The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-05-19

and friends of other classes, and in
stead of uniting with them in their
honest efforts to secure good govern
ment for all classes we must stand
aloOt, look upon them with GOODNESS
and suspicion, and if they cannot con-
~sclentlOusiy acCede to our recorded
demands, let them be good or bad"
then we will abandon them. and form
a party of our own; mOdestly claim
for new party all the ability and
all the craftsmanship that there is in
the country.
Well, let it be done, then pray tell
me how you are going to do by your
selves what you could not do with the
help of others? The stream cannot
rise higher than its source, nor will it
eany purer.and better than its source,
for the main body of present parties is
the source from which you propose to
form your new party, and you will find
that political triCkSters and imprac-
ticable theorists will effect an entrance,
II they have not already done so. and
will muddy your pure waters in spite
of you. The science of politics is a
practical SClence-mere sentiment and
theory have a very subordinate place
in it. If you stay out of a party be-
cause all your theories are not adopted,
and you can't get all you want, you
will be very apt to find yourself "Out
in the cod" for an indefinite time.
Every party and all just government
of the people is the result not of a per-
feet agreement in all things, but a Just
compromise between conflicting in
tereSts. The experience of a hundred
years in this country teaches that
parties founded on the narrow basis of
local, sectional OF class ideas, though
they may throw demagOgues to the
front for a time, always vanish away
like a summer cloud. The same eX-
perience teaches that a better plan is
to unite your neighbOrs and friends of
all classes and convince them by reason
or a fair statement of facts that your
grievances are real-nOt exaggerated
or imaginary; and that your claims are
just; and there is not the least doubt
but that you will get every Just de-
mand. To found your party on the
narrow basis of a class policy, to sepa-
rate yourselves as a class from the rest
of your c~Ountrymen, to assume q
naughty and dOmineering air, and
claim that with you is all the intelli-
gence, all the honor and al1the Justice,
is to lay the foundation for factions;
and a country, whether ruled or rent
by faction, is ruined. All history
teaches this truth. Washington, the
father of his country, in reviewing it's
short history and looking back at the
great republics that had risen to great
power-ruled the world, and then
perished-utters these solemn words of
warning for us:
"Al combinations and associations,
under whatever plausible character,
with real desire to direct, control,
counteract or awe the regular delibera-
tons and actions of the constituted
authorities, are destructive of this fun
damental principle, and of fatal ten
dency. They serve to organize faction,
to give it an artificial and eXtraOrdi-
nary force; to put in the place of the
delegated will of the nation, the will of
a party, often a small but artful and
enterprising minority of the com
munity and according to the alternate
triumphs of different parties, to make
the public administration the mirror
of the ill-COncerted and homogeneous
projects of faction, rather than the
organ of consistent and wholesome
plans digested by common councils,
and modified by mutual interests. 1--WE
see this truth exemplified by Speaker
LOCCd . % IL IL 10OC NOA1S4 CoC.J
However combinations or associa-
tiOnS may now and then answer pOpu-
lar ends, they are likely in the curse
Of time and things, to become potent
engines, by which cunning, ambitious
and unprincipled men will be enabled
to Subvert the power of the geOple, and
to usurp for themselves the reins of
government, destroying afterwards
the very engines which have lifted
them to unjust dominion.
The alternate domination Of one
faction over another, sharpened by the
spirit of revenge, natural to party dis
s%ensiOn, which, in different ages and
countries, has perpetrated the most
hOrrid enOrmities, is itself a frightful
despotism. But this leads at length to
a more formal and permanent despot-
ism. The disorders and miseries. which
generally result, gradually incline the
minds of men to seek security and re-
pose in the absolute power of an indi-
vidual; and sooner or later the chief of
some prevailing faction, more abe or
more fortunate than his competitors,
turns this disposition to the purpose of
his own elevation, on the ruins of pub
lie liberty"
Note the history of France since
1900
The habit of magnifying particular
evils, though they be real. will surely
have the effect Of obscuring greater
evils which, left to grow and accumu-
Late hidden power, while we are en-
crossed with the lesser, will burst on
US some day with the sudden fury and
destruction of a cyclone.
In view of the recent peril which the
nation, and the South particularly, has
just escaped from force bills and other
despotic centralizing measures, it looks
like the folly of madmen for us to
abandon our Notifications and expose