Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-22
SECRET POLITICAL SOCIETIES.

none OF them have accomplished anything,
and all of them have been condemned by |
public opinion, the tendency to experiment
IN the same direction seems ineradicable.
Those who form these associations fail ap-
parently to perceive that if they are based
upon actual facts they are protests against
the American political system, since they
cannot be needed unless that system Is
failure. Why secret society should be
required for such a purpose IS that OF the
Texas organization is not easily explained.
The ballot is free, and every voter who
does not approve of any candidate has
perfect right to vote against him. II,
moreover, any citizen believes that 1t is
dangerous to the republic to elect Roman
Catholics to Office, the method OF making
his belief effective in politics is perfectly
plain. II his positions are sound, II his
arguments are convincing, he has but to
make them known to his fellows, and he
can trust to their patriotism and good
sense for the rest. But when a man thinks
it necessary to create secret society for
the purpose of operating through the ballot
box upon some class of citizens, he thereby
acknowledges in advance that he has no
faith in the convincing force of the posi-
ton he has taken. He does not come
frankly forward with his objections to the
obnoxious class, because he clearly does
not expect that his objections would be re-
garded as sufficient. This secret society
method, therefore, is really an endeavor to
circumvent the open and manly modes of
conducting American politics, and for this
reason alone it deserves condemnation.
1t involves an element of fear and du-
plcity also which has nothing in common
with free institutions. If the Roman
Catholics are in any way dangerous to the
commonwealth, it is obvious that this dan
ger must be of a kind SO serious as to de.
mand the most open and decided measures
of resistance to them. If the cause of the
alleged danger can be made clear, nothing
will be easier than to form public senti-
ment for the defense of the State. But on
the other hand, if that danger cannot be
demonstrated, if it is after all not of a
character to convince the people of its
reality, then it is clear that the proposed
action against the Catholics is unjusti.
fable, and that resort to secret methods of
organizing the attack upon them is in the
line of an attempt to obtain snap-judg-
ment, and to break down the freedom of
the ballot. Secrecy in American politics
has never proved winning card. In fact
it has almost invariably been the disguise
of narrow and intolerant and prosecuting
spirit. In Europe secret associations have
been formed because the people were not
allowed to organize and discuss politics
freely and publicly, and also because the
repression of despotism always drives men
into revolutionary conspiracies, which are
of necessity concealed as closely as possible.
There is, however, something ridiculous
about secret American political society.
1t in fact belongs in the, category of illu-
labor agitations by men who were in all
respects better off than they had ever been
in their lives, and who, after eating three
hearty meals day, assembled at the sa.
looms and corner groceries to declaim about
their alleged restitution, and to accuse
other people of starving them and driving
them to despair. The French Revolution
has left legacy of grim ideals, which
ignorant people have ever since been striv-
ing to live up to. The real truth is that
such convulsions can only be produced by
many generations of suffering and oppres.
sion such as no American citizen has ever
known or is ever likely to know But ouI
fulfilled and prosperous people sometimes
make tremendous efforts to fancy them.
selves down. trodden and oppr sssed, and
then they have recourse to tho old.fash.
toned formulas. and parade III obsolete
/ European costumes with great self.satis.
faction. The secret societies If Europe
have been evolved naturally from the FUR.
roundings. They have been the inconven.
lent but necessary methods of depressed
communities. But there is no repression
in this country, and consequently no need
for secresy. The American Knights OF
"Honor" might hold their meetings in
the public squares, and no one would III
terfere with them or say them nay, though
perhaps a great many sensible people
would laugh at them.
There is no demand for this mystery in
politics. The American people are always
ready to hear any man who thinks he has
message for them, and if it turns out to
be a genuine one they will give careful
heed to it. But the attempt to carry ont
political issues through the medium of
secret meetings and signs and grips and
mystic passwords, is absurd and childish,
aud however much such business may
attract the weak minded, it can never
produce any important results. For a
secret society confesses that it is afraid OF
something, and yet it can have nothing to
fear but public opinion. But an organiza.
ton which so breads public opinion that
it feels compelled to work in the dark,
cannot have any confidence in the wisdom
and strength of its own policy, and is
therefore self.condemned If ever it should
become necessary for the American people
to combine against the Catholic or any
other class, they will know how to do it
openly and candidly. They will sum up
the facts on which they are to proceed, and
if they find them sufficient they will go on
to protect themselves in the ways pointed
out by the Constitution and sanctioned by
immemorial usage. But for secrecy in
politics they have no use, and we strongly
suspect that in nearly all the cases of the
kind recorded, careful inquiry would
reveal the fact that the idea Of secret
organization was Matched in the brains
OF some few chronic office seekers,
who thought by this means to secure a
political machine capable of being used
for the furtherance of their personal am
bition.
MoRF prNIAE PRuFArrPy