Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-10-15

NAL contest for supremacy?
A party's programme of legislation" is
supposed to be outlined in it's national
platform. Comparing what the Republic
an party has done in the last three years
with what in its latest platform 1t prom
ised to do. one gets fair conception Of
its unanimity and sincerity. To begin this
comparison. note the utterly false-the I'M
deniably and admittedly false-assurance
tk,l THE stability of all our currency
upon a gold basis has been secured. Be-
fore the campaign of 1900 was six weeks
cid that platform declaration was admit
ted to be untrue. Three sessions of Re-
publican congresses have been held since
that campaign ended, and no serious at
tempt to make good has been made.
The gold standard remains unsecured,
and so great is the disparity of views
among Republicans in and out of congress
that there is literally no prospect of safe
guarding it or of effecting any material
reform in our absurd and dangerous med
ley of currency laws.
That platform again renewed the party s
pledge to build up our commercial marine,
but disaffection in the Republican ranks
has put that scheme out of sight. 1t will
probably be left out of the platform of
1904
I'VE favor home rule for and early admis-
sion to statehood of New Mexico. Arizona
and Oklahoma That was one separa tie
and distinct plank of the 1900 platform 1t
has been repudiated, and Republican lead
ers in congress have treated it as joke.
On various pressing questions as to
which no specific promises were made in
the platform of 1900 the Republican party
is hopelessly divided. The most impor-
tant of these is the tariff. and the division
on that is radical. The gulf that yawns
between the faction of which Babcock.
Dolliver and Cummins are leaders and the
greater faction led by Aldrich, Hanna and
Payne appears to be unbridgable. In the
absence of "any sincere programme of
legislation on this subject the party will
in all probability continue to stand pat on
q policy that repudiates Blaine. MeKin-
ley and Dingley and whose bitterest as
sailants are distinguished and lifelong
Republicans
Mcclellan and the Republicans.
By one of those strange condolences
which confound the philosophers no
mention was made of General George
Brinton Mcclellan in the recent pro-
ceedings on the famous field of Antie-
tam defeating the New Jersey monu-
ment This omission has astounded
the entire country. Mcclellan is one
of the great figures of the greatest civ
il war in all the hoary registers of
time. Had he been a Republican be
and not Grant would have been the
Union hero of that war. True. the
only time Grant ever voted he cast his
ballot for James Buchanan, but Nc
Clellan loomed up so early as to be
in the way of Republican president
making, While Grants eminence came
at Il later date. and for some reason
| the Republicans counted him as their
| own. So they bounded Mcclellan to
his grave and can't forgive him even
after death. though he unquestionably
saved Washington and the Union at
Antietam. His reward was depriva-
ton of command. The Globe Demo
crat of st. Louis, blind. narrow and
| malicious Republican organ grinder.
has had much to say in dispara cement
of Mcclellan in general and McClel-
lan's victory at Antietam in particular.
In order to disparage Little Mac it
went so far in one editorial as to say
that Lee was weak when fighting on
| the defensive, when all the world
knows that he was the greatest de-
| fensiye general that the civil war pro-
duced. Afterward it contained an
other editorial in which it said that he
was strong in the defense, but it new
er retracted. referred to or explained
the first named editorial assertion.
More recently it contained this editori-
al fling at General Mcclellan without
any sort of excuse: 'McClellan's name
could be charitably omitted in men
ton of nearly all his battles" 1t is
very easy to say that sitting in cush-
Toned chair in fine Office in a great
city in the year of our Lord and Mas
ter 1908. but it was not said by any
man who served with Little Mac" in
the times that tried mems souls.
The Republican effort to belittle Cen
eral Mcclellan because he was Dem
ocrat will not work. The omission of
his name from all the Antietam speech
es has caused people to talk about him
more than if he had received his due
need of praise on that occasion. and
the talk is all favorable except that of
a few narrow minded Republican big
tends to be just. and he does not like
to see man who has served the coun-
try faithfully. valorously and well SIAN
dered or belittled. 4 systematic effort
was made by northern Republicans to
deprive General George H. Thomas,
1.-THE Rock of Chickamauga." of his fair
measure of glory. but the effort. base
and malicious. recoiled upon the heads
of its authors. More and more Thomas
stands out in bold relief as one of the
greatest American soldiers. and his
detractors have hidden their diminish
ed heads. The reason these "hateites'
pursued Thomas with SANDER and
abuse was that he was a virginian and
Democrat
When the future historian of the
civil war. far removed from the heat
and hurly burly of that titanic strug-
gle, comes to write the true story of