Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-12
lie ksusEs OF FACTION


is not, as matter of fact, any ground
whatever for doubling the lawfulness of
the vote of New York city and State. The
result is applicable in the plainest way, and
it is as certain as anything can be that Han.
cock has been fairly defeated The i'm
possibility of overcoming a majority of
twenty-five thousand by bubbles and
subterfugeg is clear to the least intelligent.
The work upon which Barnum and his con-
genial colleagues have entered is SO pre-
posterous and so illegitimate that it is
denounced by prominent members of their
own party, who do not hesitate to say that
they regard the whole question as settled.
themselves in the late campaign by the
baseness of their methods, appear unable
to refrain from making further exhibi-
ton of their unscrupulousness, nor are
they deferred by the manifest hope.
lessness of the undertaking. 1t is
highly improbable that any one
of them believes in the possibility
of reversing the popular judgment by
hocus -pocus tricks, but for all that they
are resolved to proceed with the tricks.
They cannot help their party, but they can
and it is to be feared will very seriously
injure the country by what they are do
| ing and it is their contemptuous indiffer-
ence to the public interests that demands
special notice at this time. 1t is notorious
| that a Presidential election unsettles bust
ness for some time, and that this effect
has been particularly marked of late years.
The reason of this is evident. The issues
involved have been of the most moment
| Gus character. 1t has been to large
extent question between stable govern
ment and anarchy. 1t is unnecessary to
recapitulate the considerations which
tended to render business relations uncer-
tain, for every one knows them. The fact
that they were in an unsettled condition
for some time previous to the election is
too well understood to require demonstra-
ton. The election of General Garfield by
a majority of the electoral votes which left
no room for doubt or dispute was obvi-
ously an event to be thankful for. The
election of General Hancock by an equally
decided majority would have been much
Democratic business men had precisely the
same reasons as Republican business men
for desiring that the outcome should be
emphatic and decisive. The actual result
was therefore, from commercial and finan
cial standpoint, satisfactory, no matter
what the political bias of the observer.
But in order that the benefit of this cul-
mination of the political struggle should
be enjoyed by the people, 1t was necessary
that there should be prompt and loyal sub
mission to the popular will. This was
duty which both parties alike owed to
their common country. 1t was the one
test of patriotism which Americans exact
from every faction at such iunctures. The
country needed repose and harmony after
the long turmoil of the summer, and it had
right to expect it from the defeated party.
At this point the unpatriotic tendencies
OF blind faction become conspicuous. The
Democratic managers, when put to the
test, have failed sIgnally in their duty.
Instead of accepting the inevitable like
men who regard themselves as first of all
American citizens, they have made it appa-
rent that they put party before country.
They have in Eject declared that they are
resolved to plunge the nation into all the
anxieties and apprehensions of disputed
election rather than surrender when all
the people can see they are beaten, and
when they have no excuse for holding out.
| The wicked recklessness of their conduct
is made more apparent by the evident fulfil
ity of their endeavors. 1t is not anywhere
believed for moment that they can prevent
the Inauguration of General Garfield. The
absolute destruction of their party is all
they could finally achieve by persistence in
their present policy. But what they may
do is to make business ard enterprise stag
nate, to alarm capital, to paralyze industry,
to cause the postponement of beneicent
projects, to check progress and diminish
the prosperity of the country. And this, it
is unnecessary to point out, is thoroughly
Mexican. The politicians of the sister
republic have always been selfish and
reckless dictionaries. They have always
preferred anarchy to submission. They
have brought the best constitutional
machinery to ruin and confusion
by their unconquerable propensity to re-
pudiate its legitimate results. The faculty
OF accepting lawful defeats is perhaps that
which has contributed most powerf lily to
| the establishment of American institutions.
1t is faculty bred in this people by many
generations of Anglo-Saxon training and
discipline in the use OF freedom. Without
it there can never be ordered or stable gov
eminent, and whatever party shows impa-
thence of it, or tendency to exchange
submission for intrigue or revolutionary
methods, is thereby convicted of retro
grading in civilization The Democratic
party has used Mexican methods at the
South, and it is therefore not surprising
that it should attempt to employ them at
the North. 1t will not succeed any better
in the one case than in the other but it may
do much mischief, and those who do not
think it justifable to infiict such injury upon
the business OF the country ought to lose
no time in condemning the proceedings of
Barnum and his evil councillors. The DEM
ocratic party can vindicate itself by repu-
dating the action of its managers, but as.
suredly it cannot afford to carry the respon-
sibillty of what they are attempting to do.
MR.. GLADSTONE and TIE PRINCE OF
WALES
a story has been circulated in London
to the effect that MIR. Gladstone has re-