148
NEGATIVE.
Considerations of character says: Leave the party if one is nominated.
Party fealty demands that every member of the party be moral. Then will it reach at point of perfection to which it is the ambition of true statesmen and patriots to attain.
Considerations of character means, too often, only seeing the mote in our brother's eye, and taking no heed of the beam in our
own. And as long as men are guided by it to long will parties be shifting, troubled asses, without order and without a purse beyond the scope of the pessimist.
Considerations of character is a tributary that flows into party fealty, while party fealty stretches out and beyond as the ocean upon which our Ship of State sails to the harbor of Utopia.
NEGATIVE.
W. T. FINDLEY OF THE OROPHILIAN SOCIETY.
All forms of government, if left to themselves, drift toward absolute monarchy, the primitive government of man. Unceasing vigilance in the masses has stayed the hand of oppression and has placed sovereignty where it is to-day.
The main object of every government is to restrain and punish evil doers and to promote the interests of the people. "Just and equal laws for the general good" has been our motto ever since the Mayflower touched our shores. But how can this form of government be brought about? Is this the province of political parties? Do party leaders ascertain the will of the people and embody the substance of it in party platforms? Do these platforms mark out the general course the leaders expect to follow? All parties claim to hold the interests of the people paramount. The people ought to know what these principles of parties are and in what ways they differ. Let us examine the platforms and see. In 1880, each of the two leading parties spent its longest breath in self-praise; and its second, in hurling anathemas at the other party. The one favors "national sovereignty," the other opposes "centralization and tendencies to
despotism;” the one says "no sumptuary laws,'" the other is silent; the one says "tariff for revenue only," the other, "duties levied for revenue should discriminate in favor of American labor." This last is the only point on which they stand face to face, and that is not a strict party question. If these platforms are the real representatives of party spirit, does such a difference warrant the imperiling of country to save the party by electing the less worthy candidate.
Party leaders look to personal interests. This no one denies; and just so far they are depriving the people of their rights. In a convention the first question is not who will serve the people best, but who will keep the party united. This was one of the arguments used for Jackson's re-election, and it is the first one in every campaign. The most popular man must be named and the party must stand by him good or bad. The popular man is seldom the best official. In 1828, the fame of Indian wars won the presidency for Jackson over John Quincy Adams. "Log cabins"and "hard cider" elected one to the presidency who had not enough patriotism to cast his ballot in twenty years. Campaign songs and mot-