The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1891-05-28
The New Party.

aCnof want Oh }1riUtslpie, III Vic tl0li-
dated platform, has 1itt1e'in it TO COM I
mend it to the conservative judgment !
If the country. No organization which
oases its claims to public recognition
upon loose. reckless, revolutionary
assault upon the cardinal ideas of a safe
financial system, can endure investiga-
ton or long be maintained under the
severe scrutiny of all enlightened public
opinion There is much in each Of the
old parties which calls for the pruning
knife of reform, but such changes as the
of the Cincinnati platform
project are not reform. They are more
after the order of destruction-that kind
of political iconociasm that may tear
down but never reconstruct or build
up-which reckons not of consequences
to business, to public faith. and the in
tegrity of government. The people
under al impulse born of discomfort and
misfortune. to whatever cause traceable,
may be led away for time from safe
lines by the specious appeals of dena-
gOSuGS, Out tliC oooCl oCSOLo thOueho
will soon resume sway; the threatened
danger of revolutionary purposes will
startle them from the reign of passion,
and bring them down to serious reflec-
tion on the objects of government and
the aims of law. Of all things the Amer
lean people are law-abiding, and law
means conservatism-reasOn rather than
fanatic sl,--tle supremacy of mind over
emotion and the enduring good of the
people and the country rather than the
plots and ambitions of designing place
hunters and disappointed and chagrined
office seekers There is not a conserva-
tive or defensible idea running through
the whole string of resolutions formu-
lated at Cincinnati They are consti-
tuted of resounding platitudes and se>
ductive phrases, which have no appro-
pirate relation to patriotic legislation.
The men who engineered and rushed
through its accouchment this new polit-
ical party, are mostly the rejected of
either the Democratic or Republican
parties. and have drifted to the surface
of the swelling tide of dissatisfaction
produced by conditions resulting from
abnormal causes, and for which not the
laws of man. but of nature, are RESPONSE
BILE. There are honest men in the move
ment. but they are OF the rank and file,
who think they have a grievance. wheth-
er real or imaginary, and that one or the
other of the political parties is RESPONSE
BILE for it. They do not take the time or
endure the labor of reasoning out the
case. to find whether a remedy can be
reached within old party lines, and
whether it is better to bear the ills they
have or fly to those they know not Of.
If they would think little they would
discover that either one or the other of
the old parties holds to safe lines on all
questions german to our form of gov
ernment and that it would be easier
and wiser to seek the changes and reliefs
they desire in one or the other than to
rush heedlessly into u movement that
may so derange existing party relations
as to bring about revolution that
would be more productive of chaos and
confusion and disaster than conducive
to the good of the many
Even in the Cincinnati Convention.
composed of dissonant elements and am
tipodel views and interests, but all
among the dissatisfied, there were many
! who could not and did not endorse eth
err the new party project, or the extraor-
binary fulminatfons that accentuated
it's birth. More especially were the real
farmer delegates not prepared for poiti=
cal revolution. nor were they ready to
! declare that they had abandoned all
confidence in and hope of reform through
both of the old parties
Parties are the result of fundamental
conditions, and must have their motives
and their aims grounded in the public
welfare, well-defned and clearly appre
hended. A convocation that essays to
repudiata existing parties SO based, and
to effect their extinction. must, before
it can properly assume the functions
and responsibilities of q national organi
zation to contest for the control of gov
eminent, enunciate some essential prin-
ciple that has been ignored and formu-
late some safe policy that will conpolt
with the public good. Until some such
declaration is made and the necessity
for it made plain. it can legitimately
rise no higher than the domain of fac
ton or cabaI and can lay no claim to
public recognition. in national sense.
1t may, for time, disturb politicians
and parties, cause the weak and selfish
to temporize and compromise for the
sake and hope of prospective gain, but
it will no: sink it's roots into public con-
fidence or embrace in its following the
thoughtful and unselfsh of the nation.
The Cincinnati prodigy may prove
veritable unshorn giant for brief time.
1t may discompose, disconcert and
weaken both of the old parties-lnay
slay its thousands of professional poiiti-
clans with jaw bone and set fire to and
consume numerous political air>casties
and roosts, by burning fox-tails, but
the wonder will soon cease, it's locks will
SDOA Uc nllOIA NY VIC COliAHlOA crioC VI
the country, and it will collapse and dis
integrate, because no enduring principle
is at it's base; but not before, possibly, it
has done much harm in the influence it
may exert upon place-hunters in posi-
ton who have not the courage of con-
viction nor the intrepidity to face a
Sudden burst of fanaticism that may
have gathered formidable volume.
The country will watch, with more or
less of interest, the rise, elimination
and, possibly, fall of this new move
ment. If it gathers strength and is
moved into conservative channels; if
the professional demagogues are elbowed
out of its lead: its agrarian tendency
eliminates; and broader. sounder ideas
inculcated, it may become a permanent
power in the politics of the country,
but not until then.
The people are the government,Rnd
when organizations project notions and
attempt to institute policies inconsistent
with the good of the many, it will soon