The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-09-14
THE NOMINATION FOR DELEGATE.

THE NOMINATION o DELEGATE.
To-day, Sept. s, the Territorial Democratic
Convention of Montana will be in session at
Helena for the purpose of nominating a can
didate for delegate to congress for the ensu-
ing two years. OF all doubt respecting the
choice TO be made in comforting the nominal
ton we have already been relieved by the in
structions delivered by the several county
conventions, those instructions being of such
a nature as TO render the denomination of
Major Maginnis as much Of a certainty as
if it had already taken place. Nothing but
his positive, perenptory declination can pre-
vent such nomination., and as we have nc
reason whatever for believing that it will be
declined, we may for the sake of convenience
consider it as an already accomplished fact
and pass from its consideration to the consid-
Grafton of the manner in which we are in
honor bound to receive it.
This tine the nomination has not gone by
default ; its disposition has not been made
without a struggle. The fight against the re-
nomination of Major Maginnis was earnest
and bitter, and as we were selected 10 lead in
that fight, destined as we now see to meet
with a Waterloo defeat, we may very properly
address a few words of counsel to those who
followed us in that torlorn hope, and who
now are likely suffering the smart and irrita-
ton of defeat. We address ourselves thento
those whom we have lately been in the habit
of styling ''anti .Maginnis." In so doing we
shall not undertake to underIate their num-
bers or intelligence, but will frankly confess
what We formerly stoutly maintained, viz:
that y large section of the west side democ-
racy were opposed for one reason or another
to the denomination of our delegate to con-
gress for a fifth term. To all such we should
say that the question "should Maginnis be re-
nominated, or should he not is no longer a
living question. That matter, after being
fully discussed pro and con, has been decided
and is now as essentially a dead issue as if it
had been raised. We have passed beyond
the stage when the matter of choice within
the party was still a question of doubt. AT
present but one consideration claims our at
%tention. There is but one question which
every democrat must now ask himself, and
which may be cast into these words !:
Shall l vote for the mar who repre-
sents the school Of craftsmanship and
the political doctrines in which | be
lluve, or shall l cast my vote for the man
who is the representative of political ideals
the exact opposite of those in which | have
an abiding faith ~ That is the question for
every democrat now to consider; not whether
he is animated toward Magilnis by personal
feelings of a friendly nature or the reverse.
In matters political men may be divided into
two broad classes, those whose choice is the
result of thought, and those who are guided
merely by impulse. The man who declares
he viii! vote the republican ticket only
on the condition that Y be the nominee
of the party cannot surely be claimed as a
republican from principle. He is nothing in
principle. If he were a Democrat by convic
ton, he would not vote the opposite
ticket, no matter whose name it might
bear, while if he were a conscientious
believer in republican principles he woult
vote for the properly selected representative
of those principles, nc matter whether that
representative happened to be his individna
choice or not. His declaration that he will
vote that ticket only in case Y be the nom
inee, is a virtual advertisement of the fac
that he belongs to no party at all, but insteaC
that he is the mere personal follower o
henclmen of Y, of a man whose politica
peon lie has consented to become by invest
ing him with his highest privilege Of free cit
izenship. This, we apprenend, will not b
disputed. But if we proceed a step furthe
We shall readily find that this rule wor',
both ways. Coming to the case in hand, til
man who is willing to vote the Democrat
ticket with any other nominee than Maginni'
l but who will not vote it if Masinnis be tn
nominae-that man is no more a Gemocrs
4 than the individual cited above is a republ
cali. In fact the two are precisely at par, til
one with the other, the only difference bein
t that while one has consented to lowe
r himself TO a state of political peonag
s in his acceptance of a persons
master, the other has become the PEG
of his prejudices for whose qualification l
It his willingness to renounce Il