Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-01-19
The Independent Party.

IN another column will be found the
resignation Of our townsman, Judge
CHARLES sLINDLItY, as a member of
| the, State Central Committee Of the
independent party. The letter is
written in answer to an invitation to
be present at the meeting of that COM
mittee called for the 2lst inst, and
contains, in the shape of the authors
reasons for resigning his committee
ship, his judgment on the party's
record and his opinion as to It's future.
1t is the opinion of Judge LINDLEY
that the Independent party failed to
perform its mission, and having so
failed, 1t has no future. In the main,
the HERALD endorses the opinions of
the Judge. As the party of reform,
the Independent party failed-failed
from the day of it's coming into power
until the day its strength departed,
never to return. California was the
banner State in the Independent
movement iiiiio efatt. Til an almost even
handed fight with the Republican
party, which controlled the State, held
every office in it and counted its ma
jority by the thousand, the Independ-
ent party won glorious victory.
Against the combined forces of the
Democrats and Republicans, it elected
its leader to the United States Senate.
And then, while the shouts of victory
were echoing from one end of the
State to the other, it laid down its
arms, trailed in the dust the flag that
had never known defeat, and surren-
dered body and boots to corporations
and Office seekers. With majority
in the Legislature, it became the
shuttlecock of two minority battle
dores. With its great leader in the
Gubernatorial chair, it was out-gener-
aled and robbed of the spoils which
belong to the victor by the shirmish-
ers of the Central Pacific railroad cor
poration. With the support and en-
dorsement of three fourths of the
voters of the State, this great reform
party forgot its promises, and when
the people asked for bread, it gave
them stone. Viewed in the light of
a reformer and purifier of other par
ties, the independent party must be
regarded as grand success. 1t
taught the Republican party that
name without principles : prom
ises without fruit might for
a time dupe, but could not
always deceive the people. 1t taught
the Democratic party if it hoped evel
to again attain the supremacy it must
wash its skirts of old notions, old To-
gies and old fossils and go before the
people Oh a platform made up ofsOund
plank, and must stand on that plat
form after as well as before the cleo
tion. These lessons it taught the two
great opposing parties, then fell into
the hands of men who had stranded
those parties-and died. The leaders
of the Independent party-those who
lead it after the victory-made one
serious mistake. They fancied that
because the farmers had supported the
ticket of their party that they could
thenceforth be counted in its ranks.
This was fatal error. The farmers
voted the Independent ticket because
they believed it was the best of the
three in the field. The Democrats
were doubtful and the Republican
candidates were known to be so close
ly identified with corporations that
they could not be true to the people.
Recent efforts of Independent party
leaders and journals to force the
Grange to avow itself the supporter of
the Independent party, indicate that
they are still to a certain extent Ia
boring under this delusion. The
Grange is not a political party, and all
in vain will be the labor of the Inde-
pendent leaders to force from it an al
legiance to them or their party. The
Grange is no more the Independent
party than it il the Democratic or Re-
publican party. 1t is a part of each
and all of them. It is the purifier of
all. The opposing forces in the great
political battle, which will be fought
in this State next Summer, will be the
Democratic and Republican. The In
dependent party has dwindled to a
squad of Office seekers, and in that bat
tie they will be known as camp fol-
lowers. The peope-they who never
ask tor ofiice-will elect the officers
selecting the best men, no matter
whether found on the Democratic or