Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-05-26
INDIVIDUAL AND POPULAR
CHOICE.
What the Portland Express Says on the
Subject

Considerable comment has been made up
on the fact that Hon. Hannibal Hamliu
failed of an election as delegate from his
own ward to the State convention. And an
attempt has been made TO construe that de-
feat into reflection, or discourtesy to him.
Nothing can be farther from the truth. And
il may be set down as absolutely certain that
Mr.. Hamlin himself is too good citizen TO
SO regard it.
The venerable ex-senator enjoys the un-
limited confidence and respect Of his fellow
citizens, not only of Bangor, but of the entire
State. But the caucus in which he was de-
feated was for the purpose of electing rep
resentatives" of the popular will and not for
complimenting individual candidates for del
egates. And though it is doubtless true that
scores of the voters cast their ballots for Mr..
liamlin out of personal regard for him, il
was not at all strange, certainly not discour
teous to Mr., Hamlin, that many of his fel :
low citizens whose views ON the gubernatorial
question differed from his own, voted for
some one, who would represent their wishes,
in preference even TO SO distinguished Q
man as Mr.. Hamlin who would not.
That man, however great, knows or cares
little about the genius of our institutions,
who requests as personal favor, because Of
his past services or present influence and
power, the privilege of misrepresenting .
constituency ON any question whether great
or small That Mr.. IIamlin took this view
of it and declined to be elected as a mere
matter of courtesy to himself is shown by
his insistance ON his right to speak and to
vote in the convention as he preferred and
to run ON ticket with other men of like
views to his own.
Much more than the question of personal
is X.I m vi
otherwise would be too trivial for comment.
If there is any gathering in free America,
where more than in any other the individual
should be left to express his choice without
fear or favor, it is in the caucus. 1t is only
the smallest possible kind of men who take
ohensc at differences there. And the at
tempt there to suppress individual opinions
by the glamour of great name, and the
claim that peculiar courtesy is due to an in
divdual, is as out of place as the other rep
rehensible practices too frequently resorted
to to prevent fair expression of the wishes
of those rightfully participating therein.
What would be said of one of our Sena
tors or Representatives in Congress who
should publish to his constituents that he ex-
pected them to subordinate their own pre-
fercnces or their own judgment as toa candi-
date for any office, high or low, to his own
desire to reward friend or to punish a real
or imagined foe? If any have So exalted an
opinion of the prerogatives of their fame as
that, they will do well to keep it for the
private ears only of those friends whom they
may be sure love them not wisely but too
well!
We cannot afford to set up in this country
the rule that services, however distinguished,
or fame, however great few names on
either roll stand higher than that of Mr..
llamlin, who would never demand 1t for him
self-havc a right rs "A matter of personal
courtesy to demand the submission of the
popular TO their own will. The people Of
Maine can admire the ability and rejoice in
the public services of their great men with
out lowering their self respect by n humilia-
ting sycophancy. And they may presume to
differ with past present servants of the
public upon questions of party policy or the
distribution of party favors without being
open to the charge of personal hostility or
want of respect for those who, much As
themselves but no more, have the right 70
opinions of their own.