The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-10-24

The Great Mugwump Movement.
The thought must often impress it
self upon far seeing observers OF Ma
tional politics, that a new party is
gradually growing up in the country,
q party made up of members of the
two old sects, a party in general
allied with the Democracy, but oc-
casionaily opposed and ever hostile
to it, especially in the more sordid
battles OF local politics. 1t must be
plain to many that the general alli-
ance between this party and the
Democracy becomes closer and closer
from year to year, and that the time
is not far distant when it is destined
to take possession of the Democracy,
to become its vanguard, to furnish it's
captains and counsellors, to furnish
its principles and to dictate its NOR
ais. 1t must also be plain that the
movement in progress Is of those
regenerative processes which from
time to time occur in the history of
AhbAOAAcs d4Ad "1AOA dAACSb lAO 0CSdy
which results inevitably from stagna-
ton and routine.
The great "Mugwump" movement
bears in many respects a strong re-
semblance to the Abolitionist tidal
wave. which from a mere ripple such
as you might stir up by dropping a
pebble in the ocean, swelled and grew
until it engulfed the Republican
party and aroused the entire Nation
to an active patriotic fervor such as
had not glowed in it in a generation,
and which stimulated its advance in
material, artistic and intellectual
progress In an equal ratio with the
great stride in political principle
which marked the elimination of the
anti-slavery cause. Other countries
exhibit similar lamentations of polit-
ical thought. In a country, the prin-
ciples of whose rule are not unlike our
own, Great Britain, the agitation for
the repeal of the corn laws, the forces
which brought about the Reform
Bill, and in our own immediate day,
the Home Rule struggle, may well be
likened to the great u~pheavals of
ideas and readjustlnents of creed and
allegiance which go on among our
people.
1t would be trite to remind Ameri-
can citizens of the early contempt in
which the Abolitionist movement
was held. The history of this
carried along through years of oblo-
guy and censure by William Lloyd
Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher, Wen
dell Phillips. Horace Greeley and the
other devotees of universal liberty is
a story which is written in the minds
of our people next after the deeds Of
the Fathers of the Republic. 1t
would be a work of supererogation to
mark the stages in the rising tide of
truth and right which carried Abra-
ham Lincoln to the Presidency, and
placed the Abolition phalanx in the
foremost rank of the Republican
party.
It is unnecessary to dilate upon the
manner in which it recreated that
party, in bringing it back to a con-
troll of National affairs which it had
not exercised for many years. 1t is a
part of undisputed history that it
furnished the principles, the
deals, the honor, the virtue, their
courage, the energy which animated
the Republican party throughout the
duration of the war, and the relic of
which maintained that party in power
until it had dwindled and subsidized to
the dead and fetid level of unin-
spired greed for power and profit.
In the great Mugwump revival, a
great principle to serve as a rallying
point isnot wanting. The caus may
lack the brilliancy of the anti-slavery
crusade; but the reality aud vitality
of the issue is none the less. The
publication of politics through the
abolition of the spoils system is o re-
iuIt which no less touches the per-
petuity Of the nation and OF the liber-
ties OF the people than did the re-
movaI of the blot OF slavery from the
Ioil of the country. This, when you
penetrate to the very heart OF things,
IS the goal OF the Mugwump move
ment The immediate objective
point may be a robber tariff; it may
besa system of controlling elections
which threatens to give indefinite
tenure to one party at the expense of
another; 1t may be the effort Of
sne section of the country or
me group of statesmen to sacri-
ice the credit and the welfare
If the vast majority for the profit Of
United interests; it may be the vul-
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