The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-02-24
RirI,moud 1ispatth
rurspAy..,> FEBRUARY "a, 1880
rta Two-Thirds Rule.

The Two-IblrOS fSuiV'
The meeting yesterday Of the Democratic
National Committee reminds eversnou.
thm the Democratic National Conven"oa u
n meet about four mopths from to-day
This fact reminds us OF snother-oame'y'
that the last Democratic NaiionA ConVeh'
lion asked the Democratic State Convex
,ions Of The several States. In sesding de'e'
v,,es 10 the National Convention OF lSSo,
TO instruct them 10 vote either for or asains'
the continuance OF the twoshirds RUE.
The resolution on this subject OF the last
democratic Na,ionsl Convention was as io''
lows:
Resoired. That Il be Recommended 20 iu'
. s,,o na,ioosl nenocratic conventions as
che sense 81 the Democracy here In convsn-
zion assembled that the so-called two-tnitus
ruIe me abolished as unwise and unneces-
sary. and that the States be requested 10 w
sfrnct their delegates % the Democratic
National Convention TO be held IN iSoV'
wbefber II be desirable 10 continue lhe
two-thjrds reIe longer In force in tbe Ma,
t,on.l Convention, and that the Ns,ioha,
Committee insert such request IN tseir ca''
for the Convention.
When This resolution was before the Oon'
yention. Senator WALLACE, OF PcnnsSNa-
MIA. called for a di,Ision OF the question.
r,o President ordered the iesoia'iV" 20 oo
a,y,doa into Two. The first one endeo WIN
49, cow, .. unnecessary" This was adopt
.d The vote was then taken upon Tue
other part OF the resolution ana ,oa' was
odon,ed. So ih.t the whole resolution was
.do,sed. the oIy change being the DIVISION
OF 4 into two paragraphs.
II ia eviient, therefore, that II the
Na,,ona, C.ntrsl Committee did yesterday,
or shall do tosdiy, its duty, the above reso-
lutior will constitute part OF the call is
sued by them for Naiioral Convention.
The next step In course will be for the
several State conventions to take action
upon this resolution. We confess that VIXEN
Il was adopted in st. Louis we were "pres-
ent and consentinQ," like SAUL OF Tarsus
when STEPHEN was killed. We had become
somewhat prtiudiced against the old Demo
cratic rule because it had postponed toe
nomination OF Mr.. TILDEN when, as we
thought. every consideration OF party policy
had demanded his nomination on the 1fst
ballot. However, we have bad nearly four
years In which TO cool of, and now we are
disposed TO think that the rule which has
worked so well as long as we can rsBaen-
be- cannot he so bad rule after all,
and might as well be permitted to
stand. We have pretty well made up our
minds not TO become so warmly enlisted this
year in behalf OF any man as we were in
no regrets to express over the nomiu&tion
OF any good man. Nevertheless. it would
seem 10 be not hard requirement that the
candidate who j. TO bear our banner this
year shall receive two-thirds vote in tire
National Convention. Otherwise the States
which will be unable to give him vote in
November next might control the nomna-
ton. Injustice were done, such States as A'er
mont, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and q few
others that never vote the Democratic
ticket, would not be allowed to be repre-
eentedin the National Convention; but in
asmuch as there are always so many doubt
full States which may or may no, east their
votes for the Democratic candidate, it is In
practice found necessary to allow all the
States TO be represented, as perchance some
favorable turn in the wheel of fortune
might give the Democrats State whose
vote they had not counted upon. Although
the Republican States are thus allowed to
DE represented in the National Convention,
they cannot nominate candidate so long as
the two-lbrds rule Is n operation. This is
one reason why we favor its retention.
Another reason why the two'thirds rule
should not be repealed is that it renders it
next to impossible for shrewd, wire
working aspirant to control the action of
the National Convention through large
minority Of the delegates. This large
minority cannot succeed half so well 10 i'm.
pressing their views upon two-thirds OF the
delegates as upon hall of them. We do not
know that there is anybody in the field this
gear who wonld attempt such strategy; but
it's well enough to have evory weak point
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