The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1874-01-23
Our Municipal Election.


An election for mayor and other city
officers Is to be held in the month of
April next, and from the number Of
cards of announcement and other COM
munications in THE HELARD, 1t be-
gins to look us If the city was warming
up for the campaign before her, Yield
ing to none in my desire for the well
fare of Dallas, and in my solicitude
that nothing may occur to check her
onward and upward career, propose,
by your leave, to submit few thoughts
which seem to me proper and german
to the occasion.
Before doing so, however, you will
allow me to premise by saying that l
do not write in the interest of any can
didate whose name has been or may
hereafter be mentioned in connection
with any of the offices to be filed.
1t can be heard every day, and al
most every hour, and that, too, from
the lips of men who, if they would re-
fleet q moment, would see the error of
their course, that the question of poll
tics ought not to be allowed to enter
into our municipal election; that the
selection of men to whom the city gov
eminent is to be entrusted should be
determined solely by the fitness of the
different candidates to discharge the
duties of the respective offices they
seek, entirely irrespective their party
affiliations in State and national
politics.
1t is against this opinion that / wish
to enter my most unqualified dissent,
and to call upon the voters of Dallas to
pause and reflect moment before
they allow themselves to be led into
false position by the seeming fairness
of the proposition. For l am free to
confess that, under ordinary circum-
stances, if parties in the State were
aligned on conflicting views in refer
ence to governmental policy, eitheI
State or national, and the honesty of
neither party in maintaining its pecll-
liar views were assailed, would myself
acquiesce heartily in the propriety of
the principle announced, and would
deprecate most earnestly the dragging
of federal politics into local elections.
1t might also be conceded that, as
national politics now stand, the course
suggested as proper fo- Dallas would be
ali right in q northern city, for in that
section the variance between the two
parties is based on questions of govern
mental policy; that is, rs to how they
shall treat their conquered provinces
of the south, which is the more bind
ing authority, the ipse DIRT of Grant
or the constitution of the United
States, ETC., etc. These are questions
about which honest men might honest
ly differ, and therefore, the advocates
of either side be entitled to the suf-
frages of their fellow citizens in cleo
tions i'm which political principles were
not necessarily involved.
But what do we find to be the dis
tinguishing features of the Democratic
and Radical parties In the South at
this day, and especially in this much
outraged State? TO sum it up briefly,
the Democratic party is battling for
honesty in government, for the re-
establishment of the time-honored
principles of civil liberty, and for the
protection of every class of the COM
munity in all its rights of life, liberty
and property; while the Radical party,
on the other hand, is bent only on
rapine and robbery. From the Rio
Grande to the Potomac 1t is every
where the same. Radicalism and rob
berry are synonymous and convertl-
BILE terms.
In South Carolina we see it grinding
white men and white women under
the heel of the semi-savage African; in
Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
we see it doing the same thing, WITH
If possible, more aggravated outrage
and indignity; i'm Louisiana we saw 1t
recently send to the grave with dis,
honored person, but with a pure ana
spotless fame, one of the fairest OF her
peerless daughters; and here in Texas
To-day we find 1t conspiring under the
forms of law to rob the freemen oil the
State of the fruits of their hard-earned
victory, and to continue the reign. OF
spoliation and robbery under which
the people have groaned for five years;
Can any man who loves justice, and
who hates misrule and oppression,
look upon these two pictures and say
that he will not ask himself before he
casts his ballot to winch of these par
ties the candidate asking his suffrage
belongs? Even If he should feel no
glow of indignation in his bosom when
he reads the story of the wrongs that
have been poured in overlooking
measure upon the people In the East |
ern-Southern States, will not his sense
of manhood revolt against aiding In
the elevation of any man TO any office
who would seek, by his support OF Da-