The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-09-09

The poor pretence for convention,
assembled in the name of Democracy at
Stiison's Grove. on Saturday. There
were about forty persons present;-one-
third Of these were Indifferent spectators
Of the farce. The active participants
were about equally divided in opinion.
in regard to the plans to be adopted;
and their measures were consequently
decided by the votes of about fifteen
persons; and nearly all of those who
formed the majority were office holders,
or anxious and hopeful .expectants of
office, through some shrewd party
maneuverings. They were therefore
most strenuous advocates Of party dis
ciplines and the undisputed authority of
conventions. The assembly had not the
hardihOod to propose to make any nom
nations at present, in defiance of the
recent unmistakable condemnation of
such proceeding by the popular senti-
ment of their own party but they
concocted plans, by which they hope TO
usurp the power, and control the action
of the party in its future movements
These fifteen or twenty self-constituted
representatives Of the Democracy OF
Vanderburgh, voted that the whole con-
troll of the party should be given to a
Democratic Central Committee. This
measure being carried in spite Of the
protest of nearly oae-half the thirty or
forty active participants, and by the
votes of only 16 or II men,-these
modest and anxiously patriotic office
holders, Immediately set to work to
constitute the august committee, which
they made up OF their own names and a
few subseryient manageable friends.
By this sort of legerdemain these
gentlemen suppose they have shuffled to
themselves the trumps and hold the
power in the political game. Without
the semblance Of authority, they gather
together and appoint a body twice as
numerous as themselves, AMI claim for it
an authority to speak in the name of the
whole party. Under the name of this
bogus body--a fiction and an imposture
to delude the honest and simple voters
these party wire pullers usurp the polit-
ical power Of the State. A clique OF
men, whose moral, intellectual. social, or
financial weight would not be missed,
on single street in the city, or in a
rural neighborhood in the county, if they
were all, by some fortunate event, taken
from the community, foist themselves
into political position, and by adroit
management get control Of their party,
and through the power Of that party,
obtain the entire command Of the polit-
ical affairs OF the people. Men who
would not be entrusted with the control
of the smallest private estate, contrive to
get into their hands, the offices-the
honOrs--the revenues--and the power to
frame the laws of rich and populous
State. Is it strange that political honors
have lost their attraction to honorable
men--that an official commission is be-
ginning to be regarded as license to
peculate on the public--that official in.
tegrity is an historical virtue. lost In the
floods of political corruption--that public
virtue and patriotism are only hollow
pretences to gull the people--that the
government itself Is viewed as an organi-
zation, to be used for the benefit only Of
the partizan horde that shall get posses.
sion of it us there any mystery in This
deplorable state of affairs. while this
system of bogus conventions is tolerated
by either of the great political parties
and are managed by such men as in
evitably will get control Of them
There is very little difference in the
character of the conventions of either
party. They are got up simply a:
instruments in the hands of the leaders
of each. Twenty men in each party, ii
every county of the State, direct through
them, the movements Of their respective
parties. Forty men in each of the
seventy three counties, select all the
candidates of both parties, and direct the
suffrages-of@ the voters, either for OF
against this or that man. Which-evel
party triumphs, the virtual control o
the government is in the hands of abou
fifteen hundred political jobbers, who
direct these primary meetings, anc
manufacture Fictitious public opinion
If such an usurpation had been accom-
plishsd by force, the people would rls'
and exterminate the tyrants at blow
But so long as party decisions can b
maintained, and the cunning and frauds
of the leaders be concealed, the people
will blindly submit. Do the people
of Indiana know that they are ruled anC
made the puppets Of less than athOusan(
subordinate political leaders, scattered
through the, seventy-three counties o
the State, and those subordinates ar,
acting in. obedience to half dozer
superior demagogues, who have tn