Year: 1873

PrOtectton-The Apathy en0 Suonce o2


tho Republican Party.


We are not insensible to the value of many
Of the issues which our political friends ore
seeking to obtrude upon the country. As the
nation grows in wealth and prosperity and we
assimilate our conditions to the develop
ment of the nation, we have new problems.
Modern thought has no wider, nobler sphere
of activity than the planting of nation in
this Western worlds Here God has given
everything, and other countries ask, what will
man do? What rivers and lakes and streams,
what wealth of mineral and agricultural re-
sources, what conditions and variety Of eli
mate On one day during last Winter the
thermometer marked zero in Duluth and
seventy degrees above zero in Key West. All eli
mates are under our flag, and while one citizen
heaps high the blazing fire to defend him from
Winters icy blasts, another revels in the
warmth and fertility of the tropical forest.
California, and Texas and Pennsylvania, each
an empire in what it performs and promises
each an empire, indeed, and yet only frag-
ment of the dominion covered by our imperial
republican flag Men of all nations come to
sit down with MS, that their children may
divide with our children the precious heritage
of freedom. We are about to celebrate the
hundredth anniversary of our existence; and
to nation a hundred years barely covers the
morning of it's day. All of this God has done
for us, and the problem of the age is, What
shall we do with itp


Therefore, when wise and ingenious men
ask us on the one side to favor free trade on
the other protection; to insist upon this
scheme Of finance or the other; to give suf-
frage to one class or withdraw it from another,
we answer that, beyond the hospitality of our
columns, we have nothing to say When one
eminent man calls another liar and q vii
lain because they differ about specific and ad
valorem duties, we admit the heartiness of the
argument and the sincerity Of the antagonists
temper; but we are none the less sceptical.
Woman suffrage is contemned by many as
fantastical scheme; but we cannot altogether
despise a cause that is championed
by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Wendell
Phillips. Free trade has been described
to US as political abomination,
a conspiracy sustained by British gold. But
there is something definite and true in what
ever commands the enthusiastic support of
John Stuart Mill and John Bright We have
had these questions; we shall always have them.
They are part Of the gospel Of progress, like
questions concerning the telegraph and gas
and railways But the only way to solve them
is by education, and there is no reason for
angry controversy. We have never seen
great canvass for the Presidency decided upon
sentimental questions in politics. Take pro-
lection and free trade. It is impossible for
any political convention, as conventions are
now formed, to draw an honest line between
these two issues. To make the distinc-
ton would tax the genius Of the
wisest of men. And we can never be party
to the unavoidable deception which must result
from the attempt to make the true distinction.
Time will decide what is best, and our columns
are open to all alike-to those who think with
Mr.. Mill and those who do not, to the fol-
lowers of Mr. Emerson and those who have no
fellowship with him.


grave danger is that many wise, patriotic
men, who otherwise would not be misled, will,
in their enthusiasm for sentimental theories,
forget the overmastering question. 1t may be
briefly summed up in this:-''Shall we have
Cmsarism or republicanism In our his
tory General Grant has attained the
position which Jefferson, Jackson and
Lincoln attained. He is master of the ;I,,iti-
cal situation. Supreme in party which is
supreme in the nation, commanding our politics
and legislation, he ;s irresistible. Our consti-
tuition, unlike tnat of France and Spain, makes
the Presidential Office as impregnable as the
Gar, Impeachment is practically no punish
ment, and no President can be reached except
by revolution. It is, moreover, painful
and extraordinary fact that, while every poll
tic1an in America is thinking over the problem
whether General Grant will or will not be a
candidate for reelection, no leading republi-
can has dared to say that such candidacy
would be practically an svowal of the
failure of republican institutions. We see
the unfortunate conditions of our society
corruption In Congress, on the Bench; In
social life, luxury, voluptuousness, craving
for riches, the absence Of simplicity and truth
in our lives. After Tammany Hall, and Erie
transactions, and Credit Mobilier Cesarism is
danger that can only be overcome by such a
revolution as was needed to destroy the Tam
many Ring. Men like Mr.. Conkling, whose
eloquence thundered like the roar of Niagara
against poor Mr.. Greeley and his fancies are
silent now They may say that they do net
speak because they will not be rude or unjust
to the President. They will not speak because
they dare not. When any Senator suppresses
the truth within him because Caesar may
frown, then he is partisan of Caesar. When
any Senator has another monitor for his
political conscience than the peoples will he
l L. r. \