Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — GOING BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES. [ARTICLE]

GOING BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES.

Not very long ago a leading Republican paper (the Inter-Ocean of Chicago) in noticing Senator Morton's movements, said that he would “have an oqvportunity this winter to make Ins voice heard in favor of a return to those policies which made tlie Republican party great in iis infancy.” Had those policies not been abandoned, there would now be no occasion for returning to them. When they were abandoned the organization ceased to be tiie Republican party, and degenerated into an engine to further the desiens of corrupt men like Butler, Richardson, Packard, Kellogg, Closes, Slrepberd, and a host of similar sc o uml rd s . Thos e new sp aper s and those men who, .claiming to be Republicans, denounced as renegades the people and newspapers that remained firmly attached to the great principles of honesty and truth, upon which the Republican party was first founded, and who refused to ratify or apologize for corruption though perpetrated under the pretense of loyalty and cloaked with the name of Republicanism, now have a most excellent opportunity to repent of their folly and shame in sackcloth and ashes. Chief among these mourners should be Senator Morton and the InterOcean. Let them weep bitterly and be sore troubled, for their sins were.grevious, and their falsehoods as nume+ous as-the locusts of the West. Tl .ey became accessories after .the fact to the-crime of plundering a nation; they were willing and anxious to condone offenses, committed by promineirt members of their party, that were worthy of expiation in the penitentiary; Senator Morton, Attorney General W ilhams, the Inter Ocean and kinfired spirits (including Gen. Tom Brady who was furloughed from his official post in South America for that purpose, receiving pay meanwhile as United States Minister.) deliberately plotted, and attempted to carry into execution, a plan to deceive the people, about the issues of last summer’s campaign, in order to keep their corrnpt associates in Official positions,.where they might make still deeper raida. into the people’s treasury. It is now meet for them at the com-

mencemcnt of a new year to repent of their folly, and return to those neglected virtues and abandoned policies that make men and papers and parties great, and which ren-, dered the Republican party invincible so long-a* they were practiced by her leaders. Honesty is always the best policy—for political parties as well as for individuals, and formations ~ aYwelT asfl >rp ar t ies.