The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1878-07-10
Wednesday. July !, 1878.
Conscious Merit.

CONSCIOUS Ru6T1bs | .
Theatrical critics sometimes allude to
the elimination of the essential parts of
play as being like the tragedy of Hamlet
with the part of the Prince left out, The
convention of non office seekers which was
yesterday held ia this city, in the adoption
of a platform exemplifed the ease with
which political creeds may be pruned
down and limited to meet the exiglncess
of an occasion.
That portion of the new school of
political light which has Illuminated the |
benighted regions of Rock Island county, |
has, through the Organ, always proudly
pointed to the Toledo platform as the sum
nit Of perfection and the browning glory
of human wisdom. The little squad of in
vincibles who have drawn their sustenance
and earned their daily bread directly from
the bounteous hand Of papa govern
meut, aud have lived, thrived,
and enjoyed their being under the
walls of national ediices have over and
again signifed to their less enlightened
fellow citizens that the highest possible
good to the human race was embodied IN
the precepts of the Toledo platform-and
especially that the dawn Of the millennium
ana the thousand years reign of the saints
were rapidly drawing near under the hal
cyon influence and inalienable right of the
laboring man to the benefits Of the eight
hour law; inasmuch as under this ennobling
and Divine arrangement eight hours could
be given to the service of the government,
eight to the dissemination of political wis
dom and the Toledo platform, and eight
for recuperation and sleep. Their hopes
of human happiness and their belief IN the
evolution of human progress must have
received rude shock, must have been
like the memory of things dear but de-
parted, when in the granger convention OF
yesterday their allies and confreres
Of the great and glorious green
back persuasion so inexorably ap-
piled the shears of granger necessity
and ruthIessly cut out OF the beloved
platform that blessed section which sym
bozed Trinity under combination Of
three equal Fights. Was there 10 mercy
for the poor laboriDg man? Scaut mercy
indeed when the all-powerful granger say,
no eight hours for me,-my farm knows ri
surcease from labor in the harvest felC
for theory's sake; shear ont that littl
fancy clause or here we part; granger ant
greenback despise that. So granger ant
greenback triumphed over workingmel
aud government hands-the honest advo
Gates of eight hours labor were relegate
to back seats, and to-day they enjoy tn
sweetness and the humility ofknowing VIII
their masters are and what they demand
1t was in many respects a notable col
vention. One Of the cardinal principles {
the party-of the conglomerate rather, &c
even yet they are divided and disagree ;
to a name-iS the exclusion of Office seel
ers, the profaue vulgar" who see
Office. And yet, strange to say, amid
50 much purity of profession al
such exalted negation of selfish proper
sites, the half score or so of leaders wi
were prominent in managing the machinel
of the convention, who builded the pla
form, who trained the candidates for non
ination aud stood sponsors for their fat
and baptism-the leaders who scarce
deigued to disguise their hand before tt
eyes OF the innocents who thought the
were actors 10 the passing play-the
old Stdgers who inveighed so Justify again
Office seekers, who wanted men for off
taken off the ground floor, who taught Il
wickednesa aud folly of nominating pr
fessional men, for office,-these ancie
UeterdHs are all old soldiers, renowned
political fights, and whose names have a
peared With unremitting regularity 10 t
same rOLe in the conventions of the dem
cratic and republican parties for the |;
twenty years. Still, they are no off
seekersl and that convention was grand
nobly true to itself, its profession, its Sc
sung virtues-and it didn't nominate a
professionals" Ell? Oh! no.
Here it Isl Platform.
Greenbacks and Glory.
Ten hours the right of flight hot
left out Of it
WorkiDgmen's Ticket.
For Congress-J. w. Haney,
Professional Methodist Preach
For State Senator-P. i. Mckinney,
Physician and Prof. of Literatu
For representatives,. w. Foy,
Professionally Lawy
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Results of the Potter Investigate
CFrom the New York Staats Zeitung0