Year: 1879

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 The One Important Issue.

 From the Washington post.]

 The writer of the following letter is a leading citizen of Q Western State, man of distinguished ability, long identified with the Republican party, and of prominence in its coun- cils. We commend his communlca- tion to the attentive perusal of those who would learn the drift of current political events. It is as valuable for it's terse presentation of the dom inant issue, as for the strong hint it conveys to sagacious politicians:

 To the Editor of the Post.

 "You must be aware of the fact that great many men in the Repub- lican party are at loss in deter mining their future political action. They do not believe in the party in possession of the Executive Depart ment of the Government of the United States, perpetuating their possession through control of the elections in the StaSes. They do not believe that citizen of the United States, as such citizen, has q vote, but that he votes as citizen of the State where he resides, and that, therefore, the State has, and should have, entire charge of the election machinery. But these same men, or many of them, while in full sympathy with the Democratic par ty in this mattcr fear the position taken In Ono by that party on the currency question. They feel In re- gard to that issue as you express it in Tuesdays editorial: "It is a thing of the past. It has been done. The few who survived the terrible journey have reached hard pam The wrecks of the many strew the way to that goal. There IS no prac. ticable remedy for the evil inflicted we must accept it as an accom- plished fact" Now, if the Demo cratic party will only accept this po- sition, and make the coming contest on the control by the State of its own election, where only it's own cit izens vote, and vote only for their fellow -citizens--for candidate for Congress or an elector must be cit lzen of the State, and it is this citl- zenship that qualities him for either ofiice--on this issue many Republi cans, who desire to maintain the present form of government, Nation al as to the other nations of the world, but with the existing States, with all their individuality as States within the Union, administering all local government, supreme over the citizens of State In all its relations with them as citizens, and over all the rights exercised by them as citi- zens--on this issue all such Repub- cans can unite. Is it not worth sac rificing the useless discussion of the currency question, and those voters who will see no issue of present prac- tical value, in order to unite in ono grand movement all lovers of our present form of government in an effort to preserve itr'

 There may be those who think that the extra session of congress was barren ol good results. To such we have to say that, inasmuch as the proceedings of that session, and the Executive acts resulting therefrom, brought to the surface and placed in strong light before the people the one great danger and the one great issue of the times, 1t was, for the ex- penditure, the best investment the Democracy has ever made. For years Democrats had been charging that their opponents were engaged in systematic and persistent cen tralization of power for the purpose of depriving the States and the peo- pie of their rights under the Consti- tuition. The charge had been re- peated so often and in so many shapes that it had ceased to have much influence on the public mlnd. But the acts of the Republican Con- gress, in conjunction with the de facto President, during the extra session, were such a loud and em- phatic declaration of opposition to the rule of the majority, such de- termined protest against the central ideas of our government, that no re- hecting mind could longer remain in doubt, hesitancy, or unconcern.

 When Mir. Hayes, the criminally created and fraudulently ordained representative of centralization, set himself up as q third house of Con- gross, and his party in Congress not only indorsed his dangerous, anti republican acts, but urged him on to still further violations of the spirit of our fundamental law, The Post confidently predicted that the course of the Radical leaders would not be approved by the best men of their own party. The manly protest above give an indication that our faith was not mere idle speculation. Tue dec