Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1874 — For Republicans. [ARTICLE]

For Republicans.

There is a world of troth in the homely adage “ there is no use in crying over spilt milk.” Though the milk of the last campaign was no' spilled through any intentional fault of the Republican party, it is nevertheless spilled,and can never be gathered together again. This is no time for downheartedness or vain regret, and much less for fault-finding and crimination. The duty of Republicans concerns the future, not the pa.-t, and the duties of the future will be rendered much easier by meeting them promptly and boldy. Tn all great immergenciee selfconfidence is half the battle. Courage enlarges while cowardice diminishes resources. It is well enough that R% publicans should speculate on the causes that have led to their defeat. So far frem there being anything unmanly in that, such speculation may give strength and wisdom, provided it is not conducted in a spirit of repining. It is plain enough that our defeat was owing partly to dissatisfaction with the national administration, partly to the Grange movement, which was captured by Democracy, and made to contribute largely to a Democratic victory, partly to the temperance agitation, which caused a very considerable secession of voters from the Republican party, and partly to minor and lo- • cal causes. By a most extraordinary combination of circumstances we have suffered a heavy reverse, but it is absurd for Democrats to talk about the Republican party being destroyed, o* for any one to suppose that the verdict of last Tuesday is final and irreversible. As we have said before, Republican principles are as true now as ever, and defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong. Properly improved, this Refeat will become a source of strength to us. While it would be in the last degree cowardly for Republicans to accept a single defeat as marking the downfall of their party, it would be a clear sign of political insanity for them to deny that it is intended more ®r less as a rebuke for the party, and for the unfortunate mistakes of administration and legislation into which it has fallen. It is a party of noble origin, grand achievements and equally grand possibilities. It contains more element# of vitality than any other political party ever organized in this country. To admit that it could be destroyed by a single defeat or a score of defeats would be to confess that ignorance is stronger than intelligence, reaction better than progress, the sentiment of slavery more

vital than that of liberty. In short, it would be to admit that the experiment of a free government, boxed on the intelligence of the people and universal suffrage, is o But in order to make the party what it has been, and what it ought to be, it must apply itself with high resolve, where it still has ffie power, to toe work of reform, of retrenchment, of economy, and of exposing every abase and punishing every wrong practiced In its name, ft must become more the party- of the people and less the party of office holders. declare its independence of canons rale and corrupt rings of every sort. It must insist on the riged accountability of officeholders to the people and show itself, to be in fact as well as in theory the embodiment of toe best sentiment of the country. By this path, and this only, can the Republican party regain the confidence of the people. —lndianapolis Journal.