This Interesting Item Appears In A

cent issue of the Journal, published at Hastings, Mich. : " Do you favor uniting with the democratie party next fall in this state?" was the question put to us the other day. Emphatically, no. The democratie party, national and state, are not in earnest for a reform of republican abuses. They profess to be for free trade, but are hopeiessly divided upon the subject ; and in Ohio, the hot bed of " tariff for revenue onlv" doctrine, straddle the question. They are not true to their pledges in their alliances with the national party. Had it not been for the prohibition and teinperance vote Gov. Begole would have been defeated. He ran largely behind in districts where a (heavy democratie vote was pollea. If it had not been for the universal detestation of Austin Blair by his own party affecting the whole ticket, Judge Sherwood would have been defeated by democratie duplicity, in trading for Champlain." When we read the above we were about on the eve of taking the first train for Hastings, bu on reflection thought we had better notify the leaders, and see how long the party could survive. Why, if the editor don't retract, the party is a goner. He is a powerful man. No doubt he will control the greenback convention, and with a little holy water he niay be braced up to such a pitoh that he might go bodily over to the eriemy, and if that should happen- what then ? For heavens sake John, don't let loóse the doga ot war. Don't unchain them. For goodness sake don't disappoint our hopea, for with you suceeas might be attainable, otherwise defeat stars us in the face. Let the chieftains cali a meeting and see what can be done to assuage the wrath of that editor. Wonder if he ever killed any dead things ? Does the way Gov. B. was treated trouble the editor, or isn't he a little sore because the democrats didn't indorse him for representative last fall. We rather think that is where the trouble is. Don't whip the devil around the stump John, teil the truth and shame the devil. Gov. B. finds no fault and certainly you ought not to. Consistency is a jewel - or are you on the eve of flopping. Bad time to flop now. Kepublican prospecta look blue. A half a loaf is better than none. Remeniber tliat discretion is the better part of valor sometimes. Let the dead past bury ita dead. You may be governor some of these days, who knows ? Brighten up, you'er young yet- don't let these republicana feed you on taffy. Nothing would please them better than to see us quarrelling, but no sir. Bury the hatchet, and let us sinoke the pipe of peace. Every citizen whose sole interest in politics is the good of the country and the best interests of the people, should ask himself every morning, and reflect upon it all day, why is it that the Jay Gould's contribute their fiffy thousands of money for use in elections ? Why do business men pour out their wealth so lavishly ? Why was it necessary for Jewell to levy contributions on manufacturera to protect protection at the polls when it is maintained that the system is so popular ? Why do railway kings lend tliemselve? to party purposes in elections as John C. New declared they did in his private letter to Jewell, written during the canvass of 1880 ? Why is it tnat all the leading monopolists and managers of great associated industries, spend niillions to preserve the power of the republican party ? Why is it that labor, that operatives and workingmen, and clerks, from the man who performs manual labor to the man who uses the highest skill, are found combining together for their own protection, if the system thus maintained by money at the polls is, as it is alleged by republicans, to be beneficial to honest industry ? To ask himself these questions, and to reflect upon them, will be an excellent preparation for voting in 1884. Is it not plain that there is something thus protecting itself with bought ballots and f raud, that is hostile to the great interests of the people ? Is it not an important side light cast on the subject, when vast counter combinations are forrned against that which claims to exist for the protection of honest industry? Every citizen who is not directly or indirectly in machine politics, knows that this vast bribery indicates a terriblv unsound system. Conscious of its ness, and not daring to trust itself to the free ballot, torced to fall or to buy its maintenance by vast expenditure .Can any unbiased citizen f ail to see thut when such inrluences are allied with the republican party, so that each is the life of the other, that the only remedy is in the utter destruction of that party. Whekeveb the republican bribery of 1880 is mentioned the republicana declare that this is an old matter, not current or pertinent. They do not hesit te themselves to go back to the stale eipher dispatch slanders, which, if true, would ouly show th;it there were some very bad demócrata, given to republican waj s, und not that the democratie party is a p irty of jobbers and rogues and bosses, as the republican party is. But the record of 1880 is not old or impertinent. It is the record of the last national election. It is the mirror in which may be seen the methods of the next election, and as far as possible in a local election. A time does come in the history of parties when their past ceases to be illustrative, as when evil courses have been so thoroughly put an end to by the intervention of new affaire and by lapse of time that past faults can never be repeated. That time will come for those who are now republicans, if not for the republican party, when it has spent years in sackcloth and ashes. lts recent history the people will neglect at their peril. The methods of the Hayes period grew logically out of Grant's terms; the methods of the last canvass grew legitimately out of the Hayes period; the methods of 1880, in soms f orm and with some changes of agente, will be repeated in 1884 unless the people prevent. From their repetition there is escape only through an understanding of the methods of 1880, and a determined rebuke based upon that tinderetanding. These things are fresb, pertinent, and in issue. They take precedenee over all other matters, and dwarf all others into utter insignificance.