Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1883 — Republicanism Is Courage. [ARTICLE]

Republicanism Is Courage.

Not a few old stagers among the pol iticians who have been at the front in the Republican party daring the last two decades are disposed to pat the finger alongside the nose and look sarcastically wise when any proposition is made looking to the commitment of the party organization to any measure of public policy which squints in the direction of public morality. These men forget*that the Republican party was born of a moral idea, that its original mission was the promotion of a moral reform, that its whole successful career has been mainly in connection with questions of right and wrong more than of mere governmental expediency. They forget that a party of this sort, which has gathered into its ranks ninetenths of the character, the virtue and the intelligence of the country, cannot safely pursue a course which would be entirely expedient for its opponent with a wholly different constituency. In a word, the Republican party must keep in the lead, os it has done from the day of its inception, or it will die the death. The party itself has accustomed the the country to look to it for a far higher , class of political motives than are expected in its antagonist, and for thjp reason, if for no other, it would be suicide purely as a matter of policy, for Republicanism to itself and attempt to solicit votes by the same devioe proposed by the Democrats. In 1856 the Whig party, in the presence of a magnificent opportunity, turned its back upon destiny and died from its own cowardice—died because it was too timid, conservative and time serving to,assume a great and inspiring responsibility and declare itself the champion of Free Soil. The capital failure of the Whig party rendered the Republican party possible, and grandly has it met the demands laid upon it. Near the third decade of

its existence the Republican party it oalled upon to face the question, whether it will distinctly maintain its position as the party of moral ideas and of advanced ethical principles—in a word, as the party of reform, pr whether, in the presence of a new and crucial test, it wfli play the. poltroon like its predecessor in 1856, and follow that predecessor to the tomb of the Capnlets. At such a crisis the cynical and cowardly adviser is the worst of enemies. If the Republican party of to-day shall take counsel of its fears, and not of its courage, it is as good as dead already. Jt isnot impossible that, whatever course the party shall pursue during the next thtee years, a temporary defeat may await it, but this has nothing to do with the broader question, whether the party really desires to be a permanent force in the great republic or whether it is willing to be. relegated to the list of petty political factions, content with jabbering about its historic past, while voluntarily surrendering a superb future. Minnesota Tribune. - -