Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-01-26
A CHAPTER IN IOWA REPUBLICAN
PARTY HISTORY,

In keeping with the thought sug.
gested above, we desire to call the at.
tention of the republicans of Iowa to a
chapter in the history Of the republi.
cans Of this state and nation which
should never be forgotten. 1t was at
the republican state convention held
at Des Moines on the 10th day of Au.
gust, 1898. Iowa's grand old man, ex.
Senator James M. Harlan, was temper.
airy chairman Of that convention. The
country was in the throes of a panic
caused by democratic victory in the
national election In the previous year
and the menace of democratic free
trade. Iowa had twice elected a dem
oci attic governor, Horace Boies in 1889
and again in 1891. The party in this
state was disturbed and distracted by
factional controversies within it's own
ranks and it was not until the great
speech delivered by Senator Harlan
at the convention of 1893 that repub-
licans saw the light which led to re-
united party, with return of old time
republican victories and continued sue
cess in state and nation. What did
Senator Harlan say upon this occa-
sion: No man present at the conven-
ton will ever forget the scene or the
occasion. AS the speaker warmed up
to the subject he enunciated para
graph after paragraph of the founda-
ton principles of the republican party.
He showed the magnificent benefac-
lions that had resulted to this nation
from the adoption of these principles
and declared with impassioned elo-
quence that a free people would never
Voluntarily repudiate them. What then
had been the cause of republican de-
feat in state and nation? Let us quote
directly from Senator Harlan's own
words:
I'm the political battle of 1854 re-
Ssplendent republican leaders. it is
said. sulked in their tents. They and
their personal followers were absent
from the polls and thus the most bril-
liant leader OF our party lacked a few
hundred votes of being elected presi
dent of the United States. And in my
opinion our national defeat in 1892
was in large degree the result of
a like causeB But these producing causes
were no doubt strongly supplemented
by our imprudence in permitting the
enemy to select the battle field;
that is, to formulate the issues for pop
ular discussion, thus adroitly leading
our chosen champions away from the
defense of characteristic republican
principles, where our positions were
fmpregnable and those of the enemy
correspondingly vulnerable to the dis
cussion of merely legislative measures
about which we differ widely among
ourselves such as the details of the Nc.
Kinley tariff bill, the compulsory edu-
cation bill, the so-called force bilI,and
here in Iowa the prohibitory, high Ii
cense or local option bills, involving
questions which never did and never
will command the unanimous support
of all the members of any great party
and which must necessarily be left
for decision to the average Judgment
of the members of congress and state
legislatures, and which might be de-
cided pro or con, without prejudice to
any of the fundamental principles of
the republican party.
1.-THE unwisdom of Incorporating spe-
cific statutes OF proposed statutes in
stead of the principles on which stat
utes should be founded into a party
platform for popular discussion in
political campaign ought to be obvious
as soon as mentioned; a statute being.
simply a legislative declaration of the
method of carrying an accepted prin-
ciple into effect and DIS many differing