The Lamp of Experience
Its Light on the Political Situation.
In a government such as ours, where the people make and enforce their own laws and where every citizen has a voice in governmental affairs, the ballot box must ever be the peaceful arbiter of conflicting opinions respecting public measures and policies. Once only has the arbitrament of war been necessary to the determination of any question relating to the internal affairs of the nation, —a method not likely to be again employed until the lesson of the Rebellion shall have been forgotten and reason shall have yielded to the uncontrolled passions of prejudiced men. To say that political differences have existed, do exist, and will continue to exist, among our people, is but to say that our government is the work of human hands. That these differences have for a hundred years, with a single exception, been peacefully adjusted by lawful and intelligent methods, is the highest encomium that could be pronounced upon the wisdom and patriotism of a liberty-loving and self-governing people.
For the better presentation of the many grave and complicated questions that continually arise in our public affairs, political parties are organized, each composed of those citizens who are in general accord with the principles and policies of the party to which they have given their political adherence. Among the parties thus organized and now contending for political supremacy is one that for nearly a third of a century guided the destinies of our nation and wrote the brightest pages of her marvelous history.
The Republican party first assumed control of the national government on the 4th day of March, 1861, succeeding the Democratic administration of President Buchanan. It found a depleted treasury, a growing public debt, an insufficient revenue, and the doleful wail of a Democratic President still ringing in the ears of the nation. “With unsurpassed plenty in all the productions and all the elements of martial wealth,” wrote Buchanan, “we find our manufactures suspended, our public works retarded, our private enterprises abandoned, and thousands of useful laborers thrown out of employment and reduced to want. Under these conditions a loan may be required.” Added to this appalling condition of affairs, so graphically, though reluctantly, portrayed by a Democratic President, the ominous mutterings of an organized rebellion furnished proof of yet graver dangers that must soon confront the young, though vigorous, party that was just entering upon its initial administration. Never was any political party confronted with conditions so grave or with problems so mighty and serious, and never did any political party rise with such supreme majesty to the complete fulfillment of its promises and the unfaltering execution of its principles.
By a system of revenue and finance that has challenged the admiration of the world, the Republican party redeemed our country from the wretched condition into which it had fallen, restored the integrity of the Union, brought prosperity to the nation, and finally, after thirty two years of unexampled progress, redelivered the country to the mistaken policies of a misguided Democracy. The lessons of history had been forgotten, years of prosperous peace had lulled the people into a sense of false security, and with that ever present desire for a“ change ” that seems to typify the American people, the party of protection was retired from command and the party of free trade given the reins of government. In marked contrast to the piteous and appealing notes of Buchanan were the joyous and ringing tones of Harrison as he heralded to the world the proud position to which our nation had advanced and the manifold blessings enjoyed by the American people. Speaking of the latter he said, in his last annual message to Congress in December, 1892:
A comparison of the existing conditions with those of the most favored period in the history of the country will, believe, show that so high a degree of prosperity and so general a diffusion of the comforts of life were never before enjoyed by our people.
Such were the happy conditions that surrounded the once distrusted but now forgiven Democracy when it again assumed control of the executive and legislative branches of our government. Here it were charity to draw the veil, for no American citizen can view with pride the scenes that follow. The sad and cheerless words with which the Democratic party took leave of governmental control, may be fittingly employed to characterize its unfortunate return to power. In truth, we may exclaim as did Buchanan :—