Year: 1878




The Effect Upon the Party.


The effect Of the Presidents course up
on his own usefulness and influence, anC
upon the standing and strength of hi


Administration, is plain enough. The
effect upon the future of the Republican
/ Party is not so clear.


/ The outlook at present does not inspire
/ unbounded confidence. A good deal o
demoralization is observable in all direc
/ tions. A party is entitled TO expect sub
/ stantial benefit from the possession o.
administrative power. 1t has affirmed
certain principles and purposes which its
representatives in the Government are
relied upon to carry out 1t has formu
| lated a policy to which the President il
elected will presumably conform With
out being recreant to duty, then, an
Administration becomes source of help
to the party that gave it existence. What
happens when the President fails to live
up to his professions, or to sustain the
measures of his party in the sense in
which il has understood them, is not diff
ficult Of comprehension. The first feel
ing is one of doubt and uncertainty in
dignation follows; and this again gives
room to mingled indifference and disgust.
The party finds an incumbrance where il
looked for an auxiliary, and is very like
ly, in the intensity Of its anger, to aggra-
vate the mischief against which it is
suddenly required to provide.


The reality as it is today does not
essentially differ from the situation as
usually developed After the first flush
of satisfaction was over, and when Mr.
Hayes began the course which led to the
n,r agN Nsr,sr fpa
dent disposition not to put an evil con-
struction upon his motives. Despite the
surrender Of the Republican cause at the
South, he still had the respect of his par
ty. On all sides there was a reluctance
to assail him. He had it in his power
even then to main tain cordial relations
with the true leaders of the party. and to
increase its popular strength The op
portunity which then presented itself he
allowed to pass unimproved. Peculiari-
ty Of temperament may have helped to
bring about this result, which was precip-
itated by the absence Of sympathy be-
tween those whom he took into his
confidence aud the great body of Repub-
licans. The same proneness to reject
unpalatable advice and to give heed to
counsels that should have been distTusted,
has led him, step by step, further from
the party and its standards. The conflict
between practice and theory in the mat
ter of civil service reform repelled and
dishearted the better elements, while the
professed desire for the overthrow of a
great wrong excited the hostility of the
machine" politicians The party there
fore suffered from two opposite influences.
1t has not been more fortunate on the
silver question. Neither side in that
controversy is satisfied. Thus. the gen
eral result is all but universal disappoint-
ment among Republicans, together with
unconcealed indifference to the fate Of
the Administration.


To some extent the position is a worse
one for the party than that of actual
opposition. In the latter case it would
be exempt from many responsibilities
that now weigh upon it heavily. Ii has
all the burdens incident to power with
few of its compensations. IT is debited
with an Administration which has little
or no sympathy with its aims, no affilia-
tion with Acknowledged exponents of its
will, and no visible regard for its interests
as an organization. 1t cannot point to
the President of its own making with the
trust and pride which inspire enthusiasm,
and it no longer turns to him for the
assistance he might legitimately render.
IL the issue to be decided in New Hamp-
shire and in the other State elections
which occur later in the year turned up
on the policy and position of the Admin
istration, the prevailing Republican feel
ing would reveal itself in an apathy that
would render success impossible. Defeat
and victory would be so near akin in
their bearing upon the party's fortunes
that either would probably be regarded
as immaterial


Fortunately, the future of the Admin
istration and the future Of the party are
not thus closely connected. And the
Administration having made up its mind
to follow a path which leads no one
knows whittier, the party owes to itself
and to the country an adaptation of its
measures to the existing situation, and
their prosecution with a spirit made more
determined by the presence of unexpect-
ed difficulties Since the President can
not or will not help, Republicans must
care as well as they can for the interests
that are at stake We fear, too, that
they must depend more upon local or
ganization, local leadership, and upon the
strength derived from direct contact
with the people, than on the statesman
ship hitherto displayed in Congress. The
pent-up feeling against the Administra-
tion would have burst forth long ago had
the narrow Republican majority in the
Senate proved itself equal to the occasion
Between a President welded to his own
ways and with an ear more often open to
flatterers than to honest friends, and
Senators whose highest conception of
dignity and duty relates to the details of
patronage, there is not much room for
preference Goodness and obstinacy on
one side; arrogance and selfishness on
the other. If the quarrel rested here,
we might well be content to watch its
progress with genuine impartiality.
The party can expect to regain the
/ ground lost by the action, or inactiOn, OF
/ the President and the neglect OF a great
opportunity by prominent Senators, only
/ by keeping before its objects that are
/ worthy Of its principles and history. Not
/ now for the first time are great trusts
betrayed, and great wants in high places
left unsupplied. Notifying as the expe


rience is, it should not lack efficacy with


reference either to the plans to be adopt


ed or the choice OF men to whom thcil


execution is to be intrustcd A party


can manage quite as well without


President as a President can without


party; and it need not necessarily los,


heart or hope because leaders whom /


has honored with its confidence fail at


critical moment to discriminate betweei


pique and principle as motives 10 action
/