Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-04-23

Northport harbor Wednesday night, thu
mate Nicholas White was fatally stabbed
by George Stamford.
Tho Unit Rule.
York Press, Dem.
Some of our readers may not precisely
understand the nature and operation o
the " unit rule" against which most ol
the Democratic newspapers of this state
are now so vehemently protesting. It is
this /: Pennsylvania, for instance, has fifty
eight delegates in national convention,
four at large and two for each COMPRESSION.
al district. The four at large are elected
by the state convention but the district
delegates are elected by the delegates to
the state convention from each district. In
the Republican party it has been custom
ary for the state convention to instruct the
delegates to vote on all questions as a
unit" and such resolution was also
passed through the Democratic conven-
tiOn of 1876, after the proceedings were
supposed to have been concluded, and only
a few delegates remained in their seats !;
but it was not sustained nor approved by
the party.
1t will be seen that, under the operation
of this obnoxious rule, thirty delegates
from Pennsylvania might vote the whole
fifty-eight delegates, with their constitu-
ents absolutely disfranchised, and without
a word to say. The chairman takes vote
in the delegation, and then he proceeds to
cast the whole fifty-eight in accordance
with the wishes of the majority-the votes
Of the protesting minority being thus
counted against the very men to whom
they belong. A majority Of congressional
districts in Pennsylvania being Republican,
it might easily happen, under the opera
ton Of this rule in a Democratic conven-
tion, that every Democratic district in the
state would be disfranchised and vOiceless.
The unit rule'' is the convenient de-
vice of the Cameron-Ring, to enable it to
smother public sentiment and to strangle
all personal independence in the party
which owns Senator Cameron for its mas
ter and boss. It is by virtue of this rule
that he threatens to cast the forty
eight votes of Pennsylvania for the nOmi-
nation of General Grant against the we'll
known wishes of four fifths of the party.
It is this rule which makes him the
dreaded tyrant and dictator that he
is, and has reduced the Republican
party to a state of pitiful servitude under
his corrupt and relentless sway. Under
the operation of this rule alone can there
be any boss-ship or undue personal power
exercised over the votes Of a delegation
in a national convention. Without this
rule every delegate is free to vote the SEN
timents of his own constituents, according
to his own judgment, and no delegate can
exert any influence which does not pro-
perly arise from his character, talents and
previous services and position in the party.
More than this no honest man or true
Democrat will ask or permit. We want no
"upit rule in our councils. It is tyran-
nical, undemOcratic, corrupt-in that it en-
ables boss, who has managed to secure
a majority to trade away the whole of the
state in his personal interest-and in every
point of view, it is an infamous device of
Gratis can have nothing to do.
We are pleased to see, by his letter pub
lished elsewhere, that Speaker Randall
comes out squarely and with the old-fash-
iohed Democratic spirit, against the impo-
sitiOn of the "unit rule" We trust that
before the meeting of the state convention
Senator Wallace will see the wisdom of
the threat which some of his
friends make, of pressing and enforcing the
rule, and the prOpriety of leaving all these
Cameron methods to the Cameron party,
which is at this moment suffering death
by strangulatiOn in consequence of its SUBJ
mission. It may as we'll be understood
now as again that the Democratic party
will bear no suggestion of the detestable
"unit rule"