Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1865-10-06
Misffllanenus.
Councils and Conventions.

to be so much as dreamed of in our philos-
ophy. The last ball set in motion bv any
body solitary and alone was that of Mr..
Benton. who fortunately does not live to
bewail our all pervadipg paper currency.
Ii the Englishnan eau initiate no pubic
enterprise without public dinner. the
American is equally helpless until he has
called convention. The most importu-
nate reform must await the passage of a
series Of resolutions. Truth is never safe
except in the keeping of an executive
committee. The patriotism which boldly
wanders from its native platform is re.
garded as suspicious and untrustworthy
The cause which has no crowd to sustain
it, which is not maintained by broad ru-
NOR and made invincible by cunning ma
chinery, will vainly trust to its ri ghteous.
ness for responsibility. 1t may seem an
easy matter to manufacture genuine
compound rhubard pill, which shall be
worthy of the confidence of the doctor,
and potent against Indigestion Tut the
frightful truth has burst upon dyspeptic
world that the Hubbard Of commerce is
hot to be trusted. and that many bolus
which seems fair to the eye and is hon.
estly bitter to the palate is, nevertheless,
wretched deceiver, which, swallowed in
the touching confidence Of sickness, is
more likely to harrow than to heal
Nothing remained for honest apothecares
but to hold convention in Boston, and
such convention they have just held, at
which eloquence was literally drug
The wool-growers, too, have gathered to-
gether in Philadelphia, and the corn and
pork dealers in Chicago. The school.
masters and the seaool.mistresscs have
discussed in solemn congregation the COIN
parative virtues of different spelling
books and the efficacy OF judicious fog
ging. There have been conventions Of
carpenters and Of beer-5rewers, of dis
charged soldiers aud of disconnected wo.
, men, OF farmers and of horsc-dealers, of
teetotallers and Of anti-to5acconists, of
Milleritcs, whose world is just ending,
and Of freedmen, whose world is Just be-
ginning. But these, at least, were not
CHASTITY gatherings, like those synods OF
dead democrats" who, here and there,
have crept from their graves into daylight
to rattle their bones in disgust at the as
pect Of world so changed since they
left ito proffer their feshless fingers
to the Presldent-to approve this meas
ure and condemn the other-to offer one
final screaming protest against the doc.
trne Of human equality-and to strike
one last feeble blow at race only Just
now rescued from the heel of the Cypress
or! 1t is we'll that such should meet in
droves; no individual could W. IL endure
the ignomiIy of ignorance aud the shame
Of stoldity which would be into lerable in
the eyes of the world, if many shoulders
did not sustain them. Such conventions
as these are not novelties, for the first oil
them was held in the infancy Of the
world. and in
Pandemonium, the high capital,
Of Satan and his peers"
1t is not necessary that we should point
out the power, either in q good or bad
cause, of associated action. The moral
tagged to the fable of The Bundle OF
Sticks" is as sound now as it was in the
days -Esop. There is safety in multi
tude of councillors, provi ed they are
wise and not foolish, honest aud not knav.
ish. But forty thousand foxes would be
no truer than forty, and legion of asses
no wiser than one lonesome donkey. Con-
ventions may be convenient, but the very
facility with which they register the
edicts Of party, and the personal IRE.
sponsibility which they secure, make them
ready instruments in the hands of de-
signing leaders. 1t is unpleasant to think
that, no matter how shameful may be the
platform adopted, no matter what crimes
1t may censure or extenuate, there will
be thousands upon thousands who will
crawl down to 1t. from whatever moral
height they may occupy, without cough.
ing. But, closely inspected, the scandal
grows greater and more repulsive. or
the five hundred who compose the con.
vention there may be ffty--there may be
only 6ve-who manage all the proceed
ings, who nominate the nominations, and
who cut and dry the resolutions in the
lobby. The strings are in the hands of
these, and, as they pull, the puppets
wink, cape, gesticulate, squeak, and glib
Der. Men who, though weak, are good,
or at least not bad, are made to stand
sponsors for enormous iniquities and for
crimes hardly to be named. He who
ventures courageously to protest against
all this fatal charlatantry is pronounced
the Aea of the convention, ard is unaui-
mously voted a nuisance, marplot, and
. bore. He who thinks for himself in
t,rrupts the harmony Of the delibera.
sions; he who speaks for himself perils
the prosperity of the party he who con.
suits his conscience, and acts by its di.
rection, is told that he il more nice than
wise and if he will not be swept by the
current, re is left high and dry upon the
barren shores OF political heterodoxy.--
The consequence is that conventions meet
merely to register the conclusions of the
caucus; and when there is really an hon.
est difference Of opinion which will not
be composed by the ordinary methods,
there are divisions and secessions, and
two conventions Instead Of one.
We have thus indicated the moral dam
ger attending this important feature of
our political system. As We cannot af-
ford altogether to dispense with convcn-
tions, which, in themselves, are natural
and convenient parts of cur public ma.
chinery, it is the more necessary to insist
upon the duty of the personal conscience,