Year: 1874

no argument, illustrated In all the pOhti-
cal conventions and almost daily, it does
seem as though candid criticism OF both
parties and fair exposure of these ad-
mitted absurdities should be courteOusly
and kindly received and profted by, instead
of calling out the wild and senseless clamor
of partisanship. When we call the attention
of the Democratic party to the inconsistencies
of its position in Ohio and Indiana on the
one hand, and Illinois and Pennsylvania on
the other; when we show that the the leaders
of that party have compelled it to utter infa-
ton doctrines in one State and anti-inhation
in another Free Trade doctrines In one and
anti-Free Trade in another; that they have
denounced the Salary Grab in Convention and
voted for it in Congress; that they claim
to be the Party of Reform when they are out
of power, and wherever they have the
power are so corrupt that organ
lied Reform throws them out when
we call attention to these facts and to
the empty rhetoric of their platforms and the
gasconade of their calls, though we may be
doing an injury to the business of the fellows
who set the country by the ears while they
take advantage of the confusion to plunder
treasures, we are really doing the party
good service in pointing out mistakes to be
corrected. Honest Democrats who have some
idea of what they believe in and what they
mean by voting the Democratic ticket, seeing
what a dismal burlcsque their leaders are
making of it, may, if they will, upset and
reorganize their party, and make Democracy
mean something besides a struggle for office
and plumber.


So when we direct attention to the noisy
defamation of the Administration supporters
before an election and contrast it with the puny
performance of the party afterward; when
we show that their prOfuse promises OF re-
form in the Civil Service were followed by
such administration as drove out the friends
of Reform in disgust that the party is di-
vided upon all the issues OF national politics !;
that while 1t boasts of having reconstructed
the South it is continually called upon for
troops to Quell disturbance; that it protests
its high regard for the purity of elections,
while its own Senators sit in purchased seats
and that in the face Of all its protestations
and professions in such State as YER
mont, where it has unquestioned con-
troll, it nominates for Congress the
author of the Press Gag law, and refuses a
denomination to the Representative who has
been fearless and upright, and illustrated in
his Congressional career what the party prom
ised in its platform-when we direct attention
to these glaring inconsistencies, we no doubt
give offense to the Post Offices, but we do the
party service for which its leaders should
be grateful instead of angry. The honest
masses in both parties desire just criticism of
the acts and policies of those who call them
selves their leaders. They listen to it will
ingly and are sincerely desirOqs to profit by
it. The whole political field is in such a
hurly- y-burly that most of the com
batalits are fighting wildly, and beating
the air, not knowing what they
are fighting for, or what side of any question
will triumph if they are Victorious. The first
thing to be desired is a fair statement of
some one question and q calling off upon it.
At present both parties are making promises
and breaking them, and neither is harmonious
or united upon single issue. In such con-
dition neither one is exempt from criticism
and blame, and the duty of patriotism is to
poiut out fairly the blunders and inconsist-
encies of both in order that in some way,
either by what is called reforming from the
"nsiden or by reorganization, we may
come out of the snarl and have some political
definitions that mean something. Meantime
it is to be hoped the professional politicians
will begin shortly to comprehend that there
may be such a thing as impartial criticism
without partisanshiD.