Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-25
AS A POLITICAL WEAPON.

1
gradually adopted in this country to an !
extent which threatens grave consequences
to society. A disposition is growing up
to apply this thinly disguised form of
coercion wherever it seems possible to do
SO, and political and other organizations
are taking up the new weapon with an
apparent unconsciousness of the effects of
their action. Thus we find so.called
League Of Dsliverance," proposing to
solve the Chinese problem by refusing to
have commercial intercourse with anyone
who employs Chinese. In this particular
case espionage is to be added to the
"Boycotting." Spies are to be sent
around to ascertain what persons employ
Chinese, and then these are to be first
threatened, and in default of submission
ostracized. Nor is this the only instance
of the adoption of "Boycotting" which
has occurred recently. An organization
calling itself the Loyal League of Cali
fornia" has been formed in San Francisco,
for the purpose of enforcing the Sunday
law. 1t has adopted pledge which
reads "that the members of this League
"shall not, directly or indirectly, patron
size any dealer or tradesman who shall
violate the Sunday law by traDsacting
business on Sunday" The projectors of
this organization hope to get 40, 900 people
- al 1La aofo,nr II naip he
Anti.Debris controversy, strenuous efforts
have been made to Boycott those who
should refuse to take the side of one party
or the other. In fact the cases in which
this principle is sought to be availed of
are becoming SO numerous that it is neces-
sary to inquire to what all this disposition
toward coercion is tending.
For it must be recognized that "Boy.
cottiHg" is coercion, and of the most |
rigorous and tyrannical kind. It is, as
applied here, an attempt to force people to
change their views by depriving them of
the means of living. If one man ap-
preached another with the declaration that
he would destroy the formers property
unless he voted in particular way, the
wrong would be perceived at once, and
resented. But when number of people
unite and agree to apply the same kind
of pressure, it does not seem to occur to the
public that any wrong is being done. Yet
it is demonstrate that between this
"Boycotting" and the despotism which OF
old used to imprison and confscate and
even kill, for opinions sake, there is
merely a distinction, but no difference.
Men who would Boycott their fellows
after the modern fashion would be willing,
if they dared, to proceed further, and
scourge and beat them, as the Ku.Klux
did in the Southern States few years ago.
The practice has nothing in common with
free doctrines and institutions. 1t is essen
TALLY un-American in spirit and in
genesis. 1t is distinct movement back
wards in the direction of barbarism
resort to brute force as substitute for
intellectual power.
1t is preposterous to pretend that the
ballot can be free in a community which
countenances such forms of coercion as
this To threaten man with loss of bust.
ness unless he allows himself to be dictated
to- is to invade the most sacred rights of
the freeman, and to trample liberty under
foot. Boycotting is, in fact, brutal, in
solent and altogether intolerable foreign
practice, which Americans have no excuse
for adopting, and which, if they do adopt
it, must put an end to freedom among
them. 1t strikes at the very roots of in
dependence of thought and action. 1t
does more than this. 1t strikes at the
social compact, at the neighborly feeling,
at the cordiality of intercourse between
man and man. 1t creates jealousy, suspi |
cion, poltroonery, mendacity, hatred and
enmitY. Its tendency is to divide the
community into DULLES and slaves, and |
it is an abuse which grows by what it feeds
on. We see already how rapidly it is be-
ing introduced into all manner of con-
troversies, and il it is not checked
promptly there will soon be no difference
whatever between men which will not
suggest recourse to this kind of mob
despotism. No commonwealth can toll
crate the practice without mourning the
greatest danger, and it is the duty of free.
men who understand and value their lib
critics to protest against and to resist the |
innovation without further loss of time. |
This is a government of opinion, not of |
force, and force has no place in it. When
men disagree upon any issue, the Constitu-
ton has provided peaceful, orderly, GER
tain method of determining which shall
prevail. The ballot-box is the only weapon
which Americans are entitled to en-
ploy for such purposes, and it is every
voters right and duty to declare his con-
viction by that method, without fear and |
without favor. "Boycotting " is an exotic,
and it cannot be naturalized, and it ought |
not to be. 1t is in its way as fragrant
departure from American methods as Ku.
kluXlsm was, aHu IL DeionSs W Vic saine
category of abuses. 1t is time that the
people of California should rouse them
selves, and recognize the true character of
a practice which has thus far made such |
rapid progress that in few months, if pub
lie opinion does not declare itself emphat- |
ically, the whole community may be split |
up into warning factions, each trying to
Guido the other in coercing voters and |
breaking down the freedom of the ballot. |
The danger is real and obvious, and the
more SO because of the apathy or cowardice
of those who ought to speak most plainly.
Boycotting cannot be admitted as legiti-
mate political weapon. It must be aban-
doned as altogether illegitimate, unfair,
improper, and in direct contravention of
the doctrines and institutions upon which |
we proceed and under which we live. The
ballot is sufficient for all lawful ends, and
it must be left and kept free from all in
timidation and coercion, at whatever cost. |
STUPID GREERBAcKERs.