Year: 1875

From the LaPorte Chronicle.


Some of the rules which are applica-
BILE in the conduct of war, and which
govern the movements of a successful
general, are just as appropriate to the
management of parties. A great mill
tary commander adopted the maxim.


Find out what your enemy wants you
to do, and then don't do it, Sound.
practical wisdom would apply the max
i'm to parties as well as to armies; but
in the case of the Republican party, the
opposite course precisely has been pur-
sued, especially by a large part of its
newspaper. organs, and some of them
those which assume to lead i'm its coun-
cIls and management. They either,
having learned what the opposition
wants them to do, proceed at once to
do it; or else they are gifted with
blindness SO dense that they fail utterly
to see what is very evident to all per-
SONS of correct discernment, and fall
readily into the trap set for them by
their shrewd enemy. In this view, a





when tempered by hard common sense,
is of great value, for the application of
well-knOwn rules of military strategy
would prevent the needless laundering
which we so often see, blunders which
constantly weaken the party 10y giving
the opposition full command of the sit
uatiOn. President Grant appreciates
this most fully, and no doubt had it i'm
mind, when he wrote in his "third
term " letter: '' I'm fact | have been sur
prlsed that SO many sensible persons in
the Republican party should permit
their enemy to force upon them and
their party an issue which cannot add
strength to the party, no matter how
met" To permit this "third term -
nonsense to be made an issue was
huge blunder on the part of Republi-
can managers, if We may consider the
newspapers that did it as managers.
1t was precisely what the Democracy
wanted them to do; and instead of
treating it as it deserved, with utter in
difference, as 1.-THE baselesS fabric of a
vision,' it was taken up and discussed
with the utmost gravity, as though it
were flaming sword fraught with dan
ger in every flash. Newspapers like the
indianapolis Journal and Harper's
Weekly, taught in all seriousness that
it was a dark cloud surcharged with
lightning, threatening to strike the ma
tInn with ifc 80 holt, nf
Through them and others like them,
the people were eXhorted to believe that
Grant was plotting to make himself
President third time, whether the
country wanted him or not. The alb
surdity of the thing was manifest to
those who stopped to think, for under
our system of parties, and the machin-
cry OF our government, no man can
nominate himself, nor can he elect him
self. The decision rests entirely with the
people, first those of his own party, and
then of all parties. To treat the sub
ject as though it was one of imminent
danger, was exactly what the Democ-
racy desired, and what they had delib-
erately planned to accomplish. Instead
of declaring that to discuss the ques-
ton, was to insult the intelligence of
the people, and dropping it there at
once and forever Republicans con-
trolling leading newspapers walked in
to the trap set for them by the Demo-
Gratis as deliberately as the foolish fly
entered the parlor of the spider.


This is by no means the only blunder
of the kind. A few years ago, the OPP
position raised the cry of corruption.
There were of course some dishonest
men in public positions; there always
have been and there always will be, but
a persistent effort was made to besmirch
all who held any public position. RE
form" was demanded. A new party
based OH the alarm cry was organized,
and there was perfect carnival of per-
sOnal politics. The great object of the
combined opposition was to make the
people believe that every one who held
a public place was corrupt and ought
to be reformed F" out of Office. The
measures of the party in power were
denounced as expressing the people, and
the men of the party, who originated
and enacted them, were maligned and
accused of corrupt motives and incen-
tives to action. 1t might have been
that Republican newspapers
would have defended the men and
measures of their party or frankly sta
ted that they no longer belonged to the
party. But singularly enough they
made the blunder of supposing that the
denunciation of prominent Republicans
was the surest means of maintaining
the ascendancy of the Republican party.
Hence many of them treated as true all
the charges of the opposition, and
sought to gain popular favor for the par
ty by making their own voices ring out
the loudest, and then assuming the vir-
tue of castigating their own party lead
ers, and condemning their work. In
stead of denying and demanding the
proofs, they treated as true all the false
charges made by the opposition, and
every measure condemned by them, they
also denounced i'm terms vehement
enough to surpass those who began the
defamation. The natural result fol-
owed. Thousands of Republicans were
lriven into hostility to the party, or at
east inaction; and the opposition til