Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-11-02
Ndnrastrr fntclltgenrer.
TUESDAY EVENING, NOV. 2. 1890.
The Momentous Decision.

A beautiful day we have for our great
election, and no excuse remains to any
citizen to stay from the polls. Every
one will vote, and every one ought to;
for it is great privilege, as it is great
1t is safe to say that the
majority of the voters will not cast an
and dispassionate ballot. In
our view, no one Of those who will vote
for Garfield Can do so; while many OF
those who vote Tor Hancock will lie more
moved by prejudice than
reason. Possibly it is only All accident
which enables us to justify to our
judgment and conscience the vote
We give to Hancock; possibly and
even probably, we would have voted
for our party, even though we had known
that it presented the worst candidates.
Men so readily deceive themselves, and
find reasons for following their feeling
rather than their judgment, that it
would not lie safe, for us, who vote for
Hancock to-day, knowing that we
are right. to say that we would
not have voted the Democratic
ticket anyway, though fearing that
we were wrong SO that we cannot
cast stones at our Republican brethren
to-day who prefer Garfield to Hancock,
Notwithstanding there does seem to be
no chance whatever of disputing the su-
perior merit Of the Democratic nominee.
We write without intent 10 influence
votes now that the election is over, and
feeling as calm us a summer morning
over the result. We know that the best
man will win il it is the order Of Provl-
dence that this republic shall live and
prosper; if that is not the order then we
may hav eGarfeld. If he is elected it will
be a sign to all of us Democrats as we'll as
Republicans-fO the one is as mach i'll
terested as the other in the welfare of our
country-tO set our houses in Order and
prepared for decided change in cur po-
litical institutions. \ people that is so
unfaithfu; to its charge and untrue to
itself, as 10 elect to the chief magistracy
a man WHO is under so black suspicion
of moral weakness, is in lit condition
submit to the subversiOn of its lib
erty. Certainly we cannot elect
such = man as Garfield to the
presidency and deserve to he free.
Oh. but he is good man. say his Re
publican supporters, and you slander
him! Those who say this simply prov
the lack of their intelligence and the
strength of their preiudices: for the rec
ord against Mr.. Garfield lays him under
such grievous suspicion OF falsehood, per-
Jury and s,llserviency, that it should bar
him FROM receiving the votes of the peo-
pie, even as though he had been proved
guilty: for we cannot afford to run the
risk of such man. Our common sense
tells us that we ought not to give the
benefit of doubt to a candidate for high
Office, rs We do to an accused criminal
we are entitled TO take the benefit of this
to ourselves: and to require to lie as
sured to "A reasonable degree of certainty
of the honesty and capacity Of those
who aspire to be our servants.
Are those who vote for Garfield thus
assured q? Can they lay their hands upon
their hearts and say SO : If they can.
what of their intelligence and what of
their conscience Let the future an
swer; as it will. in direful tones, should
the great calamity of Garlield's election
befall us. We consider it calamity,
because OF the indication it affords of
the fact that tie reople are controlled
absolutely by their prejudices and their
passion lis well the intelligent as the
ignorant, for if he is elected it must be
by the intelligent Republican voter who
has thought too much of his party to
sacrifice its present success to its future
strength and the present good of the ma
ton.
We do not believe that any such
trouble is coming upon US. for we do
not see why the foundations of the re-
public should thus I've caused to crumble.
The fierce rule of party must he broken
if it is to sba preserved. We must feel
that it is possible to wrest the govern
ment from the hands Of those who, en-
trenched in power. have abused their
trust. IL this Republican party, which
has onre stolen the presidency and put
in the presidency man who received
hundreds OF thousands less than Il ma
jority of the popular vote, by rea-
son of its ability to cheat the
party not in power ont of the
electoral vote of two states: which has
during twenty-five years OF power COM
mitted crime after crime against the
people and which ROW eliminates its
audacity 10y demanding the election of
aman whose character is fearfully open
to reproach : il the party is retained in
control of the government the people can
fairly expect to he deprived for the future
of some of the rights they show so little
vigilance in watciingand preserving: elec-
tiOns will become still more but record
of the will of the government officers !;
the states will become the creatures of the
federal power: the power OF money
will wield the country and the liberty of
the people will! be crushed under the
heavy weight OF corporation monopoly:
until the day Of revolution comes and
the fabric is turned again right side up.
From all Of which we pray deliverance;
but all of which is sure sooner. or later,
to come il the people do not display the
will and the ability to detect and correct