Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-06
KsAREEY'S CHICKENS COMING HOME
TO R0QST

(
the Sandlots on Sunday, for he himself in
troduced the practices by which he was
silenced on that occasion. No one has yet
had time to forget the insolence with which
he formerly led around his ruffianly fol-
lowers, taking possession of public meet
ings, violating the right of free speech,
threatening outrage and violence upon all
who differed from him, and encouraging in
all ways the brutal and lawless spirit which
has at last been retaliated upon his own
head. If, therefore, this was simply a
question of poetical justice, tie public
might stand back and amuse itself with
the retribution which has overtaken this
pestilent bulldozer, and might dismiss the
whole affair with an impatient exclamation
of ga plague on both your houses !"
But it is not possible to deal
thus cayalierly with what is in
fact far more an outrage upon
American institutions than a retaliation
upon Kearney. Two wrongs never made
right, and never will. Because Kearney
has been blatant mob leader and disturber
of the peace it does not follow that others
are justified in following his bad example,
even when the immediate purpose is to
punish and suppress him. As regards the
personnel of the mob that howled him
down on Sunday there seems to be some
conflict of opinion. Some of the San
Francisco papers say that the disturbance
was created by Democratic roughs and
bullies," while others say that the dis
turbers were members of the w. 2. G. who
had gone over to the Democracy. 1t does
not really matter much what such men are
called, however. Whether they style
themselves Workingmen or Democrats the
central fact remains the same, namely, that
they are brutal and lawless ruffians,
not only ignorant of but hostile to free
institutions, and totally unfit to ex-
ercise the privileges and perform the
duties of American citizenship. We
have frequently pointed out the strong
antagonism between all the political meth
DDS employed under the general head of
Kearneyism, and genuine American prac-
tees. In the Kearneyite methods has
been exhibited not merely Ignorance, but
alien ignorance of the kind which al
most instinctively opposes whatever of
ordered government it encounters. The
yelling roughs who have heretofore
assisted Kearney's demonstrations, and
| who now are just as ready to howl their
former leader down, or to mob and muir
der him if they get the chance of doing it
in cowardly way, are alike discreditable
to the republic, under whatever factional
flag they may happen to be rallying. They
are not American in anything and least of
all in their brutal contempt for free speech
and fair play.
1t will not do for the decent people OF
San Francisco to make any mistake about
this. Democratic bulldozing is just as
dangerous and just as reprehensible as
Kearneyite bulldozing. 1t may well be
that the class Of men which has followed
Kearney hitherto tends naturally toward
the Democratic party, for it is in that
party that the most systematic and auda-
cious outrages upon free speech have been
perpetrated. The Democracy of the South
has for years been precisely what Kearney's
opponents last Sunday would be if they
got the chance. Give them timid adver-
saries and they Will set no bounds to their
insoience aud cruelty. They are akin to
the material out of which solid South
has already been constructed, in fact, and
they would not hesitate to repeat the South
ern methods in San Francisco they thought
the experiment would be safe. However lit
tie sympathy there may be for Kearney
personally, therefore, and however indiEer-
ent decent men may feel towards his difficult
ties, it is absolutely necessary to look above
and beyond the immediate cause OF this
outrage, and to insist upon the liberty of
speech, no matter whose rights are in
vaded, or by whom. The men who
assembled on Sunday to prevent Kearney
from speaking to meeting of his own
sympathizers ought to have been dispersed
by the police. The latter did not appear
to comprehend their responsibilities, and
allowed the interruption to continue until
the meeting was broken up 1t is to be
! hoped that such remissness will net be per-
mitted again, but that if second attempt
| shonld be made to interrupt a meeting, the
riotous element viii be promptly dealt
with, and in the only way by which it can
be convinced. 1t is certainly discouraging
commentary upon the progress of our
civilization that such scenes should be pos
sible, but the clements which have
left the w p. G. to espouse Hancock s
cause are natural Democrats, though their
behavior would undoubtedly be the same
whatever they called themselves. They
were for kearney first because they
thought he represented a peculiarly turbu-
lent and lawless opposition to government
and to order. They are for the Democracy
now because they recognize in that party a
worthy substitute for Kearneyism, They
have no respect for free speech, no under
standing of free institutions, no capacity
for self-government. They are in sober
truth dangerous classes, and it is the ex-
cesses of such men which fill the minds of
American thinkers with ever}ncreasing
apprehensions as to the ultimate effect OF
the prostitution of the suffrage resulting
from the constant and rapid absorption
into the body corporate of those who pos
sess no single qualification for citizenship.
THE FRENCH SENATE AND PLENARY
AMNESTY.
The French Senate has rejected the bill
granting plenary amnesty to the Commun-