Year: 1876

payment of the rebel war debts, the pen
sioning of confederate officers and sol
diers, and numerous other visions OF
terror are conjured up. With an argu'
ment of this character il is almost humi'
liating to be called upon to deal. Again,
the existence and obstructive power OF
an organized opposition, this time con-
trolling the senate, is ignored and that,
too, by the leaders of a party which, in
complete control of the government in
its every department, through six years
out of eight, piteously claims that its
utter failure during all that time to full
fill any of its pledges was due to the
presence of contemplate minority,
Experience is, however, after all, the
best of guides, and experience is not
without It's lights on this subject. The
Gins" always do, and always have
unanimously averred, with fervor
which can only spring from heartfelt
conviction, that the incoming of the
"outs" will be shortly followed by the
final crack of doom. A good many cred
ulous people, from force OF habit chiefly,
can always be relied ON, also, timorously
to accept this view of the subject. Two
years ago it was nervously argued by the
party leadert, in the same spirit, that
the country could not be so rich as to
elect democratic house OF representa-
tives to trust, etc, etc. Yet, looking
over the field ard judging by the record,
no truly independent voter could prob
ably now be found who would not admit
that the existence of an opposition
majority in one branch Of congress has
been, during the last year, a piece of
national good, d,fortune; and, also, that the
record of that opposition body will, as a
whole, compare more than favorably
with the records of either the republican
senate or the republican executive.


THE END FOR REFoRMERs.


The single great end to which all re-
formers, whatever their theories may be,
must look is distinct enough; it is to
overcome the tendency of our political
system to corruption. All political
systems, no doubt, have some tendency,
greater or less, toward corruption. The
popularity of ours is that il moves, and
for. fifteen years has moved, in that
direction with accelerated pace, and it
has now arrived at a point where even
the blindest patriots see that, unless the
evil is checked, our political system must
break down, and some new experiment
must be substituted in its place. The
ground therefore, and the only ground
on which all honest men can unite, and
insist with one voice upon reform, is
that of resistance to the corruption Of
our political system.


All these measures of reform, necessary
as they are, attack merely the outposts
of corruption. They would, if successful,
considerably reduce the resources of the
political organization but when it is
considered how infinite the ramifcations
of these party supplies are, and how ex-
traordinary the skill with which new
sources are constantly developed, it is
ridiculous to suppose that these meas
ures, even if adopted TO their utmost
extent, would offer any permanent cure
for the radical evils Of our political sys-
tenn.


No serious impression can ever be
made on those evils until they are
attacked at their source not until the
nation is ready to go back to the early
practice of the government, and TO restore
to the constitutional organs those powers
which have been torn from them by the
party organization for purposes of party
aggrandizement.