Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-09
rHEIKDEPENDENr M4rINPo11rrcs

Upon retiring from the presidency of
the United States Senate, Senator David
Davis delivered brief address to the
members of the body over which he had
presided with impartial dignity. In the
course of his senatorial service Mr.. Davis
has been the subject of much criticism,
and the object of no little ridicule.
No party claimed him, but no partisan had
the i'll grace to say of him that he was not
sincere and honest, and all just men are,
to-day, in agreement that his course has
been unselfish, patriotic and useful.
"a public man." said the senator, in his
farewell address, ''who steps out
''side of regular party lines, is ex-
posed to Misrepresentation of his
motives and to the charge of weakness in
''his conduct. He gains little credit for
''the moral courage of seIf-assertion. and
none for casting aside ambition in defense
''of his principles
Could case be stated with greater force
and truth. 1t is sometimes said there can
be no such thing as an independent man,
and certainly, in party sense, this is very
true. The lives of very many OF the
most capable and conspicuous men this
republic has produced have been painful
failures, on account of the enslavement of
of party. It is soma evidence that the
times do not 60 backward, when such a
career as that of Ar. Davis is reviewed and
there is found so little fairly amenable 10
criticism, and clearly nothing for the
shafts Of censure.
Parties are a necessity, perhaps,
but partisanism, in the narrow
and restricted sense that holds men in
shackles and abject servitude, is hateful
and odious. From the partisanism comes
the machine, and from the machine comes
corruption, and the many and various
misshapen acts of selfish grasping men.
There are men in all parties who see and
feel the wrongs and burdens that the
greed for party power fastens upon the
vital lines of republican
government. Principle is overlooked
and forgotten. but the caucus, no matter
how tyrannical or subversive of the true
interest of the people, is supreme.
1t ought to be matter of congratula-
ton that even one man in the republic has
had the grace and courage to try to be in
dependent, in the best, the really judicial
sense of independence. If we are to have
civil service reform, for instance. it must
come because men are more willing
to be patriotic, than they care to be parti
san. The scenes through which the nation
has so recently passed, and which, but for
the patient, good sense of the great pre-
ponderance of the people, would Lave
wrecked the government, ought to be
fruitful of admonition that the partisan
should be merged in the patriot. The polit
zeal shock which the country witnessed last
year Is token of growing respect for the
independent man in politics, and evidence
OF determined purpose, OF the part of
the real and only sovereigns in
this country not to be ruled and
ruined by the insincere, demarogicaI
partisan. 1t is easy to drift with the tide.
but, as Mr.. DAVIS well says, ii costs some
thing to stand firm and brave for princi-
pie, yet thrice armed is he whose cause iq
just, and the courageous leader need never
despair of his following. Very MANY
and thoughtful men already see
the jeopardy that is, as a yawning abyss.
and have wisely determined to be no