New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-21
"GTGlgTyC CONsPIR1CY.o

The Virginia Democratic Convention, held at
Richmond on Wednesday, enjoyed in one of its
intervals the felicity of listening to the chaste
oratory of the Hon. John GOOde, jr., Reprcscp-
tative in Congress from the Hid District of that
state. That eminent patriot is reported to
have declared that there had been a gigantic
conspiracy in 1876, which stiiled the voice Of
"the American people uttered at the polls" and
to have delivered himself of much Indignation
thereat, coupled with the announcement that
@the American people to-day are resolved not
@Only to elect the candidates who will be nOmi-
mated at Cincinnati, but to inaugurate them in
Gspite of Republican leaders," The COnven-
ton, without recalling the record of Mr.. John
Goode echoed his Indignation at the con-
spiracy, and without inquiring by what
authority he spoke for the American people,"
vOciferously applauded his proclamation con-
corning their deliberate purpose.
Well, what is q cOnspiracy-gigantic or other
wise7 Its first definition by Webster IA "a
combination of men for an evil purpose" In
this sense, from the point of view of Mr. John
Goode and the Virginia Democracy, he may not
be entirely wrong in defining the opposition to
his party as Gigantic conspiracy" since in
them is for an evil purpose" and this combi-
nation is, and has been ever since 1856, what
might be called, without exaggcratiOn, "gigan-
ticn When he says this conspiracy was to
stihe the voice of the American people at the
polls, ne falls into the error, common to that
class of statesmen-and which he makes still
more manifest later when he says the Ameri-
can people propose to elect and inaugurate
the Cincinnati nOminee-Of calling the Demo-
cratic party the American people," Under
our form of Government majOlitics are apt to
sthe the voice Of minOrities and minOrities
honestly believing themselves in the right arc(
apt to look upon a combination against them as
a conspiracy for Gn evil purpose; the purpose of
the minority being good, the purpose to put
Them down must necessarily be evil.
There is, however, another definition of " con-
"splracy," which reads thus: IAN agreement
between two or more persons to commit some
crime in concert, as treason, sediton or in
surrection." This is the ordinary acceDtation
of the term Is this what Mr.. Goode means
To what does lie refer when he talks about q
gigantic conspiracy"l Has there been moro
than one within his memory = more than one
gigantic combination TO commit treason, sedi-
ton, or insurrection7 We know of but one
that merits the expetive gigantic" That one
Mr.. GOOde must certainly remember. The
Democratic party of Virginia cannot have for
gotten it. That was, not merely in the loose
jargOn of a stump speech, or the wild tumbling
together of fact and fancy in the uttcrances of a
raging partisan, but in the deliberate opinion
of mankind, and the undIsputed judgment of
history, a gigantic combination to commit
treason, seditiOn and insurrectiOn-all three.
And the Democratic party of Virginia, which
held its Convention on Wednesday, was in it
and Of il, and very large part of it, from its
first whisperinGs in disappointed ambition,
through all tile blood it spilled and the disaster
it wrought, to its final extinction. These are
the men who call peaceful election in which
they wcre defeated gigantic conspiracy
and talk, as Mr.. John Goode Gld OH Wednesday,