Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-07-24
No. 36
CURTIS ARRAIGNED.
analysis of 'independent'' Logic by
One Who Knows,

1hat veteran Journalist and reformer,
OH'er Johnson, states the case against
george William Curtis and his boiling as
soclates with singular fairness and cogepcv
IN letter to the New York Tribune He
says:
Among the Independents, as they call
themselves, are many gentlemen whom
am proud TO call my personal friends. and
whose love of country and desire for GOOD
government cannot be questioned. Find
Ing myself at odds with such men in the
present campaign, | am constrained to ex-
anime with care the ground upon which |
stand, and consider the reasons thev offer
Tor seeking the defeat of the Republican
tlcket, as we'll as the reasons they adopt
LOT accomplishing their purpose | SYM
pathlzed heartily with them in their desire
TO nominate Edmunds; but in their pres
ent attitude OF open hostility to the Re-
publican party as hOpelessly corrupt, and
III their protfers of assistance to the Dem
ocratlc party upon certain well understood
conditions, am constrained alike by con-
science and reason to antagonize them, |
nave studied the subject as carefully as |
know how to do, In the light which the
experience OF long life affords; and | am
compelled IN all trankness to say that their
action presents spectacle as grotesque as
anything that can remember in the his
tory OF American politics. If their atti-
tude was simply that of men displeased
with the Republican ticket ard platform,
and scrupulous of supporting them, i
should think them entitled to the utmost
respect and Difference. But when their
disappointment or even their disgust, if
they like that word better, induces them
to turn to the Democratic party for conso-
latlon, and to ally themselves with that
party IN order to defeat their own, must
think their course inconsistent, undignifed
and Irrational, the result not of sound
Judgment, bnt of personal and party
passion.
Admitting even that the Republican
party has made mistake in the selection
OF its candidates, what is the Democratic
party, that the Independents should al
proach it with seductive pleadings and
protfers of support. Mr.. Curtis, in one of
his speeches at Chicago, has given us por-
trait of that party, the accuracy of which
cannot be disputed:
I'VE are confronted with the Democratic
party, very hungry, and as you may well
single definite principle, party without
any distinct national policy which it dares
present to the country party which fell
from power as conspiracy against human
rights, ana now attempts to sneak back to
power as conspiracy for plunder and
spoils."
who would have believed, when these
words fell from Mr.. Curtis's lips, that he
Ill. 4
be seen protfering their ballots to aid this
party-this conspiracy for plunder and
spoils"-ln gaming control of the National
Government. But it will be said: "They
pro1ter their votes only for a good man.
A good man, torsooth! A man who, dur
lug his whole political life, has been iden-
titled, and is identified still, with the party
which Mr. Curtis says is "a conspiracy for
plunder and spOlls" What business can
good man have In such party, or what
hope Of changing its nature and objects by
getting himself elected to the presidency?
What would he or could he be in office but
the creature of the party to which by
natural affinity, he belongs? And what
are his professions of reform worth so long
as he remains member of such a party.
enslaved by its habits, its traditions and it's
spirit? Have the Independents made the
wonderful discovery that grapes ar
gathered of thorns and figs of thistles?
Does the worst party produce the best can
didate? And of what avail will be all Mr..
Cleveland's good professions when he once
finds himself in his little canoe whirling
around in the boiling surges of Democratic
politics in Washington, the centre of "a
conspiracy for plunder and spoils?" Should
men who wish to reform the church enter
into partnership with the devil?