Year: 1873

its most pressing duty of establishing
the Constitution and the Union, is pre-
pared to give its chief attention to labors
of reform. From its teachings, indeed,
has already sprung up rapid improve
ment in the moral condition of the no
ton. 1t has taught and enforced politi-
cal. equality everywhere; it has done
much to break down those barriers of
caste and of personal distinctions which
not many years ago seemed about to
overpower the primitive idea of repubi-
can unity, upon which our institutions
are founded it has driven from power
all those who would revive among us the
the European notion OF the necessary
inferiority of any particular class of the
people it has inculcated the necessity
and the dignity of labor, and bound the
whole nation together in a common fra
ternity it appeals to the principle of
community as tine true source of national
progress, and has blended the 80, ,000,-
900 of varied races and fortunes who
occupy our prosperous territory In one
broad, free and united commonwealth.


Had the designs of its opponents sue
ceeded, it is easy to see that no peace
would ever have visited the divided peo-
pie. We were threatened with the harsh
tyranny of an arlstocratic Democracy in
the South with the imperious tictatiOn
of their allies at the North with the
swift rise of foreign influence in our
chief cities, founded upon ignorance and
tainted with European follies with the
e1orbitant demands of foreign priest
hood, and the prospect of a ceaseless
struggle between rival races and creeds
The dangers we have escaped cannot be
too highly estimated the good sense of
a majority OF the people, which crushed
them almost at their birth, cannot be
too often acknowledged. Amid the
clamors of thousand scandal mongers,
the united assaults of foreign press
upon our most eminent men, the gross
calumnies of the Cincinnati Telegraph,
the keener thrusts of the UniUcrse, or
the London 7abtet, the people chung to
their Republicanism, and shattered the
hopes of European reactionists and their
transatlantic admirers. Never, we be-
ieve, was Republicanism more truly the
the faith OF the vast majority of the
nation than now, when it has leisure to
enter unimpeded upon series of in
ternal reforms.


The Republican party has, in fact,
ceased to be a separate political organi-
zation, and embraces all who, under
any name or creed, desire the perpetua-
ton Of freedom and the equal rights of
all Many of its founders were known
as Democrats, others by different party
names. 1t is hostile to no sect, except
where sect endangers the peace of the
nation, nor to any race that is loyal to
freedom. 1t embraces all who are
the friends of reform, education, the
development OF the national resources,
of industry, peace, and general ease,
and hence from its action alone can
come those further improvements in
political morality and public honesty
that arc demanded by the progress Of
knowledge. 1t has overthrown that
great center of immoral influence which,
under the honorable name of Democra-
cy, preyed upon the city and State of
New York, and spread its malarious
taint over the elections of every part OF
the Union. 1t has repressed cruelty
and barbarism at the South. 1t offers
security to the immigrant, and the
means of free communication to the
farmers Of tho West. 1t has reduced
the national taxes, yet scrupulously pre-
served the financial honor OF the nation.
1t has pledged itself to purify elections,
elevate the character of its public
servants, extend the influence of the
civil service reform, and place III Office
those only who are competent and trust
worthy. Nor, We believe, will any one
who compares the prosperous condition
of our own country with the less ad-
vanced progress of others fail to see
that Republicanism, although some
times embarrassed by the common frail-
ties of human nature, and sometimes
erring in the choice of representatives,
has already repaid to wonderful de-
gree the necessary evils of period OF
disorder, has awakened n higher sense
of public morality, laid the foundations
of a more thorough education of the
people, promoted all industrial pur-
suits. and raised the community to Il
condition of general prosperity, toward
which all other nations have yet to
make their way in the path in which it
has gone before.


To hope for any honest projects of re-
form, therefore, from the political fac
tions and leaders who have been the
constant enemies of Republicanism is
idle. Experience has shown their false
ness. We have Democratic conventions
assuming the name of Reformers in
Ohio, and Liberal Republicans claim
ing to guide the policy of Pennsylvania.
But the people will trust neither fac
ton. They have seen the Liberal Re
publicans engaged in plot to carry the
elections at the South by violence re-
ioicing over the prosecutions of white
and colored Republicans in Georgia or
Louisiana exultant over the misdeeds
of their cruel oppressors. They have
heard the cry of the victims of the Lib
eral Republicans, and will redress their
wrongs. There can be no honesty with
those who have share in such crimes.
That the Democracy should prosecute
any Just reform is impossible. Its whole
strength lies in that portion of the for
eign vote which is plunged in Ignorance,
and in that portion of the Southern vote
whose violence has sullied the fame Of
freedom. Its triumph would mean
death to public honesty and national
education. We suspect the people
mean to take the labor of reform into
their own hands, and they will perfect
it by enforcing these principles that
form the basis of progressive Republi-
canism. The Republican conventions
of New Hampshire and of Iowa have led
the way in arousing the national con-
science, and there is something of the
freshness of new impulse in the de-
mand from the Northwest that every
honest citizen should take part in poll
tics, and every Republican become a
reformer. r.-Harpers Weekly.