Year: 1874

found, reprinted, two editorials from the
Journal of 1869, on the subject of ITEM
perance in politics" The opinions
therein declared met with general appro
baton then, and there is no cause to re-
consider them now


The Republican party is emphatically
the party of intelligence, progress and
patriotism. OF course bad men some
times secure Office in it, and by the aid
of it. as such have in the Democratic
party, but, apart from the cardinal prin-
ciples of these two parties, there is this
distinctive difference between them; the
Republican party forces its members to
be honest or it exposes them; the Demo
cratic party was never yet known to pun
ish nor expose the dishonesty of any of
its members within its own ranks.


As between the two parties the Repub-
hcan party is emphatically the Temper
ance party in sentiment, sympathy and
practice. But it has other duties to per-
form besides the duty of practicing the
cardinal virtue of Temperance Every
thing that pertains to the interest and
welfare of the Nation is now in charge of
the Republican party the national debt,
the commerce of the country its domes-
tic and foreign policy, the rights of the
States and OF every citizen in them, the
protection of foreigners, our home man
ufactures and interstate communications,
our internal improvements; in all these
the Republican party will be sharply
held responsible for the Nations welfare


The Democratic party on the other
hand is recognized as having no respon-
sibilities, and as executing the sole duty
of embarrassing the Republican party by
every possible way and of hoping to find
its profit in whatever disaster the Nation
may experience


Under these circumstances it cannot
be permitted that the Republican party
should ignore the weighty responsible
ties resting upon it, and blindly surren-
der everything to the one question of
Temperance. . sl-


These considerations are in season just
now, because the Temperance party,
largely it not wholly composed of men
recognized as Republicans, with anything
but temperate action, is so preparing for
the fall campaign that without hope of
success, it threatens to deliver the State
over to the Democracy, unless the Re
publican party sacrifice every RESPONSE
bility to the one idea


The management of the Temperance
question in our State and in our midst,
has not been such as to win for its lead
ers the exalted admiration or implicit
confidence even of the most earnest ad-
vocates of Temperance themselves. The
injudicious efforts of the Temperance
men have enabled the Democrats to Sc
cure power in scores of important places
that were Republican strongholds of
which Cleveland is a prominent exam
pie. They have lost to us Cincinnati,
the Governor, the Legislature and q.
S. Senator, and they threatened yet
more losses; while, wherever Temper
ance has made gain it is only a slight
one at best, with little hope of definite
beneficial result and less hope to retain
the advantage. Abroad it has lost the
State of New York and several New Eng
land States and here in our midst while
its successes have been far from adequate
to the sacrifices and sufferings endured
to obtain them; they could have been
far better secured had there been no
Temperance agitation whatever.


Under these circumstances it cannot
be expected that the Republican party
will make an ignominious surrender of
its principles to the one single question
of Temperance, yet the Temperance agi-
tators are even now striving to force
this, and nothing else will suit them.
They ask, in effect, that the great Repub-
lican party that has beaten the brave
traitors in arms backed by the cowardly
rebels around our homes, that has saved
the nation and reconstructed it, that has
healed the wounds of the war, restored
the shattered Union, achieved the glory
of the Geneva Conference, reduced the
national debt and the national taxes at
the same time, that has re- established
the national credit, developed the ma
tional resources and has made US for the
first time in our national existence really
respected abroad and a land of freemen
at home, they demand that this great
party, studded with stars of glory, adorn-
ed with the triumphs of humanity and
craftsmanship, shall surrender all its
glories in the past, its responsibilities in
the present and all its opportunities of
power for good in the future to the one
single question of Temperance. That it
peril every ything to enable party of one
idea to achieve. a single point which,
while it can only be won by the aid of
the Republican party, has been won
elsewhere at imminent risk and serious
sacrifice, and has always been found ut
terly valueless and complete failure
when finally secured


We say God forbid We say let the
Republican party stand as it has ever
stood since its organization the friend of
freedom, the enfercer of integrity, the
protector of the weak, the great exem,
plar of National progress and National
| glory; let 1t snow It's sympathy Win anu
its fidelity to Temperance as it always
has, by the recognized Temperance and
virtue of its public men, but let it perish
rather in the meridian of its glory stab
bed by zealots it has defended and who
have owed to it all the power they have
ever possessed, rather than be ignomin-
iously destroyed after it has virtually
surrendered all of its clustering glories