The herald., 1894-08-21
A CHARMING AND PERENNIAL CHARAC-
TERISTIC.

that the always cheerful Democracy is
assembling in San Francisco in great
numbers and with the perfect certainty
that it is going to win, hands down.
How often have we heard that cheer
full note before 1t is noble inspirs-
ton. 1t is of the never-despair, never
say.die order which shows that a man
ought to succeed, even when he does not
and can not.
Away back in 1872, when the Demo-
Gratis, God save the mark, nominated
Horace Greeley for president, they
thought they had struck a winning gait.
And undou btedly they would have done
so il the Democratic vote could have
been held. But unfortunately for the
success of that campaign there were n
good many Democrats who remembered
that Horace Greeley was the man who
had said that while all Democrats were
not horse thieves, all horse thieves were
Democrats.
That campaign proved to be q rather
disastrous experiment on credulity.
Pennsylvania gave Grant 1877 900 major
ity, and many of the other states voted
in about the same proportion.
We only instance this matter to show
that confidence of victory is not always
followed by triumph.
Perhaps a more striking illustration Of
the lesson We are soaking to convey wss
found in the campaign in California in
1879. In that year there were four in
stead of three parties, viz, the Demo.
cratic. Republican, New Constitution
and Workingmen. Our always cheerful
Democratic fellow citizens got the notion
into their heSds that all they had to do to
assure success was to endorse Hugh j..
Glenn, the New Constitution candidate
for governor. and, presto everything
would 60 through with wild hurrah.
And it did undoubtedly did 90 through
with great lu5ricity, but Perkins, the
Republican candidate, was elected gov.
ernor by q tremendous plurality, or like
q house a-ire, so to speak.
Consequently, the mere confidence a
Democratic convention has in its ability
to win has very little weight with us.
We have seen these ''sure shot" things
80 often. But there is no doubt OF the
fact that this year, voters OF all classes
in California feel the independent i'm
pulse, to degree perhaps never known
in the past, with the exception OF course
of the year which saw the opening of
the war for the Union. There is scarcely
q man in this broad common wealth, who
is not q professional politician, who
does not this year feel himself at liberty
to vote as his best judgment may die
tate, independent OF all previoue polit.
ical affiliations.
This is certainly most desirable
state of things. The extent to which
blind partizanship has acted as draw
back to legitimate development in the
United States is almost incalculable.
Strange ss it may seem, from philo-
sophical point of view, political names,
bywords and shibboleths, have figured
far more potentially than political prin-
ciples in the ordinary politics of the
United States. We have at last reached
q stage in which this anomaly will at
least messurably disappear. Hereafter
voters will look to measures rather than
to men, though, all the while, there has
probably never been time in our polit.
ical history in which high character OF
the candidates will be more potential in
controlling votes than now.
In all truth and soberness the people
of the United States have entered on @
new era