Daily Republican., 1882-12-04
The primaries,

The Primaries.
That our party machinery is left In
the hands of clique or to use q more
latter day term "a ring, is the fault OF
the members of the party themselves
People who will never take the time to
attend the primary meetings and
let things 60 by default, have no right
to complain Of what was done by those
who did attend. Even if members OF
n party should not afterwards feel 1t to
be their duty to vote at the municipal
and State elections, 1t Is their duty to
attend at least the primaries of their
party, that there may be q full and fair
expression of sentiment and feeling
over candidates, delegates and commit
teemen that the best may be chosen
AT the primaries is where the most i'm
portant work is done. There is where
She ball commences to roll, and II
started in q wrong direction, it gathers
velocity and force and becomes difficult
to move or turn in any other direction
Let US look at this primary system a
moment and see Low it works. The
voters belonging to the party in a local
area, say q ward, district or hundred
are convoked for the purpose Of choos-
ing delegates to q larger local area III
which these ward delegates are lnclud-
ed. Together with the delegates from
all the other districts, they proceed to
a higher convention and select the can
didates of the party for office. SThis in
Delaware is called State Convention,
and this State Convention chooses dele
gates every four years to meet in Ma
tional Convention to nominate candi-
dates for President and Vice President.
The latter is the highest of all Conven-
tions, but its sourCe.is the little ward
primaries, attended by but few poll
sicians and their followers, who know
nothing about political principles and
care less, so that "my man" is elected
n delegate. The people have every op-
portunity of expressing their will ard
it is their own fault if they do not get
the best candidates. Clearly the pri-
mary is the key of the whole duplex
delegate system. Everything depends
on the delegates chosenlat the primary
for once chosen they can bring Gus any
candidate they like. He, through their
nomination, becomes the candidate oi
the party, even of those who would Lo'1
have chosen him for candidate.
The duty therefore of every good citi-
zen, who desires the best candidate, is
to go to the party primary of the ward
or district which he belongs to and
there give lis vote for the delegates he
can trust. If they are fairly outvoted
they must submit, if they are success
full the other side must submit. But
unfortunately there is large class of
people who call themselves the best
citizens, who do not care enough about
the primaries to attend them. They
have an engagement for dinner, or it is
n wet night, or they forget all about the
meeting. The professional politicians
and their henchmen however do not for
get. They are always on hand at the
very earliest hour, and in ninety nine
cases out of hundred they have it all
their own way. In such cases the
business is despatched quietly, prompt
iy and easily. A list of delegates which
has of course been prepared beforehand
is shown to the men, the politicians
Hown" and the candidates are adopted
without a division. These delegates
are usually the professionals themselves
or persons oD whom they canimplicitly
rely. The meeting is then dissolved
and in day or two afterwards, when
all the primaries are over, the stay al
homes begin to learn that they have left
themselves in the hands of a clique,
who have settled the whole thing in
secret concl&ve, and have merely gone
through the form of obtaining popu-
lar sanction. 1t is too late then TO
make fuss over it, and it is with an
i'll grace that they bolt the ticket and
become independents.