Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-11-12
THE LESSONS OF THE ELECTION.

The great republican tidal wave that
swept over the country last Tuesday,
SO soon after a like political phenom-
enon of two years ago, when the dem
ocrats carried almost everything,
shows how susceptible the drifting ell
ements in politics are to the pres
ent conditions of affairs. One advan-
tage always adheres to the party out
of power, and that is that it is easy to
complain of the doings of those who
are trying to run public affairs, no
matter how sincere they are in what
they do. Two years ago the repub-
licans were howled out of power, not
on account of business depression, but
for a hundred minor claims made
against them, until the floating mass
es ''went in for a change" About one
man in six is willing to vote for a
change, whatever his condition may
be.
In this contest there was no need of
raising false issues or fraudulent
claims. The democrats themselves
in some of their sober moments, or in
their fierce struggles when they lost
discretion, told the truth and predict
ed almost all that the election proves.
The great party fell into the dom
ination very largely of men who
seemed to know nothing about the
wants Of the people and the philoso-
ply of governmental business, or who
were so hide bound in sectionalism as
to destroy existing laws and to en-
act new ones, to bring disaster upon
| disaster. The promises to undo the
tariff system and to institute d new
one, upset business at once. No soon
er had the knowledge come to the
country that Grover Cleveland was
elected and with him democratic
congress than apprehension, gloom,
failure and immense and unheard of
disaster went on. Probably things
might have reached a state where
there was danger Of some failures and
some local disasters, but a change,
which promised to be radical, and
which, SO far as the tariff went, was
radical, was promised and business
and the country had to suffer. 1t is
no small matter to trifie with the GUS
tom laws of this great country, and
when the crazy free traders got into
power, they could not be restrained
by the conservatives of their own
party and would not be controlled by
the wisest statesmen in financial mat
ters in the republican party.
It was necessary that the claims of
the free traders be proved false by
actual experience; it was, perhaps,
the best thing that the country could
endure, to let the party which had
been out Of power thirty years, clam
oring ali the while to get in, have Op-
portuni5y to prove by actual trial
that their theories were wrong and
| that they were not capacitated TO rule.
! The change now made will have its
effect, without doubt, for great good
In States and localities, especially in
New York and in certain Western
States, while in congress it will prac-
tically end tariff tinkering for the
| DISS0uU. Inc Work III
ready done can not be undone yet,
but the southern clements, the pop
ulists and the wild partisans of the
other States can do little more harm
in the way OF new legislation. If in
1896 the tide shall still set in toward
republican shores, there will be q
change then that will bring into pow
er q party which has ruled the coun
try well and will do it again.
In moral sense the most crafty
ing thing is the sweeping out Of pow
er of the Tammany ring of New York
| and the defeat Of the corrupt political
trickster, David B. Hill. The condition
ofNew York has been a scandal to the
nation in the eyes of all it's people and
Of the world. The defeat of Hill shows
that no man, however smart or wick
ed in things political he may be, can
run his career any great length of
time after the people set out for his
downfall. AS has been said, this is
victory for the Ten Commandments,
and every man who has regard for
morals or for Christianity and good
governme Mt will rejoice.