The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-06-18
The Constitution as an Issue.

Gently. The most significant OF these
features is the fact that the cut-and-
dried resolutions attacking The Con
strtution for standing on the Chicago
platform. and questioning its democracy
because it is too firmly grounded III
democratic principles and too unyleld-
ing in its devotion to the party pledges
to s,,it the views of certain ambitious
men. have been almost entirely con-
fined to the territory comprising the
eleventh congressional district, where
the counties are large i'll extent and the
democratic voters SO widely scattered
that they cannot assemble on days
notice to take part in town meetings.
Why this sudden and apparently fero-
rious attack on The Constitution should
suddenly develop in the eleventh dis
trict and die within its borders we leave
shrewd readers to guess. We have hold
of some of the ends of this tangled
skein. and the facts will come forth
after awhile Meantime, the counties
In the rest of the state wherever the
people have expressed themselves, have
endorsed the Chicago platform, and
this is all the endorsement The COnsti-
tuition asks for AS fast as the counties
act. they endorse the platform, and
whenever and wherever the platform is
endorsed the course of The Constitution
is commended, for on the platform we
have taken our stand, and we refuse to
be driven therefrOm.
Tie eleventh district resolutions de-
nouncing The Constitution first made
their appearance in the celebrated mass
meeting held in Coffee county, where
five men assembled together and, by
an overwhelming majority, proceeded to
adopt resolutions denOuncing The Con-
stitution for attacking the administra-
ton" and followed this up by endors-
ing n candidate for governor gen
tleman who had gone just as far, If not
farther. than The Constitution in critI-
cising the financial policy of Mr.. Cleve-
land. SO far rs that policy is under
stood But this celebrated mass meet
ing Of five men didn't care to be con-
sistcnt 1t had its orders in its pockets,
80 to speak. and it proceeded to carry
them out without investigating the IL
logical and inconsistent attitude in
volved in an endorsement of Mr.. At
kins0n and n condemnation of The Con-
StitutiOn. The five men composing the
celebrated mass meeting went right
ahead and pretended to speak for the
democratic party of Coffee, and endeav-
ored to place the democrats of that
county in the position of denouncins a
democratic newspaper for standing i'm
movabIy upon the Chicago platform,
and demanding the redemption Of the
pledges made TO the people by the
party.
Nevertheless, although the celebrated
mass meeting in Coffee county was a
mockery and sham, but few of the
smasS meetings. i'll the eleventh con-
gressional district that placed the seal
OF their displeaSure on the activity of
The Constitution as a genuine demo-
cratic newspaper, had any great ad-
vantage over the Coffee county assem-
bly,. Think of sixty or a hundred men
pretending to represent the views of
two and three thousand democrats in
q matter involving the Arrangement of
i party newspaper for standing square
Iv on the platform and criticising a
financial policy directly contrary to that
laid down in the bimetallic pledge made
to the people.
Let any honest and Just man-any
true demOcrat-consider the snap judg-
ment that has been taken on The Cont
stitutiOn by the automatic conventions
held in the eleventh district, and then say
whether they represent the sentiments
of the party in this new issue of de
nouncing democratic newspaper for
standing on the democratic platform
Let any just and genuine democrat, not
Infected by the hope of getting his head
in the federal slOp barrel, consider
whether it is advantageous to party
discipline or calculated to promote party
harmony, to set before the democratic
voters of Georgia the spectacle of 3
few automatic mass meetings i'll parts
of one congressional district passing
cut-and-dried resolutions denouncing q
democratic newspaper because its devO
ton to democratic principles will not
permit it to regard the platform pledges
as "a collection of glittering generali
ties"
In effect these cut-and-dried resolu
tons, passed by automatic and ire
sponsible mass meetings, are an arralSn
ment of every democrat who believes
i'm democratic principles and who stands
on the democratic platform. They are
demoralizing in tendency and 1--WE be
ieve) in purpose. We have no idea
It men who will permit themselves
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