Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-23
Friday Morning, April 23. 1880.


Friday Morntng, April 23. 1880. } ssIND1VIDUALIrY IN POLITICS.,' The lecture on Individuality in Politics delivered before the Independent Republican ) Association in New York city by Charles
 Francis Adams, Jr., was probably as able and clear statement of the position, power and
 possibilities of the Independent Voter as has
 ever been made.
 MT. Adams thinks that the highest and first
 duty of the thinking citizen now is to culti-
 Yate the habit of individual political action.
 He recognizes the cost of the requirement of
 and persistence in this habit. Independence
 in politics means the ostracism of those who
 practice it from regular political life to begin
 with, in so far as that is dependent on official
 position. It means the closing of the door of
 political preferment. More than that, it
 means that they who are thus independent
 may well make up their minds at once that they are to pass through life with the reputa- tion of being heedstrong and crotchety, off, horses. visionaries, theorists, Utopians, if not Pharisees, and to be continually scoffed and
 fouted at for their foolish waste of ammuni-
 tion. AS to the waste of ammunition he is in
 doubt, for though the Independent Voters do
 not fire so much in the solid volley as partisan
 voters do, he thinks that in politics, as in war, l they also kill who pick of their men.
 But if man can eschew the desire for of
 flee and bear to be considered an of horse, or
 even Pharisee, MT. Adams sees many req
 sons why he should stand on his own intsllec-
 tual legs and not feel it necessary to Do all | oe ;,,,
 among these reasons is the fact that not every
 election is crisis. The difficulty with the
 strict party man, says Mir Adams, is that he | Is always in state of crisis; the proper time
 for deliberation never comes with him, but ever
 and always the present election is to be decisive
 of the national destiny, and he who can he's | itate now is either blind or 8 traitor. MT.
 Adams has passed through nine Presidential
 elections and he says: Looking back over
 those nine elections-those distinct crises of
 our country's fate-I am fain to confess that
 have in small way borrowed great deal of
 unne cessary trouble, suffered much uncalled for patriotic anguish, and generally evinced deplorab1e inability to read the great logic of events Of those nine elections I can now see plainly that one only, so far as grand re-
 suits were concerned, was really important.
 The other eight, without greatly affecting the
 course of events, might have been decided
 otherwise than they were. The one election
 was that of 1864, when we wore in the midst
 of the rebellion. For the rest they now seem
 to me by their results merely to have hastened little, or to have little retarded the pro gress of development which had it's origin in social or commercial conditions far beyond the reach of any popular verdicts. These
 were mere manifestations" And yet in the opinion of the genuine party man each Presi- dential election is the most important the country has yet been called upon to pass through. He actually believes it, and seeing in the success of his party the salvation of the country is ready to vote for any man put forward as the representative of his party and uphold any measures taken to insure his party's success.
 The most curious feature of tho whole thing, in the necessity of an entire and absolute sup precision of individual judgment as patriotic duty this abiding conviction of the ruin cer tain to follow on the going out of office of ono party and tho coming in of another this deep insight into the moral rottenness and absolute badness of all ones opponents' -all this is put forth in the face Of political facts of every day notoriety. New York has now Republican governor and is therefore supposed by many to be saved. Mir. Adams slyIy says of this: That Republican gov ernor was, however, preceded by two Demo- cratic governors and I cannot but think that Mr Hoar would have some little difficulty in pointing out exactly where the ruin ended and where the salvation began. Perhaps, l however Governor Cornelrs nomination of Insurance Superintendent Smyth may have l marked the dividing line." And other instances | of & change in officers without consequent | ruin are given.
 In contemplating the present crisis" MT. | Adams does not, aside from dangers due to | excess of party spirit and the fierce desires of politicians, see single cloud over the near future of the country. '1f senseless disputes about the possession of power and the control of the central government can only be es- capped, GO not hesitate to say that 1t is in the long run utterly immaterial whether Re publican or Democrat sits in the Presiden- tial chair during the next four years, or which party in Congress is in the majority and which in opposition. If we only have peace and civil order if we only escape disputed successioHs and transfers of power, and strong men theories, and self inaugurated Presi- dents if we only have faith, even as grain of mustard seed, in discussion and education, and the appeal again and again to a more en- frightened, better educated public opinion above al if we can only elevate ourselves into 8 little reliance on the great remedial influence of time in these days of the free rostrum and the cheap printing press-if full play is but given to these intiuences-and they cannot be can be foolish enough to think that temporary possession of the offices for year or two, or even Presiden- tial term, is going greatly to affect the result?'
 He is not at all disturbed by the ridicule poured upon him and his independent com panions by the party leaders, and he has no fear that the party leaders will be able to persuade the or themselves either, that the unknown quantity in politics is without influence. He believes that influence is to be felt in the coming election, and he invites voters to individuality in politics in the fol- lowing words: eff. however, man does not want office and does want to make his single vote and his individual influence tell If he has no wish for political preferment, but would always give his voice for the better man if he is nothing unless critical, and, while devotiDg himself to business or his special calling, he would fain still do his share in politics as behooves the good citizen of a republic; if, in fine, he wishes to be always a thinking man and never fevered partisan, then, in that case, he belongs to us. Let him come up here at once to the center of the lifting board. He must join that maligned hodzr of indanandsrts and scratchars of Which