The Washington times., 1912-07-09

chosen by direct vote of the people
Revolutionary doctrine? A demagogic issue
trumped up by Theodore Roosevelt as a means of
disrupting the Republican party and satisfying both
limtless ambition and personal grudge? Is
this advocacy of the Rule of the People political
fustan conceived by an aggregation of malcontents
BY way of answer, it may be stated that the
above declaration in favor of the people having
direct voice in the selection of their officers be-
cause the people are the righfu of political
power is not quoted from Roosevelts Columbus,
Ohio, Charter Of Democracy Speech neither is it
taken from his Osawatome speech, neither is it an
excerpt from the call issued Monday for the organi-
zation Of new political party.
The quotation is the third plank, in its entirety,
of the first Republican platform ever adopted, and
was issued from Washington June 10, 1855. 1t was
the keynote in the declarations Of principles which
the handful of men issued to the nation for their
justification in breaking all party ties and banding
together to organize a political party.
Shall the People Rule" was the issue that called
the Republican party into exstence-not the ques-
ton of the abolition of slavery. That came after
ward, as a secondary consideration. In none of the
early declarations Of the Republican party did It
take up with the doctrine of the Aboltionists. All
that desired by the founders of the party was
the formation of an organization which would take
an uncompromising stand upon the slavery question
NOT for its abolition but against its further
tension into what was known as free soip' terri
tory and against compromising any more with the
advocates of the extension of slavery.
The old parties and the old politicians, which
were supposed to represent the sentiment of the
anti-savery people, had proved false to their trust
They had temporized and compromised and played
the game after the fashion it is being played today
by those who would serve two masters-the people
andSSpecia Privilege. '".~
In short the old parties had become corrupt
serve and hypocriical They no longer were rep
resentative Machine .rule was as firmly fastened
upon them as it is upon the old parties of today.
The people promised much and given little
the Special Privilege of that promised little
and given much. Hence the organization of the
Republican party 1t was organized to give the peo-
pie who were against the extension of Special Privi-
lege voice, a working organization, which if not
dominant itself would at least compel the old parties
to throw off the mask of hypocrisy by making new
line of cleavage, by driving to conclusion the issue
that was most vital at that time.
Confirming this is lengther declaration of prin-
cples and purposes of the first Republican organza-
tion issued early in 1856 in which we find the fol-
lowing:
| We go into the contest a and untred party,
opposing old and well-organized parties sustained by
|
ties. We must compel these parties to show where
they stand the only issue before the
themselves side or the other of this question and
consider every who is not openly and avowedly
the side of freedom as against it.
Such were the conditions that made necessary
the creation of the Republican party; such the
declarations of those who organized the Republican
party 1t was an issue of shall the people rule and
in ruling abandon the old parties which had proved
unresponsive to popular demands Is there much
difference in the wording of that call of 1885, and
the call issued Monday?
The latter sets forth that the power of the priv
legged classes on both old parties is so strong that
the real desires of the people are not considered
and that a new party is necessary for those who
believe in the right and capacity of the people to
rule themselves and effectively to control all the
j agencies of their Government
Those who would ndict the party today must
also indct the motives of those who called into be-
ing the Republican party. If the proposed new
party is revolutionary, then the Republican party
is the child of revolution If an appeal directed tc
the people is demagogic, then the foundations Of the
Republican party were laid in demagogy If the organ
ization of new party today is menace, then the
Republican party was menace. If there exists nc
reason for the organization of third party today
' then the Republican party never had any license
to exist.
The longer the campaign proceeds the more i
will be impressed upon the public that instead o
advocating revolutionary and strange procedure:
those who would organize new party today arr
only going back to first principles, only beginning
5 over again the work which the Republican party wa
first organized to do and which did do until it fel
into the hands of the Special Privilege interests
: this generation.