The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-11-12
THE PRESIDENTIAL ATTITUDE.
A Strong Article Protesting Against Mug
wump InfaIlibiIity.

"uhlp 1HIAiiDuiIS.
The President stands by the party
that stood by him. This hurts the
mugwump heart but would it not be
amazing if he should do otherwise?
1t is to be supposed that no man COM
mits political or any other suicide I'M
less he is insane; that the man is not
ungrateful unless he is idiotic; that hs
does not believe himself to be superior
to the intelligence of the majority of
his party unless the vanity that kills
has eaten into his soul; that he under
stands what treachery is too well to
undertake it, even if he has the desire
to be treacherous: that in few words,
he is honorable in his dealings with his
friends as well as with his enemies, aid
that he knows the fate of traitors as
well Is the reward OF the faithful
aThe Graphic has taken pains to show
that il does not believe in mugwumps.
1t is unable to see that the minority is
better than the majority. 1t believes in
its ewn honest opinion as much as any
newspaper or any man can, but it be-
lieves to an equal extent in the organi-
cation without which we could have no
decent political system, and in the sub
mission 10 the voice of ma ;orties with
out which we should have revolution
instead of government. 1t was the old
idea that the King could do no wrong.
1t is the mugwump principle that the
majority can do no right and only the
mugwump is infallib,e. If we grant
that the mugwump is right the fact re-
mains that the minority rule would be
most unjust; but. very much more i'm
portant than that, it would be impossi-
BILE. If we make him the King against
the protest OF toe majority we intilct
wrong upon the majority, however wise
it may be. 1t is well enough for this
superior being to assume all the airs he
can't is his right so to do; but
the gods do not rule in the affairs
of this period, and every man of the
majority thinks he, by virtue of the
power his brethren confer upon him
and upon each other, is better king
than any mugwump, whether he has
the celestial strawberry mark or not.
And the rule as to office-filling prevails
equally we'll with respect to office-hold-
ing. The majority of the party rule,
as do the majority of the people after
the ballot-box tells the story. The
elected man is his party's servant He
was elected not to follow his own
whims, but to observe the conditions
that brought about his election. As
private citizen he may mugwump as
much as he pleases and according to
the development of his idiotic egotism;
but as an Office -holdr he must respect
the party whose candidate he was and
whose representative he is.
These propositions are crude enough.
They are, however, as old as the his
tory of government by the people,
though not until lately has it been
necessary to present them. To say that
President Cleveland is false to the par
ty tha- elected him is to say that he has
lost his common sense and to arraigu
him not only as traitor to lis party
but to the system of election which has
made him President. To say that he
is mugwump is to insult him. There
has been too much OF that twaddle. 1t
has had too respectful attention. The
President is Democrat, and accord
ingiy an honorable and sensible man.
Nobody but a mugwump would accuse
him of such villainy and such foolish
neSS.-N I. Graphic.