The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-25
FRIDAY, JUNE s5, 1869.
A sNEAKZNG RATIFToATIoN

HOuSeman have succeeded at last IN gaming
by stealth ratification. It was a delicate
task, and required adroit maneuvring. The
meeting was called for Wednesday evening,
the public were left in doubt whether the
ratification was to be confined exclusively to
the Gubernatorial nomination or to be ex-
tended to the city ticket. The President,
George H. Stuart, on taking the chair, said
that the object of the meeting was to ratify
s'the nominations made that day" viz; Geary
and Williams, thus totally ignoring the city
ticket All the other speakers followed his
example Governor Pollock said, ''We have
to-day named our standard-bearers. Wayne
McVeigh followed in the same strain, saying,
"To-dog we have done noble thing" and
Colonel Jordan congratulate the Republican
party and the citizens of Philadelphia upon
tne nominations made during n6 day. The
speeches as reported do not contain a single
crumb of comfort for the obnoxious men on
the city ticket, and none of the orators of the
occasion ventured on the hazardous task of
sounding their praises.
correspondent, however, calls our atten-
ton to fact which we had overlooked, that
the following precious endorse nent had been
smuggled in as the last of string of re5olu-
tions adopted by the meeting, VIII .s ~
'7. Resolved That we approve and ratify the nOmi-
nations recently made by the Republican conventions
for city and county offices and for the State Legsla-
ture, believing that for capabity, for integrity. aud
for patriotic political principle they will compare
favOrably with any that have heretofore been recon-
mended for the suffrages of their feOw-ctzeus, and
that the whole ticket is worthy of the cordial and
united support OF the people"
This is, at best, but faint praise At a
time when the public, wearied, disgusted, and
indignant with repeated attempts to put in
competent, odious, and corrupt men in office,
crave reform, they are told that the present
ticket is no worse than the bad ones which
have preceded it So far as the Legislature
is concerned there is a semblance of truth in
this statement, for only a portion of those
who disgraced themselves last winter have
been renominated But it is terribly humili-
ating for proud and noble party, which is
painfully conscious of past errors in local
nominations, to enter a campaign with the
pitiable confession that those errors have
been repeated, and with no better motto than
the miserable apology:-'The nominations of
1869 are as good as those of previous years. y
Even this apology, however, cannot be Justly
made for the renominated legislators, who
stand condemned by their iniquitous course
last winter, for it is infinitely worse to ask
the public to support those who have been
tried in the balance and found wanting, than
to solicit suffrages for new men who what
ever may be their merits or demerits, are at
least not acknowledged failures.
The New York Tribune, in recent issue,
ebo 4 t6o1 = l..
with the incapable and corrupt legislators
who persist in thrusting themselves upon the
party, not for the party's good but for sinister
purposes. 1t says
'StOp the nomination OF all who have been selling
their votes and your rights to rings OF corruption-
lists; but if you fail with any of them in the nemina
tlon, make q sure thing q at re poUs!
DOM you les any OF 5nese t1exes S get nominated
this time for the good Of the pGrty for Il tciH DO no
good Our Judgment is fixed that the good OF the
party requires the deteat Of every one Of these rdseG
Wise and necessary as this course may be
in New York, 1t is nowhere more essential
than in Philadelphia. Some of the contem-
plated bad nominations have been prevented.
So far all is well, and the good Republican
candidates should receive an earnest support.
But there were half dozen failures at the
nominating conventions, and the public well
fare requires that all good citizens should use
their most Jealous efforts to make sure
thing of it at the polls !"
No snealing ratihcations, no begging APP
peals, no shallow pretenses that the welfare
of the party requires the election of rascals to
Office, should swerve true men from their
duty. Nothing would add more to the posi-
tive strength of the Republican party in this
city, than profound conviction that it was
sternly resolved bo clear its skirts of venal
hangers-on, and to vote as a body for no man
of doubtful integrity or inferior capacity.
No course will be more certain to DESTROY its
prestige and influence than slavish acquies-
cence in the doctrine that it is bound to put
knaves or fools in power because they man
age to acquire nominations by corruption or
fraud.
1t is paramount duty Of the time TO purge
the Legislature of men who sell their votes
and our rights to rings Of corruptionists -
Honest men should shrink from becoming the
accomplices of their systematic venality and in
justice, as they shrinkfrom the ecompanionship
ofthieves and burglars of the criminal dock. The
work of publication and reform must begin
somewhere, if we would not have the Legis-
lature become an unleavened mass of iniquity.
Ifre-election followthe scandalous scenes Of last
winter no limit can be set to the venality and
rascality of the future, and the period is near
at hand when the Capitol of Harrisburg will
become an auction-room, where all the remain
l. ,f e tto