Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-20
curTLE-FIsH TACTICS OF THE "sTAL-
WARTS


skill about this line of defense. Their at
tempt TO make it appear that the nominal
tions of Miller and Lapham were not male
by regularly called caucus will not stand
examination for a moment. The fact IS
that the caucus referred to was called pre-
cisely in the same way as the Senatorial
caucus at the beginning of the year was
called. To assert that it was not called IN
accordance with established party usage is
to make foolish misstatement, because the
contrary is VIGOROUSLY the fact. To say
that the caucus was not full is merely to
acknowledge that the Gonkling boilers re-
fused to enter it. They alone are RESPONSE
BILE Tor the fact that it was not full, and
they alone refused, without any decent
pretext whatever, to attend properly
called and completely regular caucus.
Their demand for new caucus alter they
had deliberately remained away from the
regular one, is alike unreasonable and i'm
pertinent. There is no earthly justitica-
ton for ouch demand. It is their plain
duty. as members of the Republican party,
to submit to majority rule, and they have
no right to demand that the majority shall
yield to them in any particular.
Their pretense that the caucus was not
regular is fagrantly false. Their pretense
that this assumed irregularity instifies
them in their present attitude is absurd on
its face. Their attempt to make it appear
that they defer to party methods and prin-
ciples at the very time that they are
ignoring and defying both, is incapable OF
deceiving any one. The fact that General
Sharpe, one of their own number, has
found it impossible longer to maintain his
position of recalcitrancy, of course en-
phasizes the utter incongruity of their case.
They have in fact not leg to stand upon,
and the violence of their language and the
| frothiness of their rhetoric only serve to
point the weakness of their positions.
Fortunately there are no subtletles IN
the situation. The facts are so plain and
simple that all can comprehend them. A
majority Of the party in the New. York
Leg stature called a caucus. That ma
jority necessarily possessed the right to call
the caucus. Every Republican member
was invited to attend that caucus. All
but the Conklingites did attend it. TWAS
alike their privilege and duty to attend it.
They had no reason for refusing to do SO.
Their absence put them outside the pale OF
the party under the circumstances. Bnt
they absolutely refused to attend, and the
nominations of Lapham and Miller were
made without them.
They had then no right either to protest
against this action, or to demand another
caucus. They were minority. and as a
minority it was their duty to yield to the
majority. Il is impossible to overcome the
logic Of these facts, and the wild vitppera-
of the boiling faction cannot accomplish
anything. They are unquestionably in the
wrong, and they have been in the wrong
throughout. They have flung aside every
consideration of public duty, and have
abandoned themselves in the most shame
less manner to the service Of man who is
VIGOROUSLY obnoxious to the Republicans
OF New York 1t is perfectly idle for men
in their situation to try to assume tho role
OF prosecutors in this case. They are on
their defense, and they cannot change
places with the prosecution. They are
self.confessed boilers. They have already
gone over to the Democrats and voted
with them. They are at this momen ct seek
ing to secure an adjournment by uniting
with the Democrats. It is therefore the
more foolish and hopeless for them to
essay the task of putting the Adninistra-
ton men in the wrong.
Nor are their ridiculous eulogies of
Conkling calculated to help them IN any
way. The only effect of these preposter-
Gus gushings is to suggest the reflection
that there are few things more cheaply
puschased than notoriety. Here is man
who has never done single thing in his
public career to indicate the possession Of
more talent or capacity than are necessary
to the successful handling OF the political
machine "a kind of capacity which he
shares with thousand vulgar loafers all
over the country-and yet his friends
gravely declare that the "world recog-
nizes his matchless ability" Matchless
| GlJia.4;ol,,, XIThora 90 tbo a,,;Io,cos rs
this ability? No man has ever seen them,
or ever viii. The kind of people who are
capable of making a demigod of Conk-
ling, however, are evidently incapable of
detecting the silliest fallacies in their own
arguments, and no doubt this is the reason
why these "stalwarts think it possible to
persuade the public that they, and not the
majority, are in the right, and that it was
somehow the duty of the majority to yield
to them. Their latest utterances have in
truth only tended to intensity the mingled
contempt and impotence with which the
Republican party has viewed their fan
tastic and irrational proceedings thus far.
They cannot change the actual character of
the situation by buster and bloviation
They certainly cannot alter the prevailing
opinion concerning their leader by making
boYishly exaggerated assertions about
his capacity. Their place in history is
made, and cannot be modified, and it is too
late for them, even by yielding, to re-
habilitate themselves, or to undo the evil
they have done.
THE COMPARATIVE SAFETY OF ENGLISH
AND AMERICAN RAILWAYS.
The English press appears to have seized
with eagerness upon the recent train rob-
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