Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-04-20
lancaster fnteIligerlrer.
TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 20, 1880.
Asking too Much.

Asking too Much.
The Harrisburg Patriot asks too much
from us when it begs us to treat what it
says with silent contempt. We do not
so far despise the Patriots utterances;
it is true that we do not hold them in
as high regard az we would like to, but
it is because we find that they are SO
often based on falsehood, and that they
are not corrected in accordance with
the truth, when that is made known to
the editor. When we advised the
Patriot that its Lancaster correspondent
had misinformed it in alleging that
corrupt and improper influences had
been used in securing the election of
delegates to the state convention from
this county, the Patriot should have
called upon it's correspondent to sustain
his charge, and in default thereof it
should have yielded it up as false. But
it does not even think proper to divulge
his name.
We confess, again, that there would be
room for us to feel a higher degree of
consideration for the Patriot if it did
not sometimes seem SO fearfully stupid.
1t takes such deal of explanation often
to reach its comprehension. We have
even suspected that it was purposely
stupid and did not want to understand.
The latest snarl it has got itself into has
been in endeavoring to comprehend how
ho ho Gin ao0nrI3 ~
with Democrats who favor Mr.. Tilden's s
nomination when it is opposed to it..
The simple secret is that Mr.. Tilden's
nomination is not the sum and substance
of Democracy. The editors of the In
TELLIGENCER find themselves in
accord with Mr.. Randall, who
is for Tilden, and with Mr.. jerks,
of jefferson, who Mr.. Wallace says is
for Field or Morrison, just because these
gentlemen are good Democrats who hon
estly give their best judgment to the
service of the party and who generally
agree with us as to the measures
best calculated to secure its pros
perity. There are many things
more important than the candi-
date. Any good Democrat who
can command the support of two-thirds
of the delegates ought to be acceptable
to the party, and will he if the voice of
the people is fairly represented. TO en-
sure this, there ought to be no unit rule
to gag any delegate in the expression of
his choice and this is one point in
which we are in accord with Mr.. Ran
dali, and not in accord with Mr.. Wal
lace, as we regret to see by his statement
to reporter of the Philadelphia Times,
which is copied into the Patriot.
If the Patriot would try to understand
how it is that, being opposed to Tilden,
we can still find ourselves often in
accord with gentlemen who favor him, it
ought not to he impossible for it to read
the simple riddle. The trouble with the
Patriot is that it has not found the
right focus for its glasses All it
needs to comprehend is that it is
possible for men to be governed
by their ideas of right. There
are said to be men who would rather he
right than be president and we know
that there are men who would refuse ia
do what they believed to be wrong to
advance or defeat the political interests
of any man. We think that we are among
that number. Wedo not propose to lend
our aid to choke off any support that Mr..
Tilden has among the people. We have
our opinion and express it. Other Dem
ocrats can disagree with us without
exciting our hostility; and we will
he in accord' with them always
to secure a fair chance of representa-
tion for their own opinions. Thus the
INTELLIGENCER's senior editor found
himself = in accord - with Mr.. Tilden'
friends in the Pittsburgh meeting of the
state committee in resisting the attempt
to decide in the committee the Philadel.
phia contest.
The Patriot has forgotten itself
in criticising the accord of Demo-
Gratis. 1t is what it has been vigorously
preaching of late. Was it only lip
service that it has been giving to the
cause of Democratic harmony
What the party good demands is inde-
pendence of opinion among its members,
without hostility in exercising it; and a
spirit of conciliation which will bring its
members into submission to the will of
the majority fairly expressed.