Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1885 — Gath as a Prophet. [ARTICLE]

Gath as a Prophet.

The fact that President Cleveland has been elected with less of partisan support and installed with less of partisan surroundings than recent executives, has led to the belief that party lines as at present drawn will soon fall away and that the great factions of the people will disintegrate. George Alfred Townsend, in his inauguration letter, is moved to declare that “neither political party is quite certain of its future or even its present stability. The play of personal influences has as yet to be measured and tested before it can bo seen whether either party is traveling along in the regular ancient channels.” Ihe truth is in half of this assertion. Th? Republican party must necessarily go to pieces. Its course has been run and its violence spent. It was a sort of popularhydrophobia brought on by anti-slavery prejudice; but the dog days are over and this faction must die. Sectionalism has disappeared and its venom is gone. It has no saving principles—no inherent or elementary strength. As for Democracy, which is the party of the people, and which expresses their faith in the Government and their interpretation of its nature, it will survive several putrid excrescences like Republicanism, and confound the predictions of many superficial writers like Gath. Economic questions may control public discusion, but Democracy will show itself capable of preserving the best practical policy for the country. It js hard y true, as Mr. Townsend intimates, flrat “the West and South will drop out of party lines within a year or two. to oppose the moneyed party power in the East. Some philosophic people, who have always claimed that a Democratic victory Would be a disintegration of both parties, afle all the more emphatic in that opinion now. The new administration probably differs from its predecessors in having less of a partisan surrounding. ” j The pen picture of this correspondent is hardly more than picturesque when he declares that: “Republicans and seemed nearer to each other than in any jother time in the past. No questions of njark divide the parties, and the United States Government at this moment is probably the most friendly in the world in its integral components. The Democrats have got power without being very anxious for it, and the Republicans have lost power rather to their relief. One side is tired, and the other side is not very anxious to come in.”— Atlanta (Ga.) Chronicle. The “irreconcilables” are anxious to show that Washington is crammed with officeseekers, yet one of them tells this story of Mr. Lincoln’s administration during its early days when everybody was supposed to be thinking more about the state of the country than about office-holding. A disappointed aspirant at the end of his funds discovered floating in the canal very early in the morning, the body of a Treasurywatchman whom he had seen in office the day b fore. He rushed at once to the home of the Secretary of the Treasury, routed him ont of bed, and demanded the appointment. “Why, my friend,” said the Secretary, “the place has already been filled.” “Filled, ” shrieked the mad man, “by whom? Why, I just saw his dead body pulled ont of the canal. ” ”1 don’t doubt that,” said the Secretary, “but the place is filled nevertheless. I have just given it to the man who saw him fall in. ” Gen. Miles, the “Indian fighter,” watched Cleveland when he reviewed the military on inauguration day, and says that instead of “bowing and smirking after the fashion of politicians, to every salute offered him,” he returned salutations, as etiquette required, only to commanders of divisions. And he did not salute one or two Southern organizations th it had neglected to bring the national colors along. Miles has had a talk with the President and thinks him an executive man with great abilities in that direction. He hrs called about him the seven best men he can find tjnd divided the work among them. He has the characteristics of “a fine soldier” and “is fit to command a great army." i The best thought of the country begins to anticipate that the brainiest Cabinet ever selected in this country has been gathered around President Cleveland.— lndianapolis Sentinel.