a compro.
mise method of ballot reform which
may possibly secure a partial deliver
ance from the evils OF u corrupted bal.
lot. 1t knows that at this hour Donio-
cratic policy In this State Is dictated
by an organization which has perpe.
trated every possible crime against
civic purity and popular rights-a par
tisan banditti whose one dominating
impulse is an unappeasable greed; that
this Horde of rapacious plunderers,
whose d~ebaucheries and excuses have
long defied all restraint, have seized ev.
cry venue of preferment, and hold to.
day in practical subsection, to the vast
detriment of the public interest, all de-
partments of the State administration.
The very atmosphere we breathe is
tainted by the poison Of the muck-heaps
whose impurities recent investigations
have exposed to public gaze. This jour.
nal is aware, too-it can not help being
so-that in Ohio, New Jersey, Mary
land and every other State in which
efforts to secure legislation corrective
of corrupt election methods, and prac'
teal reform in other directions, have
been Intellectually made by Republicans,
the failure was due to the hostility OF
the dominant party. To say, in Wow Of
these facts, that the man who left the
Republican party and united himself
with the Democracy has found a cleaner
bed thar he left, is to put an affront
upon the popular intelligence, and
practically to deny tho truth of history.
Political parties are to be judged and
weighed by their major purposes, and
their dominant and controlling tenden-
cies. Just as q mans life is measured
and weighed, not by what ne may do in
one hour or In one emergency but by
what he does in all the crucial tests of
his life as a whole, so the Republican
party in this State and country is to be
weighed and measured by it's prevailing
trend and tendency. 1t is indeed posi-
BILE that it has not in all crises risen to
the height of its duty. 1t is quite proba-
BILE that it has at times paltcred
with its opportunities and failed to
utilize its power for the larg-
est and greatest possible results,
but it is still true that its stand
ards have fluttercd in the van Of every
great struggle for reform and for the
maintenance of vital and essential prin-
ciples. 1t was the backbone of the 10y
al purpose of the American people dur
ing the civil war. 1t steadied the pub
lie faith all through the dark and trou-
blous reconstruction period that sue
ceeded. 1t gathered in and anchored
in the constitution and laws tho legiti-
mate fruits of the triumph over rebel
lion. 1t is to-day the stay and the hope
of every movement looking to the pro-
motion of the public welfare. No real
a advance along any line of social or civic
reform is possible without its leader
ship. And when we find any journal
like Harpcr's Weekly undertaking to
pcrvert and obscure the obvious truth as
to the relations which the two political
parties of the country sustain to the
great questions of the hour, we car only
conclude that it lost the desire, if not
the capacity, to be impartial in its criti-
cisms of public men and measures coin
cidently with its decision to become an
organ of the partisan Democracy
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.