Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-11
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THE STATE CAMPAIGN.
RINGING ADDRESS OF THE STATE EIECU-
TIVE COMMITTEE TO THE DEMOCRACY
HEADQUARTERS
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now in progress. By it's result the collective
of the American people will be
and their fitness govern them
selves with wisdom be judged. To refuse
to condemn crime is to condone it. To
choose as President candidate who has
betrayed public trust is to invite and en-
courage official infdelity. In a govern
ment of and for the people, venality in him
who is elected Chief Magistrate is more
portentous of i'll than the shadow of the
sword. The wounds inflicted on liberty by
the hand of military power may, in course
of time, be healed; but national blood
poisoning, by corruption in high places, is
necessarily incurable. This political cam
paign, therefore, concerns you, not only as
South Carolinians, not only as Democrats,
but as Americans, who know neither North
nor South when the honor and welfare of
the Union are imperiled. AS you value
rectitude and constancy in the servants of
the people; as you prize the general vel
fare, and are resolved to secure to posterity
your heritage of freedom; so must you, in
the coming election, ZealOusly and unfiinch-
ingly do your whole duty.
In name, the present political contest is
between two great parties, the Democratic
and the Republican. In one of these par
ties, however, the political line is broken.
Among the most ardent advocates of the
election of Cleveland and Hendricks, the
Democratic candidates for president and
Vice President, are Republican citizens of
unsullied reputation and high position, who
have hitherto voted the Republican ticket.
Their reasons for severing old and cherish
ed political associations are best given in
their own words. They refuse to 60 with
the Republican party, in this election, be-
cause that party offers them, in the person
of James G. Blaine, "a candidate who is an
unfit leader, shown by his own words and
his acknowledged acts, which are of official
fidence; who has traded upon his official
trust for his pecuniary gain; representa-
tive of men, methods and conduct which
the public conscience condemns, and which
illustrate the very evils that honest men
would REFORM" The Independent Repub-
licans, in the address adopted at the New
York Conference, say further: "While the
Republicans present candidate whom
we cannot support, the Democratic party
presents one whose name is the synonym OF
political courage and honesty and admins
trative reform. He has discharged every
official trust with sole regard to the public
welfare, and with just disregard of mere
partisan and personal advantages, which,
with the applause and confidence of both
parties, has raised him from the chief eX-
ecutive administration of a great city to
that of a great State. His high sense OF
public duty, his absolute and unchallenged
official integrity, his inieXible courage in
resisting party pressure and public outcry,
his great experience in the details OF
administration, and his commanding ex-
ecutive ability and independence are pre-
cisely the qualities which the political situ-
alton demanded in the chief executive Off
Ger of the Government, to resist corporate
monopoly on the one hand and demagoglc
communism on the other, and at home and
abroad, without menace or fear, to protect
every right of American citizens, and to
respect every right Of friendly States by
making political morality and private hon
esty the basis of Constitutional Adpinistra-
ton" In these utterances of earnest and
patriotic men, the Democrats of this State
and of the Union find an exact definition
of the paramount issue in the present can
vaSs.
Again and again, the Democracy have
presented to the country candidates who
ioined marked ability to cleanness of per-
sonal character and experience in public
life. mo tattooed man" has ever received
the nomination of the National Council of
the Democratic party. The personal quail
fcations of the Democratic nominees now
command the general recognition they al
ways deserved. There is good reason forit.
The Independent Republicans remind us
that the country has sseen, with surprise and
shame, Republican Vice-President driven
in disgrace into private life; q Republican
Secretary of War participating in felony; a
Republican Secretary of the Navy growing
rich, while our fleets, for which millions OF
dollars were appropriated, BECAME the laugh
stock of nations; a Republican Attorney
General accused of sharing in petty frauds.
The last Republican Speaker Of the House
of Representatives was convicted of nepot-
ism and mendacity. Nefarious associations
for obtaining corporate contracts. bestowed
their "gratificatiOns" and "tokens of thank
fulness" upon the Republican who was
elected President four years ago. Fresh,
too, in public memory is the story of the
star-route frauds, of the doings of the whis-
XIV ring, of the land grants to grasping cor
porations, and the land grabs by alien alb
sentees. The people, this year, were ripe
for political revolt, but the managers of the
Republican machine scoffed at criticism and
hooted at warning. Rendered reckless by
a long lease of misused power, debauched by
ill-gotten gains, the machine-made dele
gates in the Republican Convention chose
as their party's candidate for President a
man who attracts to him, as with magnet,
each official rogue and hungry knave and
who draws to him, as like unto like, every
political speculator who Graves the means
of peculation in the future, or who needs
immunity for misconduct in the past. So
it is that, in the person of the leading can
didates, Cleveland and Blaine, good and
evil will struggle for the mastery in No
vember.
The success of the Democracy is desired by
legions of citizens who have heretoforelo look
ed upon the Democratic party with dislike,
if not with distrust. Former differences are
forgotten, now that the country must choose
between the high-minded champion of ad-
ministrative reform and the self-regarding
representative of what is most debasing in
American public life. In the days of the
Revolutionary war, the embattled freemen
of the United Colonies were one in thought,
one in purpose, one in action. Whatever
their former associations or preJudlces /;
whether they dwelt on the silvery Hudson
or the taWny James; whether they tramped
through the pines of the Carolinas or shiv-
cred and starved on the slopes of Valley
Forge, their only thought was to dare all
things, to endure all things, todo all things,
in order to win the right of self-rule and ac-
complish national independence. This year,
also the American people fight for freedom
and deliverance- freedom from the tyranny
of wrong, and deliverance from the despot-
ism of corruption. In union, for the Union,
is political strength and victory.
Fellow-citizens You would, as loyal
Democrats, take an active part in the pres
ent campaign, even if you were absolutely
sure that, whatever the event in November,
you would retain frugal, just and capable
government in your own State. But you
have not that certainty. Upon the election