New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-11-06
THE MORAL SIDE.

There are certain questions connected win
the impending election which may properly oc
considered by earnest and rencctihB hch oii
such a day as this. We refer 10 dIstihcu'e''
moral issues. upon which the political support
If bigb-minded, intelligent Americans Is 10 DC
based. Since the Republican party was or
eauized forty years ago it has represented
;ssues of that quality. while the Democratic
nortv has pcrsevcred in ant. gonlzinS good
morals in politics by their fruits We snail
know them" BY their policies are parties 10
be judged
Tho abolition of slavery was the supreme
moral Issue which brought the Republican party
into existence If the reproach of slavery has
heen lifted and removed from this free land' IL
is because that party fought ont 70 inc Gnu
what that peace-loving Quaker, John DrIsh''
described as the only righteous war OF mooeri,
times. and restored the Union on the basis o,
universal liberty Democracy was the rock anu
defence of slavery Ii proclaimed that rsh'-
eohs war TO be a failure when 1t was near!
ended it opposed emancipation ana the con-
stitutonal amendments. and to this DAY IL nam
tains in the South its od-timo hostility 10 Tree
suffrage.
Then there was a moral ISSUE involved III
financial legislation during and since the 'FH
War That was the issue OF common honest!
in dealing with National creditors !! he-
nublican PARTY in contracting the war debt as
sumod the responsibility of paying 1t IN the
corrso of 4 generation, and has already reduced
II IN tbe extent of three-fourths. 1t had re-
coursc 10 the greenback as the only possible
o,nodont for carving OH the war, and IN gooo
time il made the currency of the Nation as
| GOOD as cold. In establishing the Natlonai
| hanks it acted on the principle that common
currency of unquestoned value was needed lor
| free trade among the States OF the Chioh'
Throuchout these financial Transactions anu Ill
all the recent controversies over the depfecia-
rion of silver. the Republican party mas ue-
monstrated that honesty is the best poilcy lor
nations as for men. The Democracy mas peei
during the same period saturated with niiahcia'
| berosios and never on the side OF honesty III
has been opposcd to the rapid payment OF inc
dcbt il has resisted strenuousy Resumption
il has been the enemy of the National banks,
and if is to-day advocating free coinage ana
state bank issues.
The Republican party, moreover from i's
oroaniz,tion has been contributing steadily by
IFS nolicies to the working stock of American
e.
acts was the passage of the Homestead bill, by
which the Western Territories and states nave
been filled with settlers, and this was lono"eu
by railway legislation by which the resources
of a continental domain have been rapidly de-
veloped Side by side with these great pohcieS
has been the Republican Protective system, by
which the interests of free labor have been
nronoted and industries multiplied and di-
yer,ifed Not only have the working people
OF America been placed on the highway 10
| prosperity as the result of these creative pol
icies. but twelve millions of Europeans nave
been provided with good homes and remuner-
alive employment during the last thirty years
| In this way great work has been wrought lor
| the GOOD of the Nation and for the relief OF
oyercrowdcd Europe and 1t has been the work
of the Republican party The Democracy has
always opposed these great measures. 1t fought
| the Homestead Act and the Pacitlc Kali
way bills. and it remains to this day the
rreconcilablc foe of Protection. The highest
moral issue involved in human government is
the welfare of the masse5. Republican legis-
lation during the last thirty years has been, IN
It's broadest effects, benefcent and enlight-
ened system of State socialism, by which all
classes of working people in the land have been
directly benefited and safeguarded against the
social discomfort and unrest Of Europe.
The rejecting man who still hesitates respect
ing his duty on Tuesday ought to make it
moral question to-day. Let him 90 back thirty
wears and point, if he can, to single issue
of National politics on which the Republican
party has not been right and the Democratic
party wrong lie will find that if the Repub-
lican policies of that period were stricken out
nothing would remain that counts for political
and moral progress, while If the Democratic
policies were eliminated nothing worth saving
would be lost. Democracy, with its revival
of Cahounism and slave-owners' economics
its frees silver craze and its hostility to National
banks, its suppression of majority rights in the
South and its election crimes in the North, and
all its unsettling, destructive and revolutionary
policies, is party without moral issues Re-
| pubcanism now as ever in the past is con-
sentative and progressive force with creative
instincts, with National policies to work out
for the highest ends of American civilization,
and with an enlightened consciousness Of moral
responsibility