The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1874-05-06
From Hon. viii Cumback's Gin. Speech. ]
DUTY OF GOOD MEN.


why ckedness Runs RfOt-Chrfs-
tianity and Politics The Need of At
tendinE Primary Elections.
The theory of Republican govern
ment is that the governing power
shall be governed-that all authority
is in the hands of the majority-that
the people, in other words, govern
themselves without the Intervention
of any power higher than themselves.
In such a government the false pre-
tense, which is the foundation of
monarchy, that certain persons have
divine right to rule over and op-
press others, is of course rejected, and
in lieu of that dogma it is held that
all men are free and all men are equal.
If not equal in influence and intelli-
gence, they are equal in right and
equal in power in the government.
The ballot is the symbol of that
right and of that power. In the ex-
! ercise of that right no distinction is
recognized.
It makes an equal distribution
among all men of the solemn response
bility of exercising the governing
power.
This great responsibility being thus
laid on all alike, it becomes the duty
of every citizen, who desires good
government for himself and his fellow
citizens, to feel the full weight of this
responsibility, and to consider how he
shall meet its requirements at the
polls.
If corrupt and dishonest men are in
Office, if rascality and knavery are
found in high places, it is manifest
the people who chose these bad men
for these exalted positions were not
duly impressed with the moral obliga-
ton that rests upon those who exer-
else that sacred right.
The shame of official corruption,
and the disgrace of UNPUBLISHED crimes.
aud the licensing of wickedness. is all
at the doors of all of us, who. having
the power to prevent it, have failed to
exercise our right.
The virtue of many of us may be
uncompromising, and even aggressive,
in all the other relations of life, but
when this, the highest duty of the
citizen, is to be done, it seems to
weaken and vanish.
When political parties meet to de-
clare their principles, and chose their
candidates for campaign, they are
CdAClul uol ~ ohChu BIOJu0ASS, VI
be obnoxious TO that or the other in
they often openly bid for the support
of the vicious and the dissolute by
the avowal of such doctrines or the
presentation of such candidates as will
concilliate the worst elements of soci-
ETY. and bring them To their support.
When will the time come when the
good men of the country will wake up
to this fact. and the public virtue be
SO aroused that the platform makers,
and those who present candidates for
the support of Christian people, will
feel that they can have no success un-
less they SO shape their political ac-
ton as to secure the support of the
moral and religious portion of the yo-
ting population?
It will hasten that time if the best
men will lay aside their senseless dig
nifty and criminal Indifference, and
enter actively in the work of political
reform.
Let the Christian men attend the
primary meetings of the political par
ties to which they belong; let them
take the control of the caucuses and
conventions out of the hands of those
who meet in secret eonclave IN the
whisky saloons aud the gambling bells
to foist upon the political parties the
creatures OF their own kind to shield
them in their official position, bv pre-
venting legislation untriendly to their
deyilish work. or on the bench or AT
the bar to act as Instructions to the
enforcement of violated law.
Ofwhat avail are temperance leagues
and lodges. sermons and speeches. the
earnest and agonizing prayers, and the
bitter tears of the wives and mothers
all over this land? Yea, more, what
substantial benefit will We have from
the legislation that we have now, or
may have in the future, against this
crime of drunkard- making if the ene-
mics of temperance control the politi-
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