Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-07-12
POLITICAL STATUS OF THE RAW
ENSwOOD REFORMERS.


define the political status of those who
participated In the Ravenswood temper
ance convention.
The conclusion at which it arrives
after reviewing the whole case, is that
"the participants in the Ravenswood
convention can't be yet said to have
severed their connection with existing
parties, but the road they are on leads
in that direction" .....
We might say of the Gazette eonclu-
sion, as it says of the position of the
temperance delegates, that while it has
not very accurately defined their pOlit-
cal status, "the road it is on leads in
that direction"
The delegates to the RavenswoOd
Convention were ofall political ereeds
and parties, Democrats, Republicans
and Greenbaekers. Judge FERGUSON
and Judge BROWN, who the Ga=ette
says were the leading spirits in the Con-
vention, represented the Democratic
and Greenbaek parties, and there were
also leading Republicans among the
number.
In the first place, the Convention de-
termined that the temperance party
should not act independently of the
political parties-that is, that it would
not make independent nominations
but that it would seek out and vote only
for those candidates, by whatsoever
party nominated, who were pledged to
the temperance platform.
Moreover, secondly, the convention
resolved that delegates must attend the
party conventions and endeavor to Sc
cure the nomination of candidates who
would pledge, or were pledged, to the
temperance platform.
When We put the first and second res
,lutions together we catch. the full mean
ing of the convention, to-wit: that
Temperance delegates are instructed to
act with their respective political parties
ifsaid parties adopt formally or inform
ally the temperance programme, and If
not, to bolt.
They are instructed to go into the re-
spective party conventions with which
they have heretofore affiliated, and if
these conventions nominate pledged
. temperance candidates, to vote for them,
and if not, to vote against them.
In other words, the party politics of
the Ravenswood delegates is to be held,
for the coming campaign, in condition
of suspended animation" so to speak.
They are to use their political parties
for an Interior and different object from
that for which the main body Of the
party was formed. The political issues,
outside the temperance question, are to
be ignored. They will go into the pO-
litical conventions, not as politicians,
but as agents of the temperance cOnyen-
ton. They will not decline, but even
seek, to sit as delegates in the political
conventions, bnt with the ayOwed de-
termination that they will not abide the
action of the conventions unless the
one objeet-although foreign to the pur-
poses Of the eonventions-is made the
chief object, and the nominees are
pledged to carry out that object.
Now, there is good deal of what is
known hereabouts-and is not in very
good oodr, either-as sovereignty"
about this attitude. 1t is not denied
that the temperance delegates who oc-
cupy such an attitude have q perfect
right to renOunce their allegiance to po-
Itical parties, but it is another and very
different question as to whether these
political parties, sitting in convention,
will allow them to pretend TO represent
the political parties which they openly
reneunee, and whose action they refuse
to recognize or be bound by, if it does
not suit their individual notions.
This is question which party con-
yentions will have something to say
about. They will not relegate their
authority entirely to the individual SOW
ereignty. Political conventions are sup
posed to represent and their action to
bind the individual units of that pollt-
ical party. When an individual goes
into political convention he must be
either fish, flesh or fowl--DemOcrat,
Republican, or Greenbacker. he sits
in Democratic convention and an
nounees that he will vote for its nomi-
nee if the nominee suits him and if not
for Republican nominee, he would
thereby sacrifice his right to participate
in the Democratic convention. II he
sits in q Greenbaek convention
and declares that he will vote
for the Greenbaek candidate il
that candidate makes certain pledges
outside and foreign to the Gleenback
platform, and if not, for a Democrat oil
Republican, candidate, he would not
and could not properly be recognized as
a delegate In the Greenbaek convention.
So, too, If he sits in any one of these
political conventions, and announces in
advance Of its action that he will not
abide by its decision-as the Ravens
wood delegates have done-that he will
not vote for or support its nominee up
less he pledges himself to something not
required by or included in the platform
of the convention which dominates
HIM, then he virtually renounces his
allegiance 10 the party represented by
the convention and is not entitled to
participate in its proceedings.
The Gazette, therefore, stopped short,
we think, Of conclusion which covers
the whole case. 1t fOrgets that political
party conventions have some authority
in the premises; that they have some
right to judge Of the qualifications ofthe
delegates who seek to participate IN
their proceedings; and that they are not
~ n n In cd