The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-05-24

STATE O0M1(ETIEE
Headquarters Republican .qase Coa,sitfsr.
s. Cloud Hosei, Philadelphia, Nay. II, 1851:
To THE RErrrIIcAxs or PExssrLvAxiA
The Republican State Commit
tee thus early announces the OPEN
ing of its Headquarters, and asks the
prompt cooperation of all active
Republicans, TO the end that the de-
tails of what must prove a great can
vass may receive The most careful
attention.
The Harrisburg Convention has
submitted TO the suffrages of the
people great ticket and glorious
platform. The ticket embodies
group of names which for tahility,
fitness and representative charac-
ter, it is impossible TO excel. Gen1
Beaver is not only the type of our
soldiery-of that host which count
ed in its ranks nearly quarter of a
million of Pennsylvanians when the
Union of the States was imperiled-
but his deeds and sufferings for the
cause place him in the front rank Of
the heroes of that war. As Repub-
: licans we vowed in its darker hours
that political ingratitude should
never be shown TO any of those he
roes, .'all other things being equal"
In this instance all other things are
more than equailed; they are ex-
celled in so far that our MANNED sol
dier candidate for Governor embod-
les all the higher qualities of the
statesman, the orator and the chris
tian. Senator Davies for Lieutenant
Governor, represents the free, un-
shackled talent of the section which
gave us Wilmot and a Grow.
VIM. Henry Rawle, for the Supreme
Court, is the best product of Phila-
delphia's brilliant bar, and in the
world of legal letters bears a fame so
brightthat our continent cannot bnd
it. John NJ Geer, for secretary of
Internal Affairs, is as strong in pol
itics as in physique, and throughout |
distinguished career in the State
senate has been recognized as the |
champion of the men who have de-
veloped our rivers of oil and made
the world their channel. Thomas
NJ. Marshall, the most independent
of all independent thinkers in our
West, is the best example our State
affords of the citizen whose qualifi-
cations have compelled the office to
hunt the man. He will aid in keep
ing intact what in the nature of
things must be very narrow Re-
publican margin in the lower House
of Congress.
The ticket thus fairly and fully |
represents every living element Of
Republicanism. The platform is
more pronounced than ever before
adopted in the State-pronounced !
in seeking every legitimate political
advance touching improvement of
methods and the earliest possible
triumph of principles.
Pennsylvania is now freer in her
forms of Republican primary action
than any other State in the Union.
The inaugurated district representa-
ton in National Conventions, and
now more fully enforces this policy |
than other of her sister States. The
present platform and the rules
embodied therein secure to primary |
action for State Convention every |
tangible claim to increase liberty,
and these are political reforms of
of more rapid growth than any
known 10 our history.
AS a rule good things in politics |
which come to stay, come step by
step, the pace increasing only as all
become more and more ready to re-
receive. Theprogress of the Repub-
lican party forcibly attests a fact
which has grown into a maxim. In
its infancy the party could but an
nouace its opposition to the further
extension of slavery. Extension
once forbidden, its wisest champion
the martyred Lincoln-patiently
struggled in the earlier years of his
first administration for compensa-
ted emancipation. His appeals
were rejected by The parties interest.
ed. Wars grim necessity emanci-
pated, and then a great struggle fol-
lowed Cor equality before the law
but another step, and one which
looks timid now yet which was
bold enough then. Civil rights ac-
complished, manhood suffrage came
through even more painful stages.
To have demanded the greater boon
from the beginning-tbe final step
which included and outreached all
the others-would have led to a
fatal slip. The men who proved
their prowess in these struggles
were those who had the wisdom to
guide with care and good cheer, and
so to stand with the people as not to
lose their opportunities for increas-
ing usefulness. OF such were Lin
coin, Stevens, Garfield.
And now the Republican party of
our State, having aided in securing
human rights through legal forms,
in its recent Convention wisely di-
rected It's attention to the growth of
liberty in primary action. In Re-
publican Government it is frequent
ly wise in citizens to initiate in their
forms of voluntary political action
those laid down by the law, for in
this way all the people become IA
miliar with the law and its work.
lings the exceptions point to times
and occasions when it is desirable
to change the law, and to prepare
sentiment for that change. The
constitutional law of Pennsylvania
fixes the number of Senators and
Representatives at 251, maximum
which the platform preserves in the
selection of delegates to future State
: Conventions, but at the same time
it wisely protects the primary right
of each Republican voter in the de-
claration that delegates shall be Sc
lected as Senators and Representa-
tives are selected. This is popular
and representative suffrage carried
into primary action, giving to local
sovereignty to say whether it shall
be popular or representative. Eth