The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-07-27
SUSPICIOUS INDICATIONS.

didate right then is the moment for the party
to shake off that candidate and emanclpate
itself from the rule of his hackers, who
standing behind the scenes, make him the
instrument for the accomplishment of theil
purposes. The very existence of democratic
institutions, of government of the people by
the people, depends upon the fundamental
principle that the functions of representative
government can safely and easily pass from
hand TO hand in obedience to the will of the
majority. As soon as the cry is raised that
there is need of a "strong man." or as sosn as
we hear it maintained Of a public man that
''no one can take his place. then we nay de-
pend upon it that the cliques making such
CLAIMS for their ~favorite arc either bent upon
an open departure from the methods of repub-
lican government; or else that they have in
the background measures to promote their
own interests, axes for whose grinding no one
will so readily serve as the candidate in
whose support they profess to be actuated
solely by IA desire to promote the public wei
fare. In the preliminary phases of the nation
al campaign we were edited by the spectacle
of one branch Of a powerful political party
bringing forward a candidate for whom the
only claim they advanced was that of his be-
ing a ':strong'' man, and for that reason the
best man to elect President. If that faction
had proved the dominant one Of the party;
if they bad succeeded in nominating their
candidate their old cry of .'strong man
would ere this have proved the keenest of
weapons employed against them. They
would have been charged with a design of
subverting the constitution, of making some
violent innovations upon the institutions un-
der which our government has prospered for
nearly a century, else they would not require
a man "stl onger' than the law. With the
intention of following constitutional methods;
of adopting only such eNpedients as were
sanctioned by past usage one man would be
neither stronger nor weaker than another,
since the only strength to be riglttully EN-
ploved comes through the law, and according
to the forms of law. Something similar to
this is to be observed with regard to our
dele gateship. We fully understand the
duties a delegate has to perform, and
the qualifications he must have for
the proper discharge of those duties. Chief
among those qualifications is an Intimate
acquaintance with Montana, its past, its pres
ent and its probable future; with its resources
and its needs; and an equally intimate ac-
quaintance with the people of Montana-lhe
difficulties they must contend with AS incl-
dents of their mountain life their local
peculiaritieS and social development in fact,
with the characteristics which serve to distin-
guish them as a people, and to mark them as
separate from the people of any other district
or country whatever. A man possessed of
this knowledge will know exactly what Mon
tana wants. IF, then, he is also possessed of
good address; if he have the command of
language to state succinctly aud powerfully
the point he wishes to establish, and the gift
Of persuasion to enable him to influence the
minds Of others into an acceptance of his
views, then we know that such Il man, sup
posing him of course to he also a man of in
would make q good congressional
delegate-one whose labors would be condu- |
Give to the welfare and prosperity of Mon.
tana.
Now we have several men of this class,
men whose experience in pleading law IN the
courts, or in mining or merchan-
dising have made them thoroughly acQuaint-
ed with Montana, thoroughly familiar with
the ms and outs of Montana life. Moreover,
they are men IN whose integrity of character
and soundness of judgment we have supreme
confidence. From amongthese men it has been
suggested that we make our next selection for
delegate to Congress. but already we hear the
mere hint of such a step has evoked the ac-
opposition of a clique earnest in support
of the denomination for a .ffM term Of our
present Delegate. This gentleman livel in
Montana for only a few years in the earlier
days. With new Montana, the Montana
that has come into existence since the
decadence of placer and the rise of quartz
mining, he has no acquaintance whatever
further than that of the tourist who makes
an occasional pleasure tour through the ter
ritory. Further, this gentleman has been
honored again and again by the people of
Montana until it would really seem as if the
suggestions of modesty, if not Difference to
the democratic doctrine of rotation would
prompt hin to retire in favor of some one of
the Montanians whom We have alluded to as
worthy of confidence aud deserving of honor.
Those are wcighty reasons, to which might
be added scores of others against a fifth
term. Despite the logic of such reasons we
find a clique of capitalists, of army contractors,
of politicians looking elsewere for favors than
to the people who have no confidence inthem
such a crowd we find insisting upon a re-
nomination, and willing to spend their money
freely in cultivating the fictitious enthusiasm