Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1866-08-14

"hat Is meht IN politics by a party
but a club is not so common. I'll
word has commonly been used in re
latlon to organizations more siIen
and eXclusive-not to an open move
ment to embrace and include tn
people ut large. You call a Unio
Convention, not as a committee clio
sen by the Union party for that bu
slness, nor do you claim to have th
sanction OF that committee. Indeed
do not perceive that you claim t,
have been chosen by any body ex
cept yourselves. You call Uniol
Convention over the heads of tn,
Union Committee, and DO it as
club. You do it at time when nc
Federal officer is about to he elected
and when Congress is about adjourn
As nearl y as | can make out from
the call, you think Congress is rather
too narrow contrivance to repre-
sent the country, and SO you propos,
to supplant it by a club. Not feel
ing sure that club might not be Z
larger thing than | had imagined,
looked to the last edition Of Webster's
Dictionary to get the latest informa
ton. lie lays the original sense is
"to split, divide !" hence an associa.
ton where they split or divide ex.
penses is called a club. Ii would be
hardly fair, in view Of the work you
have proposed, to suppose your club
IS intended merely to divide
expenses. There must be something
to split or divide besides expenses.
Being Union club, it is probably
to split or divide the Union, or the
Union party, or the offices of the
Union. Club, as a verb intrans.tive.
Webster says, means ''to form club
to combine for the promotion OF
some common object"
"The owl, the raven and the bat
ClHbbcd for feather to his hat"
To club musket is, he says, to
turn the broech uppermost." Club
Dish, he says, means rough, rude,
clownish, disposed to associate to-
gethcr-as clubbish set Of persons. +"
lub-haul, he says means TO put on
another tack, by dropping an am
Choir, and then as soon as she (the
yessel) comes up to it, cutting the
cable. Club headed" Having q
thick head
There is some uncertainty how to
apply these dictionary explanations.
Courtesy forbids the supposition that
any member of your club wishes g for
feather in his hat" or wishes to
turn his breech uppcrmost," or, af.
ter casting anchor with the Union
party, intends to cut the cable"
But still the thing to be split and di-
vided is the thing to inquire for
When o few men in Washington
feel competent to represent all the
States in the Union, we must not
b. disappointed to see something
split Esop tells the story Of frog
which tried to represent an OK. In
that instance it was not tho OK which
split, but the frog. Still | have no
doubt if the frog could have gone
through the operation, he might
have made nice thing Of it, | do
not wish to discourage, but only as q
brother office holder, to suggest care
and prudence. When the frog com
mcnccd the transaction referred TO,
no doubt he was inspired by a fine
glow Of enthusiast. How he felt af
ter it was over with, the story does
not relate.
In your closing paragraph you
state that no delegate Will take q
seat in such convention who does not
loyalty accept the national situa-
ton" If you can get convention
Of all who have accepted, or are
willing to accept national situa-
tons, it will be large. How can
you keep others out If your club
can call u convention, can you con
troll it after it is called If you can
why not transact the whole business
on labor>saving principles, and let
the convention stay at home F? II
you cannot, how can you sav what
delegates shall take their seats ]
submit that your limitation IS in any
event too narrow. There are hun.
dreds upon hundreds of men who
have not lately accepted, and do not
wish Immediately to accept "nation
al situations" who are first-ratt
men for a convention. They have
sons and other relatives, who, if the
Government should take q discern
ing glance at questions of fitness
could be induced to accept situation,
in great abundance, and yet The
young fellows would not count fol
much in convention. Enlarg,
your paragraph, and let the " rep
resentative men men with ample
wGistcoats, fgurehead men, who
know how to report for committees
and pledge folks Maltitudos Of sucl
men have, within the last few
years, missed their footing in politics
are lying up in shoals and eddie'
with enormous regulations, like tbs
Great Eastern ship. With gooc
management you can have your con
vention, or any other, full Of them
1t is not necessary to say wore
about situations they understand
that part of the subject.
II your convention should fail il
this particular, it must he for wan
OF an eye to grandeur in your man
agcmont. The material is cheap ant
abundant To n limited extent /