Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1882 — THAT TIDAL WAVE [ARTICLE]

THAT TIDAL WAVE

Opinions of the Press Upon the Lessons of the Election. Various Reasons Given lor the Great Land-Slide. Democratic Opinion. [From the Cincinnati Enquirer.] The Democrats have achieved victories which justify an exhilarating' hope that the next President will be a representative man of their political faith, and that the reins of government will return to the party of the people. The result has been brought about through the. disruption of the Republican organization and the general disgust of the people with the bosses and the tireless papsuckers; and no party can afford to be heedless of the lesson conveyed. Ihe party which has had almost a monopoly of the distribution of the spoils has suffered such a tremendous rebuke that it can only recover from the shock it has received through the blundering of its opponents. [From the Louisville Courier-Journal.] The Democrats have gained all over the North. The Republicans have made their only gains in the Southern States. This is well; neither party is solid in either section. The next Congress will be Democratic. The majority will be large enough; it will, perhaps, be too large. With this accession of power comes new responsibilities. If the Democrats meet these as they should; if they are true to their convictions, their traditions and their promises; if they will at once perfect measures for a gradual reduction of taxation and a revision of the tariff; if they will enact laws which shall take the civil service out of politics and make free citizens of the public servants, there is no doubt whatever the vote of confidence to-day will be repeated in 1884. If, on the contrary, they violate or ignore the pledges given in this canvass, this great party will give way to a greater and a better one, which will execute the people’s will. [From the St. Louis Republican (] It is not possible for any one to view current history without something of the bias es selfish interest and pride of opinion. It is also certain that no one I nowswh’at the influence of so sweeping a. change may be, because its full effects are contingent upon the uncertain actions of men in the future into whose motives so many conflicting factors enter. A great battle which might, be decisive of the fate of armies and thte power of nations often proves, from the course of subsequent events, of little consequence and of no real value to the victors; What has become of the Repub ican majorities apparently sw pt away in Pennsyh ania, New York and other States ? The voters who contributed to those majorities in other years are still in the flesh, an 1 a I .but a margin of them are stid Rcpub icans. It will not do to conclude that S ates lately Republican have ail at once become Democratic. It would be easy for the Democratic party, by an unwise and injudicious course, by a failure to appreciate the responsibilities nt W thrown upon it, to cause a rea tion and even a revulsion whi :h would place it further from permanent victory than it has been since 1872. [From the New York World.] How little the disaffection of the “h ilfbreeds” has really had to do with the overthrow of the Republi an party is shown by the overwhelming vote given to Mr. Belin nt in the First Con ressional district. Mr. Belmont’s competitor was put into the field by friends of Mr. Blaine, and k pt there j solelv by their contributions and th< ir activity'. W iatwa- the result? Th t Mr. Belmont goes back to Congress at the head of a majorit more than f ur times as arge as that by which he was or ginally sent to Washington, This single fact suffices to show that the Democratic party has been called back to power in New York, not because the Republicans of New York think President Arthur more or less worthy of confidence than Mr. Blaine, but because the people of New York are weary of leedin on the east wind o the Re; üblican promises of reform. “A plague on both your houses” is the brief moral of ay’s tremendous popular verdict. It rings ti>e knell of he Republican organization It gives notice to every young aspiring man in the country that the luturebelongs to new issues and to the Democratic party. Republican Exp anallons. [From the Cleveland Herald.] The general disaster which overtook the Republican nominees cannot be laid to merely local causes. The liquor question may have had a certain influence h< re and there, but where the d moralization was greatest that quest on was no in the slightest degree an issue. Tne real cause was the same'everywhere, was at once general and local, and “was of sufficient potenev to overbear the strongest local issuesand buiy the best tickets beneath a mounta n of adverse votes. [From the Buffalo Express.] The rebuke visited upon Arthur’s stalwart administration the most crushing ever dealt out to a political faction—is a rebuke not only to the men at the hea l of the machine, a rebuke not only to their methods, but a rebuke to and a repud ation of the w.iile stalwart idea. That idea is, e-seu-tially, that a party is an army, and that the only duty, the only right, of the men in the ranks is to obey their masters—their bosses. The men in the ranks yesterday showed that they are the masters, that their will must be carried out by’ the party’ leaders, and that self-constituted leaders who attempt to rule rather than to serve will be tried by drum-head court-martial and shot upon the spot. The lesson has been wr.tb' n up large, so that they who run—the stalwart<, to-wit—may read. No man will have any excuse for misunderstanding it hereafter. [From the Chicago Inter OeGan.] While disaster has been anticipated by thinking Republicans all over the country they never fully realized such a flood as is reported in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania It looks a good deal like a case of bamson and the temple. The people undertook to pnnifeh the bosses, and fell with them under the ruins or the temple. There will, however, be a resurrection of the temple and a resuscitation of the victims. The Republican party is of too grand a history and too promising of noble purpose in the future io go down. Croakers to the contrary, its mission is not yet fl led. The result of yesterday does not show that Republicanism-has a less strong holckon the country than it has held for years, but rather tiiat the purifying process is going on that it may rise- to grander flights and nobler deeds. [From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.] It may be sai l that the Republicans needed this defeat They invited it, and had it not come the bosses would have, been very sure to bring it on two years hence. Fortunately a strenthened Rep üblican Senate, with a R publican Execu ive behind it, will be in place to i revent Democratic; c pers in the House from being seriously detrimental to the general welfai e, while the Democrats will show their inc opacity for Legislative . work beyond pergdventure. They have secured jus enough rope to hang themselves with, and the few wise advisers they have cannot prevent them from mak ng use of it. The effort to control them has been made in vain time and again. Thus there'wil. be two strong influences at work to win Republican success in 1884, namely: the exposition of their own weakness s on I he part of the Republicans and the demonstrate ! n .cessi y of correcting them, and the exhibition of Democratic inability to govern. In fa t, ih s Re- £ ublican defeat is a pretty good tlrng it it i only viewed rightly. [From the Cincinnati Commercial]. President Arthur succeeded, and was immediately beset by the gang who had been disap ointed in Garfield. He resisted many of their most vicious anl unseemly demands, but they have been sufficiently dictatorial, and have so far flavored the Administration with their vindictive {ollies that

