Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1876-11-04
INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES.

From the Greenbriar. CIV. Va.) Independent
Oct. IL.
The result OF the recent election in
this state is most cheering to all true
democrats. And the signal rebuke which
this county administered to the indie
pendent candidates is more gratifying
than the glorious victory we have
achieved. That spirit of blatant conceit
and selt-promotion, and that disregard
of principle and the expressed will of
the majority, which have been growing
evils in our country for several years,
and which sometimes has succeeded in
raising radical protegcs into place,
ward. To the Independent candidates,
who have willlully, and against our
friendly advice and earnest protest, put
friends, and have suffered the legitimate
penalty of their temerity and ambition,
we have no consolation to give OF words
of paliation OF eXcus to offer. Our in
voluntary and hearty exclamation is,
'.served them right" These disorgan-
izcrs and mal-contents must be taught
that the democratic party is honest, that
it is 4 party Of principle, and not Il ring
or faction to confer tavors upon indlvid-
uals and personal aspirants. Its aims
and purposes are not simply to promote
and benefit those whom it selects as its
candidates and elects to office, but to
make such the agents and servants of
the people, and the opponents of demo-
cratic principles. 1t is the theory of our
republican government, and the practice
Of the democratic party, that the peo-
pie are the sovereigns, and the officers
the servants, and that these officers
shall be selected by the majority of the
party. To carry into effect these doc
trines, party conventions or primary
elections are necessary. To do other
wise is to ignore principle, and to sub
stitute therefor men who become candi-
dates from individual ambition, the love
OF power or the hope of plumber, and
then depend for their election upon per-
sonal popularity, %knavery, demagoguery
worse, the misrepresentation and
slandering of their more honest and ca
pable opponents. An Independent can-
didate is not, and cannot in the nature
of things, be anything but the represent
alive OF himself, and, perhaps, the lit
tie ring of m~al-contents who encourage
and support him. This was essentially
the character of that class OF aspirants
at the late election in this county. There
fore, we say we have no words of COM
fort to extend to them. We want them
to experience to the utmost extent the
bitterness and humiliation which they
have arrogantly and voluntarily brought
upon themselves. They imagined, in
their exaggerated self-conceit and blind
lnfatuation, that they, each individually,
combined more wisdom, virtue and in
telligence than the whole party as ex-
pressed at the primary election and dis
trict convention. But how sadly to them
has the It sult proved that
'srhe best laid schemes o. mice and men aft gang
aglee
The honest voters put them down in
thunder tones-they buried them so
deep in oblivion, or the ranks of the
radical party, that in future they will
never trouble or traduce the nominees
of the democratic party. The result of
the 10th instant admoniShes them keenly
that they must iorego their fond aspi-
r%atiOn., and dismiss forever from their
independent minds all hope of march
ing into office over democratic nominees
by the aid of radical votes. They got
very little comfort from the democratic
voters, and a great deal from the rad
icals. If they do not intend to mend
their ways after this rebuke they know
where their friends are, and the sooner
they put on the radical armor the sooner
they will find themselves in congenial
company. We do not say they must 60
into the radical party, but we do say
that they are at the door of radicalism,
and unless they reform, repent in sack
cloth and ashes" and return to the
democratic fold, their only safety is in
the tents of the radicals. The democrats
want no Independents, however wise
and influential they may be in their own
estimation; they do not want all their
wisdom in S 20 small Il number. All true
democrats respect an open enemy, but
when he assume the garb of friendship
to betray and deceive his friends he can
excite nothing but disgust and contempt.
a radical is much more respectable
than an independent candidate.