The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-11-11
CLUB RATES.
OUR POLITICS.

OUR POLITICS.
The time has come in national
politics when interested politicians and
~placeseekers are earnestly calling to
the attention of their constituents the
graceful sentiment Of Whittier, though
il must be confessed, in somewhat diff
ssssnt language:
1.-THE crovning fact
The kipgliest act
ofYreedcn, is the frcemaps vots."
And they are further anxious to m
press upon their followers q belief in
the great future of our country They
tell US of the great Republic, whose
seat is q continent, to which the intel
iigsnee of Europe and the wealth OF
Asia are tributary, whose capital is in
the heart of its power, whose people are
Hharmonized by wise institutions,
speak q ommon language, obey n
constitution, are disciplined by q uni.
form education, and are equal before
the law"
This is all very well, but, on the 9TH
er hand, We hear of instruments and
agencies in operation which tend to
give respectable patriots, in large num-
hers, very different views of the future
Of our country. We do not need to go
farther than to cite an instance from
the local politics of this country. Ina
letter of one of the leading candidates
for Congressional honors, declining the
candidatnre, are found these words -
al coupled my consent Ito accept the
candidature) with the distinct condi-
ton that I would not, under any cir
cumstances, enter into a struggle for
the control of the convention by the
employment of any means which
considered disreputable or corrupt
that / would purchase no votes and
pack no ward delegations that i
would give no improper pledges to IN
diyiduals, cliques or rings; and bar
gain away no patronage or official in
Auence supposed to attach to the office
of Congressman, if elected thereto
t Within the past week it has
become apparent that my nomination
was being resisted by the employment
of means and influences which ] can
not consent TO combat, and my friends
win be forced to contend against ap-
pliances that will render a free and
unbiased selection of q candidate sim
ply impossible"
These plain practical words very sc,
riously maj the symmetry of the horo-
scope formed by the eulogizers of our
ideal republic, and point out n of the
fundamental evils of our systematic
corrzpt and corrupting caucus. I'm
less political ingenuity can devise some
means to abolish the caucus system, it
is possible that our government Will
60 to the bad very soon. Corrupt pol
itics are the greatest danger to our
government, and the seat of this cor
ruption is in the party CAUCUS
Doubtless, so long as the public shall
exist, political parties will not be a
polished. And it is not ~expedient
that they should. In q free country
there always must be an opposition
But when opposition means simply a
struggle of one set of rogues TO get a.
way the spoils from another set of
rogues, the political existence of the
nation is endangered. If the caucus
represents the average sentiment of
people, then it is useless to ask for re-
form. But it does not. As. the quota
ton above indicates, the caucus, ire
spectiye of party, is controlled by APP
pliances that render a free and u1bi-
ased selection of a candidate impossi-
bic. Disreputable and corrupt means
are used; votes are purchased ward
delegations are packed and patron
age and influence bartered and sold
The machinery of the caucus is in the
hands of unprincipled knayes, The
consequence is that the viii of the peo-
pie is very rarely reflected with fair
ness, and that the entire country is
ruled by cliques and rings of varied
extent and influence. And this vi
cious influence, recognized and tolera
ted by the people, reacts upon them
so that there is q possibility that aver
age public taste shall become as cor
rupt as the party caucus itself. This
can never be remedied, until some
means shall be devised whereby each
voter may fairly indicate his prefer
ence.
The appointment system, OF the
practice of the distribution of the
spoils. is an evil hardly less dangerous
to the integrity and permanence Of the
republic than the caucus The FEEDER
81 Government has, quadrenRially, to
dispose Of some sixty thousand offices
of different importance and valHe--
The State Governments have a similar
number, not less eagerly sought. The
manIpulators Of the caucus are, of
course, among the prominent appli-
Giants for these Offices. And it has be-
come a trite enough thing to say, that
the appointinentsa are made, o on &C.
count of individual fitness. but for rea-
sons of political favoritism. The result
is that the public business is transact
ed by ~ army of incompetents, feed
ing at the manger Of the State, and
that the corruption, by means o which