Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-03-11
stauntotl Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18th sssl-
Is the Republican Party Dead ?


1t is curious circumstance, says the
Baltimore Sun, that the leaders OF the
majority in the Congress which expireo
March 4th at noon acted throughout the
last session as if there was to be no here
after for their party-as if the republican
party was, in their opinion, dead, and all
that remained for its former members was
to utilize their present tenure of power fol-
their enrichment as individuals. Foresee'
ing their exclusion from trust they hao
betrayed, they FASTENED, it seems, to make
away with as much of the peoples assets az
they could. This recklessness during the
second session was to a large extent, no
doubt, result of the verdict passed by the
people last November upon the party's
principles as expressed in the legislation Of
the first session. That verdict was that
the high-tariff policy Of the republican
party, as expressed in the Mckinley act il
absolutely inadmissible as national policy.
This rejection of the protectionist idea
necessarily carried with it the abandon.
ment of the party that had identified itself
with s'protection." This is seen in the at
titude of the alliance Legislatures in the
West and Northwest since the November
election. They are controlled by men,
majority of whom were till recently repub-
licans, but Legislatures more bitterly
hostile to the principles of the republican
party could hardly be imagined. When
such States as Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska,
South Dakota and Wisconsin elect Other
than republican Senators or Governors, ano
do it not by accident, but upon deeply-fel'
issues, the deluge is not coming-it has
arrived. A permanent disaster has been
incurred. The party of prohibitory tariffs
of trusts, of high prices and extravagant
pensions is fatally discredited in the very
quarter to which it formerly looked for lts
largest majorities.
Not without reason, therefore, the party
leaders In the Fifty-first Congress have con
sideled their party virtually dead as
national party, and, being thus freed from
any sense of responsibility, have proceeded
to loot the treasury and mortgage its
future resources. Senator Hoar saw that
the Mckinley act had exhausted his party's
vitality, and he sought to galvanize it into
life by reviving the slavery issue through
the nstrumentality of his force bill. That
issue, he knew, gave it birth and kept 1t
alive till Mr.. Cleveland brought the
economic issue to the front. Mr.. Hoar wat
not speaking at random, therefore, when
he said, upon the shelving of his force bill,
SIT means the death of the republican
party" Not that the party will cease to
exist as an organization and cease to VIII
elections in certain States, but that, in his
opinion, the republican party, with the
burden of the Mckinley tariff upon it, and
without the hot passions of the slavery
issue to rally voters, is as good as dead 1t
may be revived, perhaps, on some new is
sue, but on the old issues it is as dead as
Hector.
Mr.. Hoar and the other leaders of his |
party are not, it appears, alone in this be
lief. The Hon. Jare Simpson, the 'sock-
less" alliance Congressman from Kansas,
in his speech at Washington on Tuesday |
last, concurred in the view that, as /
national organization, the grand old party
is defunct. Gin the future" he said,
'sthere are to be two great parties, the
Farmers Alliance or peoples party and the
democratic party. To the democratic party /
all the conservative people will flock and
keep it in existence. The republican party
is as dead as the wing party was in 1S46.-t
There is nothing to keep it alive but sec
tional hatred. During the last thirteen
years it has not upheld a principle that
would attract people. and without sectional
feeling it could not have existed. The
people Of Kaa sas decided to fill up the
bloody chasm if they had to throw John j.
Ingalls, into it. Since then seotioDalism has
been dead in the West" Be this as it may,
the prospects CT the party are at present /
very bad, and the shameful record Of the
Fifty first Congress will hardly improve
them.