The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-05-24
THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

The political situation does not
differ greatly from that which existed
in 1860. The democratic party had
long ruled the country The southern
Shareholder represented in congress
by the highest type of statesman, was
master of the situation. Although
well within his constitutional rights,
he became aggressive at exactly the
wrong time, and in exactly the wrong
way
The advice of such men as Alexan-
der H. Stephens, Herschel V. John
son, Benjamin H. Hill and Sam Hous-
ton fell upon deaf ears. The more
radical element, led by Yancey,
Rhett, Wigfall and Robert Toombs,
soon found itself at dagger's point
with the element led by Stephen A.
Douglass, in the west, and Herschel
V. Johnson in the south.
The results are history. National
conventions went upon the rocks,
great party was broken up into frag-
ments, and victory made impossible.
The recently republican party,
with a minority vote and moral is
sue, carried the day. The slave sys-
tenn vanished, as a part of the cata-
cysm that resulted from the plumbers
and the madness of democratic lead
ers.
Almost without interruption, the
republicans have been in power since
system of slavery, infinitely worse
than that which it had selfish inter-
est, if no other one, in keeping his
chattel in good condition, in taking
care of the children of the slave, and
of prolonging the life of the slave.
Under the slave system establish
ed by the republican party, it is the
white man who is the victim The
master has no interest in the slave.
1t matters not to the master whether
the children of these slaves live or
die. The longevity of the slave does
not concern the master in the slight
est degree. When one of his slaves
dies, he does not have to pay thou
sand dollars to replace him; he calls
for volunteer white man to take the
vacant place, and the place is imme-
diately filled.
Incredible as it may seem, the
Islave-owners of the present day have
become more aggressive than ever.
| They not only defend their right to
compel those of us who do not own
slaves to kneel to them and to pay
| for the necessaries of life, whatever
prices the voracious greed of these
masters dictate.
| We see that the leaders of this
great party have split up into furious
groups We see a president and an
ex-president railing at each other in
public like two frenzied fish-women.
They are hurting at each other every
epithet and every accusation. If Pres
| ident Taft is the man Roosevelt says
he is, he ought to be in the peniten-
Iiary instead of the White House. Ii
ex-President Roosevelt is the man
President Taft says he is, then Roose-
Welt should be in the chain-gang in
stead of on the hastings. My own
opinion is that each of these men has
described the other with great accI-
racy.
Then there is the LaFollette group,
which can never be reconciled with
either of the two others. Therefore,
we have in the republican party OF
the present day almost exactly the
same discord which divided the dem
ocracy in 1860.
| If Roosevelt should be nominated,
neither the Taft men nor the LaFol-
lette men will support him. If Taft
should be nominated, Roosevelt and
LaFollette will surely combat him. AS
to LaFollette, he could not possibly
be nominated. Therefore, unless the
party leaders can harmonic on some
such man as Hitchcock, the republi-
cans are doomed; and with them will
go their immoral system of protective
tariff, monopoly prices and wage-slav,
ery-Tom Watson, in the Jefferson
| IAN
The Tampa Times, speaking of the