NEGATIVE.
149
toes have often taken the place of public reason. Party leaders will raise a boom if they can. It is not a matter of popular service with them; all their political, and often only honor, is based on party success. They have cast their lot with the party, and with it their political name must live or die.
The party is used for personal aggrandizement. Party platforms are ignored that personal interests may be advanced. It is said parties lead the people, but when have they done it? When did a party endorse a plank that the people had not worn smooth by years of handling? The Chinese and Mormon questions were debated for years by the people before they were mentioned in party platforms. Party leaders are not vanguards; they keep away from doubtful issues, and they do this for their own interest.
Strict party fealty is hostile to our government. The party is a means for certain ends. We should never forget our purpose that our plans may be perfected. "The sure sign of the general decline of an art is the frequent occurrence not of deformity but of misplaced beauty." The decline of republicanism is foretold not in an eradication of principles, but in an abuse of them. The caucus should not virtually elect judge, legislator and congressman. If we trust to the party and not to the candidate elect for the defense of the people's rights, we imperil good government. Can an honest vote be cast for a party's candidate when 'tis known that he is inferior in morals, in trust, in veracity? A man of doubtful character at home is dangerous abroad. The man that is negligent, unjust, false in county affairs, would be an hundred times worse in the Congress of our nation. What freeman's rights do I exercise at the polls if I am content to vote the proffered party ticket without an inquiring mind?
An individual may know every candidate; true, but when he does know them, what is his duty? Is it ever expedient to vote for a questionable man? Again, I ask, can an honest, intelligent vote be cast for an Aaron Burr?
"Responsibility is the greatest educator of a people. Throw the responsibility of officials upon party leaders, and you take it from the people. Take it from the people and you deprive them of their interest and the government will fall into the hands of a few. Strict party fealty will make any government more aristocratic; and any restrictions that dictate what man shall be elected is destructive to republican institutions.
The needs of our government demand officials that are men of integrity. Every nation must have honest leaders, or the people are wronged. History is full of the sufferings of mankind at the hands of tyrannical rulers. Fleeing from oppression in the Old World, our forefathers established in the New, a nation based on a new principle, that the whole people can manage a government better than the few. But many wills make many ways. To restrain them all with even-handed justice demands men of intelligence and honesty, who shall make and enforce "just and equal laws."
Platforms are but idle words if party leaders do not stand by them. We might have written our Declaration of Independence in every language, proclaimed it in every tongue, and repeated it to this day without effect if there had not been men of unswerving integrity to complete its recognition. We might denounce the evils of
Trusting in our constitution and statutes, we forget that all are rulers, all responsible for obedience to laws, and for the acts of officials. We insert a reform plank in our platform and flatter ourselves that political salvation is secured.