New-York tribune., 1885-10-25
CONCERNING INDEPENDENTS.

CONCERNING INDEPENDENTS
The attitude of the Republican party toward
the Independents has been persistenty mis-
represented by the Democratic press. The
charge has been made that they have been met
with clubs and curses and that the door has
been slammed in their faces. This is not tue.
The State Committee ard the State Convention
have treated them with marked fOrbcarancc
and courtesy. The chief speakers in the pres
ent campaign, notably Mr.. Rogers and Mr..
Roosevelt in Brooklyn, Senator Evarts in
Buffalo. and Mr. Choatc and Senator EdmunGs
in this city, have been tolerant and concilatory
in assigning good motives for the past action of
the Independents and in welcoming their CO.
operation in securing the election of Mr.. Davcn
port. When tie ferconess and bad passion ot
last years contest are borne in mind, it must be
conceded that the Republican press has beer
remarkably indulgent and cOnsidcratc in its
treatment of those who were recently arraycd
against the party. TIE Tribune, certainly,
has considered it public duty to dcnouncc the
hollow pretensions and sOrdid motives of The
NC,c- York. Times, which steadfaStly opposes
vital Republican principles, and has occupied
in this canvass an untenable position, thereby
exposing the party to destructive criticism.
But il has readily conceded and frankly stated
that the Independents in voting for Mr.. DavcD-
port are acting in good faith aud for public rca-
sons. 1t has sought to deal fairly with them
and has studiously rcfrained from questioning
theiI motives.
If there has been any slamming of doors, it
has been behind the Independents, not in front
of them. If there has been any flourishing of
clubs, or any hard swearing, these hostile
demonstrations have cone from the rear. One
of the characteristic features of the present
canvass has been the ferOclty with which the
Democratic press has attacked its former allies.
Last year that press overwhelmed the lnde-
pendcnts with fulsome praise; and now it con-
demns their conduct and motives in the most
explosive terms a Democratic vocabulary,
singularly copious in abusive epithets, supplies.
Day after day the Independents have been held
up to public oboquy as canting hypoclites, de-
mentcd scntimentalists, and mcddlesome
knaves, by the same journals which year ago
ofciously commended them as the purest, the
most honorable and the most patriotic repre-
sentativcs of Republicdnism. Never was there
a mOie glaring instance OF inconsistency than
this transition from fattery to malevOent abuse,
since the Independents according to their own
explanations are merely repeating in this cam
paign the tactics adopted last year. Then they
made the personal character of candidates the
supreme test. setting aside as of no account
pa rty principles and the political history OF the
last twenty years, and in the present canvass
the personal character of the Republican and
Democratic candidates for Governor is the
main issue with them. Their own reasoning has
compelled them to discriminate between Gov
ernor Hill and Mr.. Davenport and 20 vote with
the Republican party. No Independent who
acted in good faith and was convinced by his
own arguments last year can now withhold his
vote from Mr.. Davenport. To vote for Gov
ernor Hill or to stay away from the polls will
be to stultify himself.
Now it is quite unnecessary to add that the
issue of private character raised by the lnde-
pcndents against the Republican candidates last
year was not, in the Judgment of the great
mass of Republican voters, well grounded, and
that loyal members of the party were wholly
unprepared to admit that the principles and re-
cords of the two parties were of no cOnse-
quence. Our views on these fundamental ques-
| tiOns have undergone TO change. We believe
that the election of 1SSS will not be the triumph
| of any faction or of any cndidate, but the tri-
| umph OF the principles 1Or WHICH Jhe hcpuOH-
can party has stood throughout its history, for
which it stands to-day. But while we hold
strongly 10 these positions, we cannot perceive
any public reason for repeling the support Of
the Independents. They proiessed last year to
be acting from good motives and from sense
of duty. The Republican party, hOnOring as it
does good motives and conscience, can well
afford to let bygones be bygones. n the lnde-
pendents affirm that they arc following in this
canvass the lines they marked out for them
selves a year ago, Democrats cannot with just
| ice accuse them of inconsistency, nor is it 0p-
perfume for Republicans to engage in barren
controversy. This years battle is not to be
won by fighting over last years battle-on
paper or in the air. The future is before us.
In 1883 Republican principles must win.