The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-06-24
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Regularly every four or eight years
when the struggle for the Presidential
nomination grows hot few Republicans
here and there are led to despair of the
success of the party. They declare that
the organization is degenerating into one
of men rather than principles; but
fortunately this has always proved a
false alarm and will again. If, in the
struggle over the Presidential nomi-
nation, the contestants raise dust
which for a moment obscures the princi-
pies of the party, it must soon pass away
like Summers cloud. Whatever dis
appointments attend the nominations,
and whatever untimely declarations may
be made before hot blood has had time
to cool, it cannot be long before every
true and loyal Republican must realize
that he owes his first allegiance to the
nominees, and must feel that whether it
selects one candidate or another, the
Republican party can rightfully claim
his support as matter of principle.
In the nature of things, the Republi-
can party must maintain the antipode of
Democracy-an organization in which
principles are immeasurably of more i'm
portant than men. The anti-National
Democracy is hemmed within the narrow
limits of the States right doctrine, and
as Jeffersonians and Jacksonians its
followers delight to proclaim themselves
the adherents of men rather than
measures. The few principles, or rather
| policies, which the party has dared to
proclaim having involved it in disgrace
and dishonor, and its present designs
being such as it may not openly avow,
the Democracy strives, through its lead
ers, to dazzle the eyes of its followers
with Jacksonian and Jeffersonian hero
worship to the abandonment even of a
pretense of honest convictions.
Conversely the Republican party,
secure in the grandest names known to
modern history, is yet so rich in
principle that it never needs to steal
leaders, glory to cover lack or TO sub
stitute hero worship for sound political
doctrine. No Republican ever finds it
necessary in defining his political prin-
ciples, to declare himself Websterian
or Lincolnian Republican, although
Webster and Lincoln embody the
doctrines of this party more completely
and accurately than Jefferson or jackson
ever did those of the Democracy. 1t is
enough for any man to say simply that
he is Republican. In the party of that
name there are no men so great that its
measures have to borrow lustre from
them.
Although the Democracy can venture
no longer to proclaim its real dogmas
and designs, it remains the same in spirit
and purpose that it has ever been. 1t is
ruined absolutely by Southern element,
which believes above all things else that
Cotton is King, and that cheap black,
CHEAP labor and free trade in the pro-
ducts thereof constitute the fountain of
Southern wealth and prosperity. Be-
hind the mask of tariff reform" is the
settled determination to arrange the laws
of the United States so that nothing
shall interfere with the importation OF
British goods acquired in exchange fol
the cotton produced by Southern black
labor and shipped to foreign markets
Representing nothing but cheap and
debased labor, such goods could be i'm
ported and sold at prices that would
literally take the bread out of the mouths
of the wives and children of Northern
white workingmen, but that is nothing
to the Southerners who have been laugh
for generations to believe that, will
protection once destroyed, they coulC
Gain untold wealth at the expense o
the North.
! The Bourbon Democratic South ha
been outwardly more defiant, but neve
l more thoroughly hostile to Northern
J labor and Northern industry than now, il
+ its last issue of tariff reform" 1t neve
nullified the Constitution and suffrag
laws of the United States with create
boldness, determination and success
= than at present. 1t was never NOR
willing to derange the monetary syster
q of the country in the interest of its ow
supposed gain at the expense of til
, North. For these and many Othe
7 reasons, it is of the first Importance tina
I the Republican party shall, in the COZ
test of 1892, present an unbroken fron
\ to its hereditary foe. Republicans mus
/ divest themselves of feelings of dissaI
) pointment or indifference growing GU
q of the ante convention struggle an
! close up their ranks in preparation for
r contest in which many of their mos
cherished principles will be at stake
/ For the first time in over thirty yeal
I the Democracy finds itself in a positio
: where a victory at the polls will, in a
probability, give it control of bot
2 Houses Of Congress, as we'll as of til
!. Presidency, and thus at one bound pu
the Bourbons in situation to recOt
themselves to the full for all they hav
lost and suffered. That day, if it come
6 will be an ill one for Northern labo
o The pounds of cure which the countr
r may then vainly seek to use will M
Q make up for the ounce of prevento
e which should be supplied next Noven
O Der. This situation is one which cal
h on all Republicans to get themselves Il
;. gether for one of the hardest and MOI
, a 4 n.