Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1883 — STALWARTISM. [ARTICLE]

STALWARTISM.

The Republican Disease That Can’t Be Cured. [From the Washington Poet) The ailment that afflicts the Republican party is stalwartism. To this disease, far more than to all its other troubles, that party owes its present miseries. So long as the stalwart faction remains at the front, the worjt of disintegration will go on, So long as the leaders of that faction, 'with their braaen insolence es bearing and their

hearty oontempt for all that is decent and reputable in politios, remain tlio recognized exponents of Republican sentiment, the decadence will continue. i' l The great mistake was that the stalwarts grasped the prize drawn “in the lottery of assassination” as if it had come to them sanctioned by a majority in the Electoral College at the close of a Presidential campaign. Coming into power as a result of the stalwart war waged on President Garfield—a result not less real because it was unintended —they could only hope for popular tolerance by puttmg on a quiet, subdued air and preserving a respectful demeanor. Such a oourse would not, it is true, have won for them a largo amount of public confidence, for they have previously “sinned away the day of graoe;” had, forever forfeited the good opinion of the oountry. But had they been possessed of sufficient sagacity to understand the real situation and act in accordance therewith, they might have avoided the disasters that the grossness of their ways and the offensiveness of their tone have brought on their party. * The stalwartism of to-day is the disease that went by the name of Grantism two years ago, and m change of name can deceive the people. It is true that the man whose name the disease bore has'retired from politics, but the men who used him and who soiled his name arp still in the stalwart front line, and they and their principles and their manners are as cordially detested now as they ever were—are even more heartily oontemued.noiv than when they were stamped into the mire of crushing defeat at Chicago; for they have added a good many bad chapters to their utterly-bad record since that day of their dire disaster. Two years ago stalwartism was packing State conventions to forestall public opimori, Was' doing this four or five fhonths before the time for nominating a ticket. A few months later, stalwartism with its little army t*f delegates from Pemooratie strongholds, was at Chicago trying to force the odious third term Sown the throats of an overwhelming majority of the Republican party. . Defeated there, «talwarti«m retired to sulk and use demoralizing influences on the party until a majority of the people hrtd decided to elect Hancock. The®, when the day was almost lost to Garfield through the perfidy of the stalwart leaders, thoy rose up and,with great effort among the monopolies created and'fosterer’ by the Republican < party, they raised an enormous amount of money and bought the Presidency for Garfield, bought it as openly and undeniably as ever a ‘ sheep wks bought in a live-stock market. The Subsequent course of the stalwarts need not be recounted here, for it sis move deeply imprinted on the memory of the American people than almost anything else in our history. They made a cruel, relentless fight on Garfield because he wpul<J not submit to their dictation, and when that war, going beyond the wish Or thought of the men who mode it, had sent Garfield to" his grave, the stalwarts strode boldly in as if they had been called by tliq .voice of the people. The Post has said more than once, and repeats it nrtw, that President Arthur has deserved well of the country for Iris quiet, firm resistance of stalwart pressure. But he has not been able, and no man in his plaoe would be able, to change the tone, aspect, bearing, manners, spirit and policy of the stalwarts. The spots of the leopard can’t be painted out. The odor of the mephitis Americana can’t be successfully disguised. As “ pigmies are pigmies still, though perched op Alps, ” so stalwartism holds it? distinctive qualities under all possible conditions. The stalwart pres? does not seem to understand, when it prescribes for the Republican party, that there Can be no hope of recovery so long as the stalwart faction keeps its hideoUsnoss in public vifew. Ahated minority, incapable of learning by experience, is on top of the majority that triumphed in the last struggle of the factions. The circumstances attending the suppression of the majority must inevitably keep alive the fifes of hate. T*He insolent airs of the minority, installed over the majority by the bullet of an assassin, can only ten'd to drive further and further from the party the men who hare failed to vote for its candidates this year. When the disease takes thp place, of the doctor it will.be fitting for stalwartism to tell the Republican party wlxat it must do to be • saved. ’ : - J .