Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-27
KEEDED-A CODE FOE The PARTY.

Remarking upon the proposition to take
from the people at the primaries the selec-
tion of delegates to the State Convention
of the Republican party, the Oakland
Tribune says: "The whole tendency of
the times is in the direction of popular
action, and against the assumption of IN
delegated power by any inferior organized
body. The election of delegates to the
Convention which is to determine the pop
ular choice for President and Vice Presi-
dent cannot be taken from the hands of
the people without creating dissent and
dissatisfaction which may be far,reaching
in their effects. No committee is author
lied, by tie terms of resolutions under
which it is created, to appoint delegates to
any Convention on its own original mo-
ton. No such action Will be sanctioned
by the people from whom committees de-
rive such powers as they possess.
Unquestionably this is the right doctrine.
The romor has prevailed here that no Re-
publican primaries will be held in Sacra.
mentO county this spring. We do not credit
it as verify. We are unwilling to believe
that majority of the Republican Central
Committee will be so shortsighted. But
we are able to state that some of the COM
mittee do favor the usurpation. 1t is
timely, therefore, to bring this matter to
the attention of members of the party.
The party is harmonious now; the way
to keep it so is TO afford its members the
broadcast opportunity for msniiesting their
will. Party government resides only with
the members of the party, and every at
tempt to remove it more distantly will
tend to cool the ardor, if not drive out the
independent voter. It is one OF the dis
tinguishing traits of the Republican party
that it's composition is such that indepen.
dency develops under any and all attempts
10 domineer. Republicans ere quick to
resent all rule to which they have not
freely assented. l. is this independent
and fearless spirit that makes men Repub.
hcans. Subserviency is the one thing the
spirit of the party will not take on. 1t is
the chief reason for the existence of the
organization to-day that it is the party OF
intelligent action and independent and
thinking factors.
The Republican party has never freely
IL al %. T.. = -. !
the principles on which it rests. There
have been in the history of the party times
when mere committees, appointed only to
put into operation the machinery of the
party through which the party will can be
given voice, have assumed to speak and act
in the name Of the party, and to bind it by
such expression and action. In the grea.
majority Of such cases the results have
been disastrous. II it is attempted in Ala.
media or Sacramento, or anywhere else this
year, the consequences Will be neither
pleasant nor beneficial
The truth is, the Republican party needs
5 code to define the metes aud bounds of
committee jurisdiction, and for that very
reason We need primaries predatory to
County Conventions this year, and County
Conventions predatory to State Conven.
tions. When the County Conventions
shall assemble, the first business should be
the selection of the committees to repre-
sent the party in the intervals between
Conventions, and the best working mate.
rial should be put into such structures
Usually the procedure of committee choos.
ing is postponed until the last hours of the
sitting, and the duty is then hastily d.
vided between delegations, and not en-.
gagged in with spirit or by the mass of the
Convention. This has always been a wrong.
The committee acts for the whole of the
party, and the party representative, as &
unit, should choose its sgent-the commit
tse-haying due regard, however, to the
recommendations of Supervisor districts.
Such seton VIII do away with system
that has long been source of irritation
within the party. 1t is as well at this
time to begin right, no matter how long
tradition has kept Us 10 the groove Of
error.
Tie second duty should be to declare