The record-union., 1894-05-25

form relates to the civil disability pro-
nounced upon office-holders. Webster
and Gator were lauded in fulsome pane
gyric. Gator was the superior of Web
ster-in what particular it is not stated;
and of Clay in what special quail
fication is left indefinitely; but Web
ster as the Governor of the State will
not be eligible to be a delegate in
succeeding conventions. The convention
established an ordinance as funda-
mental law of party organization to the
effect that no persons holding any office
OF trust, profit or emolument, either Fed
eral, State or municipal. should be eligi-
bic to sit or vote in any convention OF the
party. This piece of idiocy is on all fours
with the objection to Webster, because
he was little banker. The party theory
is that it will select it's best and purest
representatives for positions of profit,
trust and emolument under Federal,
State and municipal Governments, but
the instant that they pass from unambi
tious but ostentatious poverty they be-
come unfit associates for delegates in
Peoples Party Convention. Gator, the
peer OF Webster, Clay, Lincoln, Garfield,
DR.. O'Donnel or any other distinguished
citizen, being elected to the United States
Senate, becomes a thief and scoundrel,
unfit TO sit in the State Convention of the
party which elected him. In this re-
spect, when the party elects man,
selected for the position of Senator in
Congress. This was declaration that he
was fit to participate in the councils OF
the most dignified parliamentary body
on the earth; but the party established
an ordinance as a fundamental law that
Gator, as a Senator, was wholly unfit to
be member of the Peoples party or to
participate in its councils. The more this
is considered the more ingenious It's idlocy
appears. These people want Webster for
Governor, but when they have made him
Governor they do not wish to associate
with him, not more than if he had small
pox or cholera.
One of the highest ideals of a republican
form of government is that the selection
by ones fellow w-citizens to high official
position confers an honor equal to a
patent of nobility. What hope is there
for honesty in Office when even the pub
lie officers these people propose to select
are doomed to perpetual degradation, as
| being under civil disability as citizens OF
the State and Nation?
Taken as a whole, the platform is the
gospel of squalid poverty. 1t is a declara-
ton that all human aspiration is wrong;
that all industry, all prudence, all econ
omy, all thrift are vices and not virtues.
The richest inheritance TO which the
children of this age are born is The civili-
zation to which they are the natural
heirs; that civilization is structure
reared upon the ambition of men tC
broaden their lives, to augment their ca
pacity for good, to conquer broader
patrimony OF opportunity in life, &c
acquire property, which means the ac-
quirement of higher opportunities. The
entire spirit of the Populist Convention
was at war with modern civilization. A
strong minority protested against the
nominee Tor Governor, because he is on
the verge OF having some stock in this
modern civilization. He goes into the
campaign handicapped with the charge
| that he has $500 worth of stock in bank.
This evidence of accommodating thrift will
estrange many honest and sincere Popu-
lists. A generation of this species OF
! teaching will drive the human family
into caves for dwellings, and to the use OF
| the skins of wild animals for wearing
apparel. Let the party enter the CAM
paign with ''improvidence' for its motto
and the rags of sloth for its banner.