The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-02-06
PARTY LOYALTY.

/. A correspondent in Iowa ask
how honest men can be nominatet
for Office. and whether we adye
cate ''the strange and ridieulou
| practice of every voter judginS
for himselfn of the regular nom
nations of his party. Can par
ties, he inquiries, be maintained
| upon such terms? The question
is not confined to Iowa, and de
serves to be constantly answered
! 4tsis very generally asked and oft.
ben With a triumphant air, as il
party action must be renowned
altogether, or party obedience
must be absolute. This latter
fdoctrine has been emphatically
laid down By avnoted %Liberal''
leader Eho, before he left the first
party With which he acted, declar.
ed that he should vote for the
devil II he were regularly nomina-
ted. His remark contains q logic
from which no man must shrink
Ewho, Insists that the voter must
follow the party at all hazards;
and the reply to any honest in
quirer upon the subject is very
plain: the party man must reserve
the right to vote against his party,
or he must show that the devil can
never be nominated. The right
and the duty, upon proper occa-
siens to bolt are the rightland duty
of being honest. The way to Sc.
cure the nomination of honest
men is to refuse to vote for those
who are not honest.
There has been a great deal of
amusing discussion upon this sub
ject, as if there were any question.
Undoubtedly in q free country
there will be parties, and the GOV
eminent will be conducted by par
ties. and its control contested by
parties. Every man who has in
terest enough in the general well
fare to vote will vote with q party.
Those who have positive convic-
tions upon public policy will
warmly support the party which
will carry them into practice.
Such men will not require of the
party an ideal action, and will of
ten see it honor inferior men and
adopt measures of dou btful expe-
diency without vehement protest.
But every man who honestly holds
the great principles and seeks the
chief purposes of q party will
strive to have it represented by
men whose ability and character
will commend it to general conf.
dence and support. He will often
be disappointed in his personal
preferences of this kind, but such
disappointment will not separate
him from his party. When, how
ever, q candidate is nominated
known to him or suspected by him
to be dishonest or unfit, he will
strenuously oppose him in the in
terest of the party, as well as of
the public welfare, because he
knows that the ascendancy of such
men will be fatal to the party up
on which he depends for the pub
lie policy which he approves, and
because the only sure way of pre-
venting the party nomination of
unfit men is to defeat them.
Should he see that the party is
coming to be generally represen-
ted by those who are either dis
honest or of a poor character, and
that its measures are really in con-
fiict with it's principles and his
own convictions, he will naturally
demonstrate, and if without avail,
he will, of course, cease 10 sustain
the party. because it will have
ceased to be the means by which
his public purposes can be attain
ed.
Parties, indeed, are not to be
improvised, and they are not made
in pursuance of a conviction that
sit is time for a new party" But
nothing is palmer than that party
ties are now very much relaxed in
this country. In Congress who
can say what the party policy is
upon any. of the questions that
have yet appeared at this session,
except that of civil rights? The
Republican party, indeed, must
bear the responsibility of legisla-
ton, and the very laxity Of which
we speak should plead with it to
take care that that legislation be
an honor and not a burden. The
expression of party opinion upon
the ''grab" and the nomination for
the Chief Justiceship should &C.
casion profound reflection in the
minds of those who direct the Re-
publican policy.-Harper's Weekly.