Arizona republican., 1904-07-06
PHoENp. ARIZONA. JULY 6, 1904.
Fifty Years of the Republican Party.

Today IS the fftieth anniversary of the republican party. IL Is mercy a
 coincidence, Of course. that the demo-
 cratic national convention assemblies at st. Louis on the half-century birthday of the party which has practically Tut the democracy out 1T business In all But eight of the years since 1s,o and the deuocrotic leaders lost sight of the fact that they had fixed upon a date SD eminously suggestive Of def-at for their party.
 Although a brief span In the history of nations or in the evolution Of man himself afty years is long time meas ured by a mans life. and as parties go it is a long period In the life of p5- !tical party. Pounded on the tasic sentiment Of opposition Co human slavery. and hlv,ng accomplished t-e purp-sr which brought it Into bs-nv. the rvEzblican party long ago aston ishsS its cn-mles by it's continued vi- rilitF Accordlng Co an the logic ot analogy. rspubHcsnism ye-rs ago Ezsvit Gave plsved into the limbo of detd organizations. It was against all suYaIsence that a party founded cn circle idea should not only survive the fFst-sn of it- purposes but become az stahle zs th- government itself But it has lived and grown. and stu lives and grove. because it has made " missios, fsr itself It is s.iI not cnly a party or moral idezs'-not necesslr- fly "the" party of moral idear. for o0ly narrow partisauship would deny Co the democratic party li<s hen sty of purpose and like fidelity to ideals-i but 6, is the party of practical com mon sense leadership. It .s a curious fact that the republican party has achieved iis greatest triumphs by talk Ing advantage ef democrauc mis- takes.
 No man can conjecture how ng the party born. at the little town Of Jackson, Mich. on the 9th day of July 1854 would have remained party of limited membership and par-- Iy sentimental ideas. like the rroh.- b.tIon party Of today. had no. the dem- ocracy made slavery and the exten=i-n thereof one of the cardinal doctr.nss 1 Of The democratic faith. If the ceno- cratic party had not been Ia-ally = vided at Charleston in the convent on | Of 1860 there would have been no pos ability Of MT. Linooln's election tsat | year. of course. And most imTo-tant of aIl If the south had not accepted ! the election of Lincoln as the gage or battie-if there had been no effort 10 dismmber the union-the republican | party after enc. or at most two, trms under Mir. Lincoln, might have passei | out of existence as an important fac- tor in our national life: But republican i opportunity came with the war against | the union. Henceforth it was the party which represented the national ! instincts Its field was bread ned to embrace not only the duty of preserv- ing the union, but to embrace as we'll numerous doctrines identified w.th progressive Americanism.
 And from that day to this, il must | be set down in sober eaRdor that the re- publican party has met unfiinchiag.y I emergency after emergency, crisis after crisis, and has made so few mis- takes that it is no hyperbole to say that republicanism now stands for the very genius Of democratic government | Indeed, 1t may be said that the only | monumental mistake made by the | party in all it's fifty years of life was the enfranchisement of the negroes be- fore they were ready for cit zenshp.
 But the uniform success of the party | has not been due to genius in leader ship, if by that genius is meant some- thing extra ordinary and uncommon in | human wisacm and superior to any in- tellgence in tke opposing party. It has been due, rather, to remar kabIe un- derstanding of and obedience to the popular will. The two greatest lead- CTS of the party. Abraham Lincoln and | William Mckinley, were pre-eminently