The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-02-25

proceedings, DIlCl anu " sliC pOlAit, VI
he County Committee meeting held at the
Court House last Monday afternoon will be
'ound in our local department. The Com
nittee, or at least a majority of the members,
Is is more apparent than encouraging, were
fully determined to make short work of the
Crawford county system, Notwithstanding 1t
received q clear majority of the votes cast at
an election held in June last for the purpose
of either continuing or superseding the pres
ent delegate system, and as soon as that OBJ
ject was attained the meeting came to an in
glorious end.
That this was the feast to which the Com
mittee was invited we leave our readers to
Judge, each for himself; yet we doubt not
that a large majority Of them will agree with
us that whatever motive actuated the Com
mittee, it assumed a role for which 1t was
never created and accomplished work that
will not rebound to the welfare of the party
whose interests it was appointed to serve.
1t matters net how honest the members were
who voted to table the resolution offered by
Mr.. Fleming, which, or something akin to
which, it was their plain duty to adopt the
fact remains that they acted as if the Demo
cracy or Cambria have no rights which they
are, bound to respect. If they were not
willing to do the work that the Democrats of
the county made obligatory upon them by
their. action last June, they should at least
have had courtesy enough to draw up an ad-
dress setting forth the reasons which prompt
ed them to disobey the will of their masters
and at the same time referred the question
back to the people for their final decision.
We are no advocate of the Crawford coun-
ty system, having voted against its adoption
under the firm conviction that it is deluSion
and snare, but when it received the endorse
ment of the party, as it certainly did when a
majority of these who voted on the question
declared in its favor, it was little short of
revolution for the County Committee to adopt
the desperate tactics of the late Thaddeus
Stevens and treat the election as though it
had never been held. 1t won't do for the
men who have committed this glaring and
grievous offense against the unity of the Dem
ocratIc party to take refuge behind the plea
set up by themselves that the vote given for
the system in question did not express the
will of the Democracy, and that therefore
they were justified in refusing to put it in
force. AS well might they claim that sue
cessful candidate for Office was not elected
because every voter in the district did not see
fit 20 exercise the right Of suffrage. But even
admitting the validity of such an excuse, how
does it come that the wise men of the Com
mittee rejected a system that secured the ap-
proval of 472 Democrats and resolved to con-
tinue the present system, which had only 187
votes in its favor? Certainly this conclusion
could not have been reached through any de
sire to obey the will of the party.
We don't wish to speak Of this act OF the
Committee in as harsh terms as we think it
deserves, but we have no hesitation in saying
that it is as shameful as it is Unprecedented
and if it be true, as not few honest and
earnest Democrats are prone to believe, that
it has been egnineered in the interest, or
supposed interest, Of certain seekers after po-
litical preferment, then indeed In the estima-
ton of as wise men as any of them, have they
sown the wind of deplorable discord only to
reap the whirIwind of well-merited defeat.
The FREEMAN did not hesitate to raise its
voice against the suicidal act of the Commit
tee of two years ago when it recalled Ge-
funct convention for the purpose of perform
ing a work which had passed beyond its con-
troll, thereby assuring a victory to our polit-
ical enemies, ana the FREEMAN is none the
less emphatic now in condemning the want
of judgment, to put it in the mildest form
possible, which has characterized the course
pursued by majority Of the Committee in
doing what an equal number of Democrats
not members of the Committee, would have
fully as much right to do. We don't assume
that the Committee was packed for the pur
pose Of doing what it has done, and yet there
is some reason to believe that several of thosc
who voted with the majority were prompted
by anything else than an earnest desire t
/ serve the party. Others there were, no douot
who acted from honest and conscientious mo
tives, but nevertheless they played into tn,
hands of the opposition, ard our only hop
now is that the damage is not too serious T.
, be repaired, and that there is still plenty o
{ time to avert the calamity which has beel
invited if not assured by the unpardOnabl
/ folly of those who ought to be the servant
/ of a party which has already suffered to
/ long and too gTievously from the barterings
chickering's and blunderings of selfish pOliti
. clans.