Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1876-05-19
VuE Two-vu,wps RUE.

The following utterances IN regard
te tho two-thirds rule, that is to say
the rule requiring the concurrence of
two-thirds of National Convention to
make a nomination for President or
Vice President, we take from the
Raleigh Ne,0s, and we have read them
with both surprise and regret. Tt says:
The approaching Democratic Ma
tional Convention revives the question
of the mode of selecting candidates,
whether by majority or the two-thirds
ruls. The first is strictly republican,
the latter shrewd device of intriguers
to disapppoint their ponents, quite
as often to disappoint themselves, and
to foist upon the country some least
expected man. 1t is the fatal device
that has killed off the really COM
petent men, the men of charac-
ter, talent and service, and thrust
into prominence men who might
be respectable as cross-road politi-
clans, rarely able to reach the
higher level Of craftsmanship. 1t is
this rule that has on several occasions
given the Presidency to mediocre men,
and it is this rule that has SO ipfamed
the ambition of little men, because
the rule working so ruthlessly for the
degradation or punishment of real
merit made it always possible that to
work any solution, accident, spleen,
Or the necessity Of a final conclusion
wonld compel combination upon
some one least Objectionable to all the
others.
The rule is wholly artificial one.
the outgrowth of that keenness be-
gotten on the race track or the bet
ting table. 1t shocks plain common
sense and the principles of fair and
open dealing. It confuses plain, hon
est men and confronts them with re-
suits least expected and least accept
able to them. It weights the campaign
unacceptable and accidental, for VIII, m
a Fictitious enthusiasm has to be
created.
Before the war the existence of
slavery made the rule defensible be-
cause the South found in it weapon
with which to combat the encroach-
ments of the abolitionists. Now, there
is no need for it, for in the selection
of candidates for the Presidency the
South has no sectional interests to ad-
and it's rights as guaranteed under the
constitution, and this can best be done
by the selection of one of the Northern
or Western gentlemen already familiar
to all in connection with the nomina-
ton, whose choice can be made under
the old fashioned, plain, honest and
satisfactory Republican 1ule that the
majority shall decide.
If our contemporary had remembered
that the two-thirds rule had been al
most invariably adopted by the Ma
tional Conventions of the old Demo-
cratic party, though no such rule
obtained in the old whig National Cen
ventions, we feel quite sure its utter d.
ances in regard to the propriety of
ad rpting that rule at the approaching
ST. Louis Convention would have been
made in iaguuge less likely to offend
the feelings and prejudices of the many
thousands of good and true men in
North Carolina who still regard with
| affectionate reverence the traditions
and practices of the old Democratic
party. We read the article with as
much surprise as regret for the reason
that our cotemporary is usually so
| careful and copsiderate of the feelings
of all classes of our people. We feel
perfectly sure that nc offence was in
| tended.