Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 May 1881 — NEXT! [ARTICLE]

NEXT!

[From the Cincinnati Enquirer.) It is now the President’s turn to tell what he knows and thinks of Conkling. Then the country will learn from the liighest Republican sources of authority and information of what sort of material both wings of the Republican party are composed. From the lips of the commanding Republican Senator and from the lips of the Republican President the people of the United States will learn what are the purposes, what the mission, what the nature of the Republican party. Since the 4th of March last the Republican party has done more to impeach itself, more to bring itself into disrepute with the fair-minded people of the country than the entire Democratic party has been able to in fifteen years. The two parties were exactly evenly balanced last November. The accidents of the electoral machinery gave the Presidency to Garfield, while Gen. Hancock carried one-half of the States and onehalf of the popular vote. Since that time, within two months, the Republican party has lost a big fraction of the public esteem. First came the Mahone bargain—a most disreputable affair. Then came Riddleberger, as the great national issue. Then came Gorham, Brady’s partner, editor and defender, as another great national issue. Then came the Brady exposure, showing by what men and by what methods Garfield was elected. The people of the country suddenly opened their eyes to the fact that they had elected a President, not under the lead of patriotic impulses, but by the manipulations of public peculators, by the potency of stolen money; so that the same men raped the public treasury and the public opinion. The Dorseys, who were famously dined, and the Bradys, who were illustriously invited to do all they could to elect Garfield, were caught one day with their masks off. The country knows a part only of what was thus disclosed. But it may be urged that these men were not representative liepublicans. To be sure, Mahone, who constitutes one-half of the Republican majority in the Senate, is not a Republican, and Riddleberger, to put whom in office the Republican Senators blockaded the public business two months, is not a Republican. These were the evidences of an infamous bargain whose end was spoiled. But Gorham had been Secretary of the Senate ten years, and is the editor of the Republican organ at the capital, and Brady was Second Assistant Postmaster General of the United States. These may be called representative Republicans. But if it is still said that this is only the sole of the foot of the Republican party, let Jis look upward to the crown of its head. We shall find that it is spoils still. The statement of the case of Conkling vs. The. President, as given by the Senator, is before the public. It is in order now to hear the case of The President vs. Conkling, which we doubtless shall soon do. We shall then have heard from both wings of the Republican party, and shall have learned its character from the crown of its head to the sole of its foot. The country will note the fact that this quarrel in which the President and the leading Republican Senator are engaged has about it no aroma of patriotism, no suspicion of a great, broad principle, on either hand. The country knows that these charges, if true, indicate a disgraceful state of affairs in the party that elected the Executive, It will

Pbjfc useless to attempt to make rthte President the scapegoat for all of the offenses of the party. The country will also believe that it is in the power of the President to make L truthful charges against Senator ConkI ling equally damaging or more damaging. The President should, in self-de-fense, state his side of the question or authorize a statement The President owes this to himself, no matter what its effect upon Conkling, for Conkling has iiot spared him. Then, from the two great leaders, “ representative Republicans,” we shall all learn the truth about the entire Republican party. There is no wide-spread sympathy in the land for Conkling. At most he has only been the victim of his own methods. The profound sympathy is for the republic which is controlled by such methods and such men. Conkling is probably the most distinguished representative of the spoils system in government to be found in the republic to"day; His own statement of his own game is a confession that he was, or may be, beaten at the spoils game by the President. He acknowledges himself guilty of the same offenses with, which he charges the President; By his own statement, neither he nor the President rose in patriotism above the level of “ the swag;” and of such is the Republican party. And thousands of people last fall were seduced by one of these spoils heroes into voting for the other. Oye hypocrites ! We do not say that these representative men ought to be ashamed; they are beyond shame. The voters of the United States ought to be ashamed. We await the next development with interest; Mr. President: What of Senator Conkling ?