Year: 1874




lie is but very careless observer of pOliu-
ed events who does not sec i'll the present
condition of public affairs and the attitude of
the people toward the great parties, situa
ton for which our history furnishes no par
allel. The feeling of the masses of the people
is one of profound disgust with politics and
parties. The party in power has no principles
that 1t has not betrayed; no policy upon
which its leaders are agreed; no leaders whose
authority is recognized beyond circle of per
sOnal adherents no cohesion except for the
retention of office and power; no title what
ever to public confidence except that it file,
the flag of a party which once did good ami
honest work and deserved TO be trusted. il is
as if Il feet that had been equipped in the in
tereSt of philanthropy to sweep the slave trade
from the seas, after accomplishing its work
had turned to plundering the innocent and
proving upon the commerce of the world. 1t
is the Capt. Kidd of modern politics.


The people understand this. No man who
has talked with his neighborS upon current
politics any time in three or six months past
will deny that the men who voted this party
into power in 1872 are as rule tired and sick
of it. No one can read the newspaper of his
neighbOrhOod, whatever its politics, without
recognizing the feeling of dissatisfaction with
the party and disgust with its self-sceking
wrangling, and unworthy leaders. II is but
feebly disguised in the most selvile of the
organs, aud wherever there is any indepcnd-
encc at all, OF wherever the press swings clear
of official influence and patronage, 1t is out
spoken and earnest. Only among the holders
of office, their satellites and dependents is the
course of the party or the policy OF
the Administration heartily approved
OF defended. Unfaithfulness to great public
trusts, prostitution of Office and patronage to
the ends Of mean and selfish ambition, pecu-
lation and petty thieving, pledges broken and
promises disregarded, honesty and uprightness
at a discount, and meanness and treachery re-
warded bribery and corruption protected, dis
honor vindicated and vice thrust shamclessly
forward,-these things and more have done
their work. You can 90 into no community
where YOU will not find tens and scores and
hundreds of honest Republicans who confess
they are ashamed of the last years record OF
the party.


But the saddest feature of the situation, and
il is this which makes it anomalous, is that
the honest masses turning away from the party
of the Administration have nowhere else to 90.
1t is idle TO talk of any revival of the Demo-
cratic party. The issues upon which it made
its long and losing fight are finally disposed
of, swept out into the limbo. Not enough of
them is left to keep above ground its uneasy
ghost. The real question OF to-day, the only
one that dsturbs the people, is how TO secure
honest administration and well-meant legsla-
tion Whether the Democratic party would
if restored to power initiate an era of purity
such as the country longs for, is a question
we need not now discuss. 1t is enough that
the majority of the people will not trust ii.
Whether their distrust is well founded or not,
let those Democrats say who voted for the
Salary Grab, who up to the last gasp sup
ported Tammany, who have habitually op-
posed stringent registration laws, and who
have never seen the party make solitary
sacrifice for truth, OF take of its own will
single step forward i'll the way of human
progress. The people will not trust that party.
To-day they are using 1t as a scourge, whip
of small cords to drive the money-changers
out. They used it so in New Hampshire the
| other day. Possibly they will do it again in
Connecticut next month. But trust it with
/ power they will not.


| SO between these two, the appalling evils Of


the existing regime and the possibly greater


which tho other alternative threatens. the mass
| OF the people stand and wait. Never sat party
/ ties so lightly; never was occasion so ripe;
/ the time calls for o leader; who answers?
! The Republican party is inside the party of
! the Administration; but its honest purpose.
/ It's sincerity, Its patriotism, its unselfshness,
/ are ovcrgrown and choked with Butler-ism-
| Gtant-isn-palty-i ism. Who succeeds Sumnc,
! Who takes the hag from his dead hand and
! goes 10 the front against personal government


and all the deadly foes of truth and right
! The old fight against Slavery is ended; the


new Que against c0rruntion has but iust be