Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1879 — Political Experimenters. [ARTICLE]

Political Experimenters.

There are thousands of political experimenters in this country who are always impatient under party discipline?, and who occasionally vote against their party, with the general idea that they are asserting their independence, and are contributing to the wholesomeness of the political system; Republicans of this class are easily convinced that a change in State or National officers would be beneficial. While clinging to the principles of the party, they are easily' persuaded to support candidates for Congress, Governor, or President who are opposed to the principles. They present the curious spectacle of men holding certain convictions trying to forward them by putting in power men who are pledged to do their men having such convictions. As well might men interested in saving their heads vote for men pledged to cut their heads off, or men interested in the safety of buildings turn their property over to those who are paid to burn it. Since 1872 there has been much experimenting of this sort. Many men who had been Republicans voted for Greeley, and a few for Tilden. This did little harm in either case, but the same men experimented further, and voted against the party candidates for Legislators and Congressmen. The results of the experiments are now before us. The Republicans who fancied that they were contributing to the purity of politics, or the interests of the Nation, by giving the Democrats a majority in Congress, must be thoroughly disgusted. The Indiana Republicans who, through indifference or carelessness, or a fondness for experimen ts, contributed in any way to the election of Voorhees to the Senate, must feel Tike the individual who wanted some man to kick him down stairs. Any Ohio soldier or member of the old party that gave Brough a hundred thousand majority for Governor, who contributed to the elevation of Thurman and Pendleton to the Senate, must now feel as though he had walked with eyes open into the enemy’s camp. The gentlemen who believed that a change would be good for the country, and that there was so little difference between Republicans and Democrats that there could be no danger in trying an experiment with the latter, .should now be satisfied. The Democratic Congress is under control of men avowedly hostile to the National Government, and is fast undoing the work of reconstruction. States that are really Republican are represented in both houses of Congress by Democrats, have Democratic Executives and Democratic Legislatures. All that unscrupulous managers and desperate partisans can do to perpetuate the reign of the Democratic party, and to advance the influence of a disloyal ininority, has been done. Measures the most partisan and methods the most disgraceful have marked the rule of ths Democrats in Congress, and in the States where they have come into power. Not one hope of the so-called independent voters has been realized. They* sacrificed party for the sake of change, believing that they would not depart from the old principles of political fellowship and action. They find that they have, in striking a blow at the party, struck a crushing blow at principle, and pushed into prominence and power men at war with all their cherished convictions. The experiment has proved a failure, and the result, disastrous as it is, opens the way to other disasters sure to follow, unless all the Republicans of 1868 and 1872 turn again to the ranksand do their full duty as party men devoted to party principles. —Chicago InterOcean,. i., ‘ A bereaved widower, while receiving the condolence of friends, acknbwledged that it Was indeed a loss, a sad bereavement, that he had suffered, and ac|ded: “ And just think! Only a few days ago,l, bought her a whole box of pills, and she hadn’t had time to take half of them before shddied.”