The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-03-17
Exit a Political Party.

1t Is much more than the inaugura-
ton OF new President that we are TO
witness. 1t is the exit Of great poll.
tical party that for thirty two years
has been able by its control of all
branches of the Federal Government
to put its ideas and policies into laws,
or by its supremacy in some great
branch of that Government to thwart
the like efforts of its adversaries. Once
only in this long period has the Pres;
dency been wrested from its grasp.
and for one Congress only did its oppo-
nents control the Senate.
1t goes out of power with scant pros.
poets of speedy or permanent return.
The issues which called it into being
and on which it speedily rose to power
have forever passed away, and it is to.
DAY the representative of no politics
that have in themselves either vitality
or growth. 1t can at best hope for
future accidental and transient sue.
cess through the chickering's, the blum.
ders, or the faithlessness of its oppo
nents. 1t would be rash to saw that
during this long supremacy the Repub
lican party has not done deeds that
will be great in history or produced
men who have added to the glory OF
their country. No party ever welded
such absolute and tremendous civil or
military power as it welded during
the first years of its rule, and no party
ever controlled with higher hand and
laughter sway every branch of the
government than it did for the 10
years that followed the close of the
war.
The boasted management of public
finances during and after the war is
now seen to have been wasteful in the
extreme and guided by incorrect prin
ciples, and we have not ceased, ever
yet to pay the penalties of that waste.
iulness and blunderng. Its states
manship in dealing with the problem.
of reconstruction is discredted by the
fact that much of its legislation wa.
set aside by its own Supreme Court a,
violative Of the Constitution, and the
rest of it bore fruits that in the enc
appalled, its own authors. Party sup
remacy, not philanthropy or the public
good, was the motive that caused i
to put the ballot in the hands of tn,
negro. The brief and spasmodic re
action that elected President Harrison
aslo gave the Republicans control O
both houses of Congress. They mad,
Jealous use of that control to put, 0
to attempt to put, on the statute bool
series of distinctive partisan meas
ures. These were the Mckinley bill
carrying the doctrines of protection t,
an extreme never advocated by an
party in this country before tn
Bounty and Subsidy bills, most often
slve specimens of class legislation tn
, Dependent Pension bill, that has add
: ed already nearly half a million pen
. sioners to the rolls and several scor
millions of dollars to the yearly bul
, dens of the taxpayers, to say nothln
. of the decentralization wrought by sue
bill throughout the land the Sher
man silver bill, another example c
. class legislation for political purpose:
under whose operation we have speed
: lily advanced to the edge of hnancia
and industrial panic. Nor would thi
, catastrophe be complete without refel
ence to the violent partisanship an
r disregard of the right of minoritie.
: which made the House a theatre {
, turbulence and disorder in the Rec
Congress and precipitated upon til
. Senate the memorable and perilou
! contest over the Force bill. By a
these things the Republican part
earned the hostility of the America
t people, showed itself destitute of an
sense of the tendency of things, an
: unable to grow with the growth of tn
country and the broadening spirit c
: its people.
In continuing to wave the blood
shirt quarter of century after tn
war closed, to CHAMPION the mo:
/ ultra protection in the face of the ir
intelligence of modern times and tn
, growing knowledge of commerce, I
shovel out pensions from the people
taxes, to hundreds Of thousands VIII
, incurred no disability in the service
to scoff at the rights of the States t
local selfgovernment and to threate
l the people with Force bill-in a
{ these things the Republican party ha
shown itself out of touch and out fc
sympathy with the spirit of the da,
and goes into Punishment the cu'
todian of mere lot of past and di