Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-05-24
CARESSES THE HAND THAT
SMO'TE HIM.
THAT

| duced (after all that has come and
gomez to say word for the Mckinley
| regime. and to predict It's triumph at
the polls in November. This Is, of
course. expected to help smooth the
wrinkles from the Ohio situation, where
some of the old time Republicans still
resent the trick by which Sherman was
| induced to give up n seat in the Senate
to become a member of the Mckinley
Cabinet. and was then brutally showed
out of that.
Sherman loyalty does the best he can
for the party chiefs who played him
such scurvy trick. but he Is not
wholly fortunate in his dellverances.
Thus he says:
The Republican party is not one of
men. but of principles. / trust they
may dominate the public policy of the
nation for years to come. My political
experience goes back over the entire life
of the Republican party, and, as look
over the field, I find its principles and
| sphere of usefulness have been consist
tent throughout. 1t has been the party
of the highest ideals and advance re-
suits in our political history
OF course. the declaration that the
Republican party is not one of men,
but of principles" Is the merest banal-
ity. one that Sherman, in his more than
a half century OF public life, must have
heard repeated easily an hundred
times. and by the orators of every
political party, and epherneral apology
for a party that has bobbed to the sur
face of our seething turmoil of politics.
| oil hot ir,,a =
in any instance have been more grossly
m!sapplied than to the Republican
party of to-day, n gigantic Organization
that is the merest playthng of the men
who control. finance and direct it as a
close corporation.
| Not moro fortunate is the declaration
that "its principles and sphere of use
fulness have been consistent through
out" II this declaration be true, 1t
constitutes an offense to one entire sec
ton of the country. which can but re-
call the fanaticism, hypocrisy and blind
| sectionalsm that dominated it for so
many years: if 1t be not true. then it
were better left unsaid. since in any
case 1t is liable to start comparisons
which will be little enough to the credit
of the Republican party.
In one respect the Republican party
has been consistent enough-in its early
days it justified its disregard of the
| Constitution by high-1own flap doodle
about higher laws" at Present it is
| keeping up the lick nobly. The devil
was never so fluent in scriptural quota
ton as is the Republican party in citing
abstract and transcendcntal principles
of morality in justification of a con-
crete and perfectly obvious rascality
In this. it has been consisten. always.
as it has been in pandering to the few
and disrcgardng the interests OF the
many. The Republican party has been
consistent in its Hypocrisy 1t has not
been consistent In its fanaticism 1t
has changed from an anti slavery to a
pro-savery party. IL, indeed. it ever
objected to slavery save as a pretext
for getting the dollar.
In declaring that it has always been
consistent. Sherman has paid his party
n dubious compliment. Sundry wearers
of stripes are at present applying for
pardons. on the ground that they pro-
pose. for the future. to be inconsistent.