Dayton daily empire. [volume] (Dayton [Ohio]) 1850-1865, 1859-10-17
prinoinl. Ysr.n. PopuIarlty.

There is no tribunal 10 the correctness Of
whose decisions 80 little confidence can be
placed as that Of an excited populace. The
history OF the world in all ages, has shown,
that in their hands the cause Of truth and
Justice has almost always suffered and they
them selves, in their calmer moments, have
so often reversed their former judgment, and
posterity has sanctioned those reversals in
so many instances, that any reasonable man
is led to attach but little weight to public
opinion upon intensely exciting questions.
The same faction, which ostre cised Aristides
called him from exile to defend his country,
and the same public which commended the
cup Of hemlock to the lips Of Socrates, 10 a
few years passing from one extreme to an
other, erected chapel to bis memory and
supersttiously honored him as god, whom
they had SO unjustly condemned as a crimi'
nal. The fIeuzied populace during the
French revolution, dragged to the guillotine
the very men upon whom the day before
they had bestowed the highest Offices with
in their gift and at last compelled their
leaders to succumb to the very power which
they had helped to arouse, but which they
suddenly found themselves unable to con-
troll In America, much as we may boast
ofour free system Of government and its
superiority over the governments Of the old
world this Juror of the public mind some
times runs wildly rampant at our elections.
The majority rules Of course, but sometimes
the majority loses sight Of the true issuea Of
the canvass and intelligent men during the
rest Of the campaign cast their votes for men
and principles, which in their calmer mo.
ments, they would entirely discard. During
the contest, one party will in some way raise
an excitement iu their own favor, no matter
by what means it be got up, and will thus
draw into the vortex many sensible men,
who otherwise following their own course
would embrace the cause of the opposite
party. Tie more senseless the issue and
more unreasonable the hobby, the more per-
sons will be led astray and follow after it,
The log cabins and hard cider Of 1910, and
the prestige of military glory in some of the
succeeding candidates for the presidency are
examples to the point Then the public
blinded to the true questions involved in the
election, and forgetting the qualifications o.
the aspirants elevated them to Office by i'm
meuse majorities under the influence of pop
ular excitement. In like manner, princi-
Piles have so often been lost sight OF, anC
true issues ignored, that experience show
the result Of an election is no criterion b,
which to judge the.opinion Of the mass o
the people upon the great questions of tn
day.
The Democracy in Ohio were defeated il
the late contest We have no reason to be
lieve that the principles which we have mad
planks in our political platform viz th
prohibition of negro suffrage, the continu
ance Of the Sub Treasury system &C., ar
false, or that the people OF the State suppos
them to be so. Laying aside the intrinsic
value of those measures and judging onl.
By past experience, we are led to believ
rather in their final triumph and that ou
party will be stronger in the next campaigl
than it has been for many previous years.
With this hope let us re.organize under th
full expectation of success in 1860. Th
present is not time for discouragementb bu
a time for action. There are influences @
work in our favor which almost insure tri
umph of our principles, and promise an &C
cession to our strength which in anothe
wear will make our opponeuts tremble.