Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-01-14
Aancaster fntellige,lrer.
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JAN. IA, 1890.
Mr.. O,COnOr's Convictions.


Mr.. O'Conor's Convictions.
Charles O'ConOr has broken a long
silence on political matters in a way to
attract universal attention to what he
has to say. Mr.. O'Conor has all his life
been held to be Democrat OF the strict
est sect. and while he still considers him
self to be the most democratic |
of democrats, he abandons unre-
seryedly some of the chief doctrines of
the Democratic partya well as the party !
itself. He became finally disgust
ed with them after they nomi-
mated Horace Greeley, their open,
notorious and lifelong antagonist,
as their candidate and the champion
of their professed ideas. Very shortly
after this event, Mr.. O'Conor declares,
his convictions became settled" and
caused him to withhold from both
parties his confidence and sup
port, hoping for the ultimate expul-
sion of both from power and the
total overthrow of party government"
He charges the troubles of the country
upon the ''trade of politics." an art "by
which the masses are controlled for the
personal benefit of their rulers" He pro-
poses remedies for the evils he sees,
which are certainly radical enough to be
very effective if there is any healing
power i'm them; which is the question.
He does not expect that the present gen
Grafton of men, or any number OF them,
will see the virtue that he sees in what
he proposes and in this expectation he
is not likely to he disappointed. The
startling changes which he suggests in
our method of government are not
likely to receive assent, though the
troubles which they are devised to cure
are obvious to all men, and the result OF
the criticism which will be attracted to
Mr.. O'COnOr'S most novel propositions
will do great good to the country and
may eventually secure is such safeguards
as will make its government democratic
i'm substance as we'll as in form. The en-
lightened wisdom of this age ought Ger
tainly to he sufficient to devise some
means to secure the government of the
United States to the people to whom /,
belongs, ,and to whom it is not now given
as the whole world has been of late years
advised through the notorious failures OF
the ballot box to secure obedience to Its
award.
Mr.. O'Conor goes deep to the bot
tom and turns the nation upside down il
a wreck with the intent to rebuild 1t from
the foundation. That may he the wa.
i'm which our needed regeneration vii
come, but it will only he after we hav'
passed through violent revolution ant
the people have been aroused to forci
ble resistance to usurpers who hav'
changed the republic into al empire. L
is not likely that the states will be abol
isled, as Mr.. COnOr wants them to be, b.
their own uncOerced act but that woul'
he the inevitable result Of the abolition
of our democracy, and only when it
restored again can it be determines
whether Mr.. O'COnor isright in charging
. upon our state organizations the dissen
sions and civil war that have bee
our chronic aflliction. The empir
bids fair to come upon us, a
Mr.. O'Conor agrees with the pOpula
apprehension in believing, through
Grants elevation tOa third term whicl
he considers will he suicidal to the Re
publican party, in depriving it of the in
&,+o II
stock in trade, and destructive to it
leaders in transferring the control o
the spoils to a chief magistrate seated
for life and independent of them.
Mr.. O'COnOr considers it abSOlutel,
impossible that anyone called a Demo
crat !" should succeed in the coming Ia
tional election: and bases his conviction
upon the belief that the New York Leg
iSlature will take care to secure the elec
toral vote of the state for the Repub
lican candidate, as it has the powe
to do by choosing the electors itself o.
by causing them to be chosen in th'
congressional districts, a bill to whicl
effect has already been introduced int
the body. Mr.. O'Conor may be right
If he is, and the people submit to thi
legal means of depriving them of thei
presidential choice, we may readily as
sent to Mr.. O'Conor's other declaration
that the elected candidate will claim TIN
place for life.
Things will then ripen towards tha
revolutionary stage when the genera
Overturning will take place that will give
Mr.. O'Conor's radical ideas a chance fol
adoption, if their wisdom is approved b!
the patriots of this revolution of the neXt
century who survive to deal with it.
Why is this Thus: