The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-09-16
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1869.
TIE NEW DEMOCRATIC TICKET.

and. for the moment, morality rules muscle.
How the old candidates were induced to
resign the places on the ticket which they
had gained by tremendous wear and tear OF
conscience, we are not told, but it is evident
that either very dreadful threats or powerful
persuasiyes, or both, were resorted to. Who
is to pay them, and how they are to be paid,
for the money, time, and labor spent in win
ming the favor of the Democratic conven-
tions, does not appear on the face of the
record; but that bargain and sale is at the
bottom of the transaction scarcely admits of
q doubt 1t is alleged that each of the re-
firing candidates named his successor, and
perhaps the most rational explanation is that,
by this arrangement they have secured a
promise of large share of the prospective
spoils.
The exit of Ahern, Stewart & Co. was
quickly followed by the announcement of
new ticket. The managers feared the result
of the deliberations of a new convention.
They did not dare to trust their own partisans.
Responsibility shrank from a hand-to-hand
contest with the roughs, and it sought the pro-
longation of its unwonted ascendancy in an
ingenious artifce. Jefferson tells us that
power is always passing from the hands of the
many into the hands of the few; and despite
his warnings to the Democracy to beware of
this danger, the power to nominate full city
and county ticket has been mysteriously
transferred from the great army of roughs,
rowdies, and rapscalions to compact
little knot of responsibilities The 'woice
of the people" has been silenced, the
representative men of the party have been
driven back to their native slums, and the
Democratic City Executive Committee has
placed an entire new list of nominees in the
field.
1t is idle to deny that it is composed of
men of good standing in the community
Though the means resorted to- are unparalleled,
and though the wishes of the bulk of the
party have been totally disregarded, the COM
mittee has managed to form ticket Infinitely
superior in every respect to that which it sup
plants, and one well calculated to elicit
favorable reception from the respectable
members of the Democratic party. Whether
the roughs will be ready to endorse it and to
ratify bargain which, if successful, will go
far to end their reign, remains to be seen.
Their programme, bad as it was, had at least
mantle of regularity which has covered so
many past sins; and now, since the respect
ables have overthrown it and substituted
ticket which owes its superiority to the fact
that it is the offspring of few of the most
astute leaders, instead of an emanation of the
assembled wisdom of the entire party, the
roughs and rowdies will evince no little of
the spirit of docility and forgiveness if they
cheerfully fall in the new line of battle, aud
fight and cheat as actively for the new ticket
as they would have fought and cheated for
the old one.
A terrific blow has been struck at the entire
convention system. 1t would be easier, every
year, to pick out half-a-dozen good men, as
candidates for Office, in cozy back parlor,
than to go through the turmoil and trouble of
apopular canvass only to nominate odious par
tisans. But it is an important question
whether voters who have no share in such
deliberations will consider themselves bound
by their decisions, and whether half-a-dozen
sets of back-parlor tickets may not be placed
in the field
While the Democratic City Executive Com
mittee has its hand in the work of reform, we
diS ouA plloSu Iudt IL uOeS uOJ HUlSn up Ulo
task it has so auspiciously begun, by driving
the obnoxious Legislative and Senatorial nomi-
nees off the Democratic tickets, and subst-
tuting respecta Die men in their places. But
since they have neglected this duty, it would
not be bad idea for the Republican Execu-
tive Committee to make display of their
power in this direction. The renominated
Republican members of the last Legislature
have been condemned by the Republican
press OF the city with scarcely dissenting
voice. Their records are to the last depree
Objectionable. They are disqualified. alike
by Ignorance and corruption, for the places to
which they aspire They could render splen-
did service to the Republican cause by for
warding their designations to the appropriate
committees, or, failing in this, the party could
greatly promote its prospects of success bv
driving them from their present positions
Since Democracy seeks strength in puriAca-
ton, Republicanism should not disdain so
useful an example. No possible good can
result now or hereafter from an endorsement
of men like Stokes, Davis, Bum. Adaira
Cloud, and Hong, but if they are offered mr.
as Just sacrifices to the wrath of betravef
and pundered people, new life, zeal, and en-
thusasm will be infused into the Republican
ranks