THE REPUBLICAN FAITH.

The Republican party is not a church, nor a conclave. Extending over nearly fifty States and Territories, of varying history, interests, opinions, and character, it must comprise and tolerate a large variety of opinion in matters non-essential. But it has its creed and its statement of faith, from which no man departing can maintain his Republicanism. That statement of faith is to be found in the Declaration of Independence and in most of our State constitutions.

It is that it is the right and the duty of every citizen to take his equal share in the government of his country.

To that end the obligation rests upon the State to see that every citizen has an education which shall fit him for that duty and privilege.

To that end the obligation rests upon the State to pursue such policy as will keep the standard of wages up to the highest possible point, so that the citizen may have the comfort and leisure for himself and the education for his children without which he cannot discharge this duty with intelligence and honor.

To that end the ballot-box must be made sacred and kept sacred. The man who, by fraud or violence, defeats the true will of the people, expressed by a fair majority of equal votes, or who debauches that will by corrupting the individual voter, should be punished by the severest penalties of the law, and made infamous by an aroused and indignant public sentiment.

To that end, polygamy, which destroys the sanctity of the home, must be extirpated.

To that end, the drinking-saloon, which corrupts and debauches the soul and destroys the health of body and mind, must be suppressed.

These are the great essentials of free government. Without all of them the Republic itself cannot long endure. These are the six points of republicanism. That the Republican party alone is to be looked to for their accomplishment will be seen,

when we reflect how ridiculous and out of place any one of them would seem in a Democratic platform.

OTHER IMPORTANT OBJECTS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED.

There are other things also for which we can look only to the wisdom and courage of Republican statesmanship.

We desire a dignified and spirited foreign policy, instead of the timid and supplicatory tone which now pervades our diplomacy. We want an administration which is neither afraid to hold the great railroads of the country in check on the one hand, nor to do them full and exact justice on the other. We want an administration that will develop our foreign commerce and our foreign carrying trade, that will build up our navy and no longer leave our coasts undefended. We want life and vigor and health to pervade every part of the country. The Republican party, from 1861 to 1874, the only years when it has wielded the legislative forces of the country, has shown what it could accomplish with the forces of a people of thirty million in a time of war, when one third of the country was attempting the destruction of the rest.

When it shall return to power in both the legislature and executive branches of he Government, it will do far greater things with the forces of a people of sixty million in profound peace, dwelling together in unity, North and South divided only by a generous rivalry which shall contribute most to the common glory of their country.

America has a destiny even greater than all this. When she shall resume her triumphant march on her accustomed pathway of safety, of honor, and of glory, it will not be for herself alone. She is to be, as ever before, aye, as never before, "the enlightener of the nations, the beautiful pioneer in the progress of the world." The sinking hearts of the poor, the down-trodden, the oppressed, everywhere shall still be borne up by a new courage, as they think of her.

The torchlight of her great Declaration shall still blaze on the heights, cheering and blessing and comforting humanity everywhere with its beam.

FORWARD.

The mission of the Republican party is not yet ended. Its record and policy, the personal character of its membership, its stalwart Americanism, will make it a potent and lasting force in the future, as they have made it in the past, history of the country.

Not till the American ballot-box is as sacred as the American hearth; not till every American citizen is an educated American citizen; not till American labor is shielded in temperance and thrift at home, and from competition with pauperism abroad; not till the American flag is the unchallenged symbol of American rights; not till the Republic is a synonym for the universal intelligence, freedom, equality, and political and social happiness of every one of its citizens, will the mission of the Republican party be ended. And to that mission, to that worthy expansion of its great achievements in the past, it summons to its banner now and henceforward the ardor and patriotism and conscience of American manhood, the enthusiasm of its youth, and the wisdom of its maturer years.

So marshaled and so inspired, its motto Forward, the Great Republican Army will go on conquering and to conquer.

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY: 1888-1893.

BY J. HARRIS PATTON, PH.D.

DURING the canvass in 1884, the vilest personal attacks were made on the Republican candidate. The Republican party was charged with financial dishonesty in office, and the fairest promises were made by the Democratic party if the people would replace them in power. Thousands of honest voters were led to think there might be some truth in these claims and promises, and so gave their votes to Mr. Cleveland.

Through undoubted fraud in the City of New York he was given the electoral vote of the State, and was declared elected.

No doubt the Democrats thought they would find some basis for their charges of financial irregularities upon the long succession of Republican administrations. They knew what they would have done had they been in power, they understood the wholesale robberies committed by their party in the City of New York, and they supposed that Republicans were only different in name.

No sooner, therefore, was Mr. Cleveland settled in Washington than the Democratic party began the most remarkable auditing of financial accounts known to history. These accounts covered the administrations from March 4th, 1861, to March 4th, 1885, including the great war period, in which the collections and disbursements were unprecedented. Experts, after months of labor, with a zeal born of political hate, verified all the vouchers in the various departments, and their reports vindicated the integrity with which the financial affairs had been conducted during the entire time of Republican rule.

During the Cleveland administration no measure of national importance was originated and adopted. The Presidential

succession; The counting of electoral votes: The establishment of a Department of Agriculture; The reconstruction of the Navy, etc., all originated under previous administrations. The law which required, for actual settlers, the restoration to the public domain of the lands forfeited by certain railroads, was enacted during President Arthur's administration (June 28, 1884), and yet was mentioned in the Democratic platform of 1888 as if it had originated during Mr. Cleveland's administration. Mr. Cleveland's administration was, however, very successful in finding places for its followers. In spite of all professions in favor of Civil Service Reform, it had, before June II, 1887, appointed Democrats to 42,992 out of 56,134 positions then subject to Presidential appointment.

Mr. Cleveland's administration made strenuous efforts to change the financial policy of the government, the President himself personally and by message urging the most radical

measures.

This led to the introduction in Congress of the " Morrison Tariff Bill," which virtually called for a "horizontal reduction" of 20 per cent. from the tariff of 1883.

Next followed the "Mills Tariff Bill." Its primary object appears to have been to obtain revenue, while it was deemed of only secondary importance to guard the industries of this country against ruinous competition with the low wages paid in Europe. The more thoughtful Democrats, knowing the value of protection, approved of the Republican policy, and united with the Republicans in Congress to defeat these bills.

Four years of Democratic misrule, during which no measure of national importance was instituted, and which, by its persistent attempts to change the financial policy of the government, had tended to greatly unsettle business, were enough to show the people that their true interests were in the keeping of the Republican party.

HARRISON'S ADMINISTRATION.

The administration of President Harrison was one of the most important in the history of the United States. It never failed to accomplish whatever it undertook, and its great suc