Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-07-21
A Disgraceful Beginning.

ernor purchased his nomination. Not
one Ohio Democratic voter in thou
sand ever heard of John w Bookwaltel
until few newspapers were furnished
with substantial reasons for trumpetinG
his praises shortly belUre The State Con
vention met. All that is known of hin
now is that he lives in Springfield, has 8
lot of money and is building an opera
house. In Ohio when man has more
cash than he knows what to do will
and wants to advertise the fact, he
builds an opera house. 1t imposes or
the imaginations of his fellow. citizens
They know that the investment will be
unproitable, and conclude that he must
be fabulously rich to be willing to throw
his money about in such loose and
liberal way. Politically, Mr.. Bookwalt
er is a nobody of the nobodies. He is SC
obscure that even his Democracy was
questioned in the Convention. His nom.
ination was brought about by secret
methods savoring strongly of bribery
Lest these should fail, the galleries OF
the thea'er where the Convention met
were packed with hired shouters brought
into Columbus by the train load to hur-
rah for Bookwalter and to drown with
clamor all opposition to him. The dele
gates who desired to speak in favor of
other candidates could not make them
selves heard, because of the rumpus
raised by Bookwalter's forces.
The platform is monument of impu-
dence and falsehood. Almost every pos
tive declaration in it is in direct con-
tradiction to the acts and principles of
the party in times past. Either the
Democrats of Ohio are trifiing with the
truth now when they say they believe
these things, or they are confessing that
they were in the wrong in previous cam
paigns when they said they did not be-
lieve them. On the first supposition,
they are unworthy of confidence; ON the
other, their conversion is too sudden to
entitle them to ask for power at the
hands of the people whom they have
hitherto tried to lead estray.
Let US see what they say. First, they
favor 'the equality of all people before
the law" Yet they are the same party
which opposed with bitter persistency
the gift of emancipation and equal
rights to four millions of American cit
izens. "Unpoltical legislation" is their
next demand. Yet their party has nev-
er failed, when in possession of Con-
gress Or of State Legislatures, to subor-
dinate the business of law-making to its
partisan needs and schemes. "a free
and pure ballot-box" comes next. This
from party which struggled for two
years in Congress to remove the safe
guards of Federal law against false ma
turalization, false registry, fraudulent
voting, ballot-box stHiting and intimida-
tionl A little further on we come to a
condemnation of the last Republican
Legislature for recognizing the benev-
olent institutions of the State solely for
the purpose and as a means for distrib-
uting the spoils." This is unblushing
effrontery. When the Democrats elect
ed the now-forgotten Governor Bishop
and carried the Legislature, their first
and almost only business was to pass
laws recognizing the State. institutions
in order that they might fill the places
of experienced and competent superin-
tendents, teachers and nurses with DEM
ocratic partisans. This performance
largely contributed to the overthrow of
the party at the following elections.
What the Republicans did when they
were restored to power was to remedy as
far as possible the mischief Democrats
had done and restore the State charities
to their old condition of efficiency.
There is another hypocritical resolution
of the same sort aimed at appointments
in The punitive institutions, which must
have provoked horse laughs from the
committee that prepared it, when they
remembered how their party, in its ea-
ger hunt for spoils during its brief lease
of power, actually dismissed the guards
in the penitentiary and the teachers in
the reform schools to get places for
Democratic politicians
We next hit upon a resolution sin ia
yor of a civil service reform whereby
Offices shall be held to be public trust
to be administered for the public good.
not spoils to be enjoyed as the reward of
partisan zeal or service" This is good
but it comes from a bad quarter. The
Democratic party invented the spoils
system in the time of their patron saint.
Andrew jackson. They have never
done Il solitary public act since to abol-
ish or reform that system. On the con-
trary, they have never failed when in
power to use the offices precisely as they
now say they should not be used, "as
the reward of partisan zeal or service"
When they got control of Congress they
even, went so far in their shameless
greed for Office as to turn out one-legged
soldiers to make room for able-bodied
Democratic politicians. Still another
piece of glaring inconsistency is en-
countered in this absurd platform. The
interference of the General Government
is invoked to control the railroads and
prevent them from making unjust dis
eliminating charges. This from a party
which sacrificed patriotism to its theo-
ries of State Rights in 1861, and has ey-
er since denounced every measure for
Strengthening the power and extending
the functions of the National Govern.
ment, is an exhibition of cheek which
would be amusing if it were not so char
acteristie.
Only at the extreme end of the docu-
ment do we find anything that is honest
and insignificant of the real purposes OF
the Democracy. Carefully sugared with
phrases about equity" 'public bur-
dens" and ENCOURAGEMENT of productive
industry" is the old Democratic nostrum.
so bitter to the tastes of American work
ingmen, of tariff for revenue, So de-
voted are the Democratic doctors to this
nostrum and so determined to force it'll
upon the people. that even with the loss
of thousands of votes among the me-
chanics and miners of Ohio staring them
in the face as the certain conse0nence ofI