Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1873 — New Political Parties. [ARTICLE]

New Political Parties.

Very erroneous views are prevalent respecting the creation of new political parties. It is evidently supposed by some that it is not only a very simple thing to make a new party, but that it is a work which may be accomplished in a very brief space of time. This was the case with the self-styled Liberal Republicans last year, when they met in Cincinnati. It must be confessed that if varied talent, political prominence, personal popularity, and long experience in partisan management, could qualify men for making a new party, those Who met in Cincinnati last year and nominated Horace Greeleyfor the Presidency had every reason to expect success. They counted upon these qualities as being ample for the accomplishment of their purposes, and doubtless had full confidence in the complete success of the scheme. The result served to show that they did not properly understand - the material out of which political parties are made, or the process of their growth. They failed to learn wisdom from experience, and therefore fell an easy prey to folly. Not satisfied even with this experiment, some of those engaged in that effort to establish a new party, have united with a few others and made another effort in the same direction, and that within a year from the time the former disastrous undertaking was engaged in. The movement last year really,assumed the appearance of strength, and, until the hollow shell was pierced and the weakness of the movement exposed, many persons regarded it as a formidable organization, well calculated to endanger the success of the Republican party. The elections exposed its weakness and practically wiped it put of existepce. ’ These, and similar failures to establish, a new political party, were occasioned by misconception of the elements essential td the successful organization of parties. They can never be established where no necessity exists for them. They are not like children’s play-houses, to be made and unmade at pleasure; but ’must be deep rooted in public sentiment, and there must be a laudable motive, an urgent necessity underlying the whole superstructure. The Republican party was not of mushroom growth. It was years and years forming. During all the long years of the groans of enslaved millions, the necessity for a party which should wipe out such a stain upon our Government—such a libel upon our revered Declaration of Independence—was being created and the progress of education and Christianity opened the way for such a party. The Republican party never had even the semblance of a forced growth. On the contrary, the people had become so attached to the old parties that they refused to leave them until it became absolutely to do so in order to preserve the character of the Government and prevent it from becoming a great nursery for human slavery and all its attendant evils. For years, there were large numbers in both parties who felt that something should be done to prevent the further spread of slavery- and that the slave States should not have special representative power in consequence of their slaves. So strong had this sentiment become in the Democratic party in 1848, that in their platform in Ohio they de dared slavery to be an evil which should be restrained, and finally eradicated. The tWhigs were divided in 'sentiment and in name, some being called Whigs and others Free Soil Whigs. Thus the elements entering into the organization of the Republican party were of slow, but permanent growth. When finally the party was fairly organized'and people began to cut loose from their old partisan associations and prejudices to bestow a higher and better service upon their country, it was like the? bursting forth of long-smothered flames. Lit was a spontaneous and enthusiastic dovolion to principle—to human rights and human freedom. It needed no prophet to telTlhat the victory was theirs, for they went into the fight conscious of the rectitude of their principles and thoroughly impressed with the necessity which existed, for their success. It is true, they did not elect their first candidate for President, but they felt conscious of their ability to succeed in the next, struggle; and they have succeeded at every' National election since. This success has not been achieved 5 th rough any mere efforts of politicians, but because the party was founded upon principles of Right and Justice. The Republican party did not have its origin in a love for the spoils Of office—its active friends and originators were not men who had been pronounced unworthy and kicked out of tlie other parties—but it was based upon true principles. It was organized to defend and enforce the principles upon which our Government was founded, and faithfully and honestly has it adhered to the objects for which it was organized. Corrupt men—spoils hunters —have crept into and secured honorable positions by deceiving the people, but no corruption and no dishonesty has been excused by the Republican party, and no man upon whose garments has been even the smell of corruption has been able to stand before the indignation.Qf_the4laf.ty ~ The people have had, and they still have confidence in tlie necessity for and in the integrity of. the Republican party. It was not a thing of forced growth, but a necessity, and so long as it adheres to its devotion to the best interests of the country, the people will sustain it.— Toledo Blade. While an old hen and chickens were scratching vigorously on a pier at Richmond, Va M recently, a rat stealthily approached from the wharf, and seizing one of the brood by the leg, attempted to drag it to its retreat'. In an instant the old hen pounced upon the back of the invader, trampling him ferociously, while another hen joined her, and with- two successive' strokes of the beak, expeditiously plied, succeeded in cutting the rat’s throat as cleanly as jf it had bepn done with a kpife.