The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-16
MONTANA DEMOCRATIC.

A Montana special says the constitutional
convention will be Democratic by about five
majority. OF course this result will be
charged to the gerrymandering of the dis
tricts and the Republicans will persist in
asserting their ability to carry the territory
and niern the governor, Congressman and
state officers.
We have doubted that the Democrats
could do anything in the territory this year,
aud have regarded the boasts OF the party
organs and orators as somewhat in the ma
ture of buncombe. Our reasons for these
doubts have been expressed. The treat
ment of the territories by the Democratic
majority in Congress has been neither gen
erous nor just Montana, Washington,
Dakota, New Mexico and Utah have long
been prepared to accept the duties and re-
sponsibilities of statehood, and the people in
the dependencies named have been clamor-
Gus for the rights of American citizenship
They have petitioned, appealed, even beg
ged to be emancipated While the Republi-
cans were really no more eager
than the Democrats to let the
territories into the union, the
/ former made it appear that they were
ready to do justice to the suffering commu-
mites, and that the Democrats stood in the
way. This impression was conveyed to the
| territories, and the Democrats did nothing
to counterfeit it, the result being that the
people in dependencies got the idea that
they must look to the Republicans for the
relief which had been denied them by the
party which was supposed to be the guar
dian of popular rights. Washington,
which had been Democratic for years, went
over to the Republicans last fall, and did
not hesitate to say that it did so because
the Democrats stood between the territory
and statehood. Montana, which had here
tofore been accounted as certainly Demo
cratic, gave u Republican majority of 5000,
old Democrats voting the opposition ticket
and saying they would rebuke their party
in Congress for its manifest enmity to
wards the territories. The attitude of the
Democratic Congressman towards Dakota
was such as to ALLEVIATE thousands of Dem
ocrats in that territory.
1t was a severe but merited rebuke which
the people of the territories administered to
lIC IDCulOCldJS III SOlieICSS ldSJ NONCuUtT.
and it will be a long time before the party
regains what it lost through its perversity
and lack of political wisdom. 1t helped
matters somewhat when the Democratic
Congressman receded from their untenable
attitude towards Dakota, and helped Mon
tana and Washington to statehood. Dis
guSted and disgruntled members of the
party returned to their first love, but we
have feared that not enough of them will
get back in time to prevent the capture of
the two territories last mentioned by the
enemy, in which event the struggle will be
! long and hard-fought. Political parties find
! it good deal easier to "stay i'm than is
/ to get in" The ''outs" labor against a
disadvantage.
AS remarked we have not believed the
Democrats could recover lost ground in
Montana and get back their votes in time
to carry the election this year, though the
territory is naturally Democratic: but il
! the party will have a majority il the con.
stitutiOnal convention to meet in July.
there is hope that Montana viii 90 into the
union "a Democratic state. 1t was the big
Republican majority given last fall in dis
gust, which encouraged the Republican
Congressman to admit the territory, and il
may be that the confidence was misplaced,
as it was as to Colorado thirteen years ago,
when Democrats made it a state, only to
have it give Republican maiorities at every
election. 1t is certain that the Republican
vote in Montana will be cut down greatly,
and we hope it viii be overcome.