The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1880-10-01
THE SIN OF SECTIONALISM.
SCATHING ARRANGEMENT or SENATOR coz,
LING BY HIGH REPUBLICAN AUTHORITY.

. SCATHING ARRANGEMENT or SENATOR Co,,K-
/ LING BY HIGH REPUBLICAN AUTHORITY.
Senator Conkling is one of the leaders of
/ that portion of the Republican party whose
only political principles are the loaves and
fishes and an undying hatred for the South
Extracts from his recent speech in New York
city have been widely published by Republi-
can papers all over the country, but one of
them at least, the New York Ecening Post.
staunch Republican journal, and, by the way.
an especial friend of Garfield because of his
free trade record, takes decided exceptions to
Conkling's uttcrauceS and so efTectually dis
poses of his .'bloody shirt" sentiments that
no further reply seems to be necessary. Tie
Ere,tiHJ Post says
1t has been intimated for some time that
the egTegiouS vanity of Mr.. Conkling has rem
dered him Indifferent to the success of the
! candidate nominated at Chicago lie was i'm
favor Of the nomination of General Grant. in
spite of the infamous cOrruptions and iobber-
les that SignallZcd his last administration, and
in spite of its infringement of practice which
had become sort OF uuwrttcn law of the
constitution, and made a third term TcpuiSiye
to the popular instincts. But his choice was
/ not approved, and not being able to rule, he
has, il l. said, With true satanic ambition re
solved to ruin. Certainly his speech at the
Academy OF Music last Friday would seem
to confirm these suspicious. Ii was through
out an nSdi0US assault upon the best char
acter, purposes and hopes of the Republican
party, and under q prctcnCe OF VindlCating
and defending IT pat the argument in such Il
shape that the chectOf it must he to repel
. every man Of generous feelings and honest
logic by whom it Is read Its only object was
to revive and reinforce that narrow, OdioUS
and malignant ScctiundiiSm against which all
the better members of the party have been
struggling for the last ten years. Il SAYS in
so many words that the issue of the present
campaign i sectional and only sectional. and
in order to prove that it frames what Burke
thought to he impossible ''thc Indictment of
the whole people. % in the lowest spirit of the
. carpet-bagger and the demagoguC.
Before considering that aspect of his adj
dress, however. let us see what Air. Couk-
Hng'S notions Of the duties of Il President of
the jnited States are. Washington. ADAMS,
jefferson, Madison and others have taught
us that. though officers are chosen " parties.
the moment they are chosen they become the
representatives and organs of the whole ma
ton. General Jackson was most earnest
and vehement partisan, whose prciudices,
naturally bitter, were aggravated by the kind
of personal abuse with which he had met
vet jackson had the maHncSs and patriot
ism to proclaim that ''the chief ma magiStratc of
great and powerful nation should never in
dUlge i'm party feeling he should always bear
i'm mind that he acts for the whole and not
part of the community" Mr.. ConkIine
thinks otherwise. In order to give a sly stab
at President Hayes he SAYS that 'the candi-
date of q party is the exponent Of a party,
and, after he is elected, can have no viii bat
the Viii OF his party '' Few things, lac
adds, in q SnceTing way. "aTe more deSpica-
bic than first to secure elevation at the hands
of party, and then in the hope of winning
pretentious non-partisan applause, to affect
superior SaBCtity, and meanly to IMPLY that
those whose support and confidence were ea-
geTlY and defcTcntiallY sought are wanting
in purity, patriotism, or some other title to
respect. In other words, public officer Is
not to be controlled bv his constitutional OBJ
legations as he irterprets them, nor by con-
ScientiOus sense of duty to the whole people.
but by the wishes of those who elected him
specially; or rs things now 20, by the man
ayers of the machine Never has the machine
theory of politics been stated more openly oI
with more unhiuSiing audacity.
The entire animuS of Mr.. COnEling'S Tca-
Souing is that the President should be elected
by the machine. and when elected be con-
trolied by the machine he is not to address
himself to an impartial administration of the
duties OF his Office according to certain fixed
principles, but he Is TO become the instrument
of predominatng interests, or of those parts
of the nation where production, cOnSump-
ton, building TILED acreage, - etc, happen
to De in the ascendant. But that Is not the
spirit of our constitution. The constitution
fixes, with great minuteness of detail. al
modes OF our elections, and when an election
is closed Il regards the result as the act oi the
whole people. In order To get an expression
of the manhood of the nation, each vote
counts as one and is aS good as any other
vote and, as Mr.. Conkling himself says in
the outset of his address, 'thc supreme, the
final, the only peaceful arbiter Is the ballot
box. In that urn should he gathered, and
from il should lie sacTedly recorded, the con
science, the judgment, the intelligence of all. ,
But no argues Mr.. Conkling afterWird, il Is
not the votes that ought to be considered, but
the places that the votes come from. II they
are put in by the South, which Is Unfortu
nately impoverished by q long civil WAY and
many years OF carpet bag eXtortson and riot,
they are bad and dangerous votes, hut if they
arc put in by the North, where commerce.
industry and manufactures thrive, and large
revenues are paid, they are good and whole
some votes. and are entitled to rule.
In order to Justify his cOld-bloosied section
alism, and to carry the Republican caust
back TO the state in which it was at the clos,
of Grants administration, ignoring the no
bic and efficient services Of AiT. Hayes anf
his cabinet in healing old sores and bringing
about kind and couciiiatery feelings, Mr
Conkling gets up tremendous bugaboc. /
would be a frightful bugaboo if il were no
OF the kind that bites of its own head. Iii
mode IF constructing the scarccrov, put .u
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