Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-16
THE TICKET.

The Democrats of the Council district OF
Salt Lake, Davis and Tooele counties are
to be congratulated upon the Democratic
ticket that was nominated by the mass
meeting last night; in fact the Democrats
of Utah Territory are to be congratulated
upon it. AS the chairman OF the meet
ing, Mr.. P. L. Williams, said in his re-
marks when taking the chair, the placing
in the field OF straight Democratic ticket
is the dawning of a new era in Utah
politics, and so it is. AS one of the
nominees for the House, DR.. J, NJ. Bene-
dict, said, Utah has been without any
political identity The parties that have
heretofore occupied the political field
have been known as the Peoples party
and the Liberal party. Their whole
policy may be summed up in two words:
the one was pro-Mormon and the other
anti Mormon. Many adherents of the
Peoples party have regretted various
methods and aims of that party, but still
adhered to it, voted its tickets and en-
dorsed its nominees, although they con-
demned in severe language much OF
their malfeasance in Office. This de-
votion to party was mainly the result
of belief that all who were not of the
Peoples party were the personal enemies
Of the members of that party and, how
ever bad some of their own party were,
even those who were in Office, yet those
who were not of it were much worse.
The consequence of such belief, when
put in practice, was to fasten upon that
party the iron grip of the men who led
them in such beliefs, and so tight has
been that iron grip that political indepen-
dence on the part of the followers has
been entirely crushed out. The Peoples
party has been the embodiment par
excellence of machine politics with
the added vice of ecclesiastical
control To attack the Peoples
party has been deemed by its members
to be an attack upon their church. Re-
lying upon the Constitutional right OF
all denominations to religious liberty,
their politics being but phase of their
religion, to attack them politically was
thought by them to be the same as at
tacking them religiouslv, and to do so
was to infringe upon their Constitutional
rights. Behold, then, the reasons for
their fidelity to their political party, al
though they may have condemned
many of their men and much
of their conduct. Slowly, very slowly,
many of that party are beginning to en-
tertain the idea that perhaps their best
guaranty for collective freedom IS in the
assertion of individual independence
from machine control, and reliance upon
personal opinion. 1t is not so important
a matter what a mans opinions are in
politics, or anything else, as that he shall
have arrived at them by his own reason
ing.
The party that has opposed the Peo-
ple's party in the field heretofore has been
the Liberal party. Its aims and methods
have been as reprehensible as those of its
antagonist, but have been less prominent
because it has never been in power. The
first political principle Of the Liberal party
was to hate the Mormons: all its other
principles may be summed up in this one
sentence: Hate the Mormons. Like the
Peoples party, it strenuously maintained
the pernicious doctrine that the end JUS
titles the means, ignoring the fact that
the means may be much worse than the
evil sought to be abolished.
The Democratic party likes not such
aims nor means. 1t holds the theory
that, to use the language of NJ. Taine, il
is right and proper "to pierce dogma
while respecting the man." For men a.
men it has no words of censure or con
demnation, but for what it believes to be
wrong principles of government it has no
indulgence. If we may so speak, the
Democratic party has come to Utah, ha-
grown up in Utah, to stay, aud to event
ually become triumphant.