:the New York election of yesterday serves *as an object les- on As a party the Re.publicans are about where they were eight years ago. It has lost under Arthur the ground gained after it got rid of Grant. If the Republican party is to have a future, —if Uis to retain the national Government' beyond the next Presidential e ection*-fb mu*t be relieved of its bosses. Stalwartism must be blown away like a bad smell in a high wnd And we must drop the fanatical crusaders in behalf of pretended temj perance reformation. The country distrusts the Democratic party, and there are an * abundance of voters opposed to that party to defeat it if they.can be permitted to exercise their common sense and common rights of Republican citizens; but they are not to be subordinated to the vulgar domination of bosses and the despotic caprices of vainglorious pCetendcrs to .statesmanship. Independent Comment. [From the Chicago Times.] A year ago such a political revolution as was consummated in this country yesterday would havo been considered impossible. To- ‘ day it excites not even a ripple of surpriseMuch has been done in the past three months by the chiefs of the defeated party to ■convince t ie American • eople that, in the interest of political morality and common public decencv, a change was necessary. The effect of that wors will be almost universally accepted as in accordance with the eternal fib-ne-s of things. . Amid the general slaughter of the political bo-ses the like of which hasn’t been seen in a lifet me, it must be matter of regret that the most intolerant as well as the meanest of them all, Mahonc, ot Virginia, escapes with slight injury’. Still his victory, if .it is as represented, j can hardly be .-more than short-lived. ' The'' President, having lost such a list of States as New York, his home: Pennsylvania, the home of his ti listed Lieutenant, Mr. Don C moron; New Hampshire, the home of his aggressive Secretary of the Navy; Connecticut, Ohio, '’possibly Michigan; Indiana, which had no savior this yea'-, Mr. BLnr-Route Dorsey, whom tire President toasted two years ago, being almost within the shadow of the penitentiary; Wisconsin, possibly; Colorado, t e stalkmg-ground of his man Teller; California and divers and f undry other strongholds of his party’, will hardly care to exert 1 iinself again for the satisfaction of a petty boss intheOld Dominion. Though ft exhibit unmistakable signs of life, the President will probably be inclined to let the tail go with the hide. Unsustained by Fetloßfd patronage, Mahone will surely go to the wall. .■ * * What a Grecrfbaeker Thinks. [From the Chicago Express.] It is a-Democratic land-slide,,as wins ix-’ pected. The Republicans, disgusted with Hulibellism, bossism and fitalwartism, have let the thing go by def aiflt The Democratic party’ has woh, not upplj. fts own merits, but upon its enemy’s demerits In the South the Democrats have scarcely their own. The people of Massachusetts have taken that lively citizen, Ben Butler, down from h s shylf and’dusted him off forHetxrn. He seems to be almost as good as new. Two men survive the cra h of machinep and the w eck of st .teamen this year—Butler /Mid B nine. They have carrb d their States? 'lheir white plumes will be seetr .in the fray again. Folgcr is terribly beaten. Tlie'Bdm.nistration is New York presents her compliment to the dandy President. Sialwartism is aS (lead as Guitaau. The people are sick of all old spoils f iction . They are ready for a new deal. The old lines cannot stand,the. storm much longer. The first reports give no details of Green-back-Labor and Anti-Monopoly votes. They will be fished up out of the bottom of the boxes in a few days. Let us wait patiently for the official count.