San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-07-01
mo- RoIT OR Nor mo- noLT.

There is a recklessneSs i'll dealing
with obligations, particularly political
obligations, that is not at all healthy.
There is too utter a disregard for the
obligations assumed in party affilia-
lions for the stability of party in this
country. The political party is a ne
cessity of the representative form of
! through which the views of the citi-
zens find expression, not only in
words and platforms, but in deeds
and votes. DislOyalty to party is too
often accepted as a wise and manly
independence of action and a sign of
unusual political integrity and hon
esty and fearlessness on the part of
the dislOyal. There is nothing so dis
migrating to party cOherency as this
ida of the virtue of party dislOyalty.
There must be in all parties diversi-
ties of view and divergence of meth
ONl. llC tAlJcCI W
carry out his views only as they agree
with the views of the majority, for
it is the rule of all the associations
that the majority must govern. When
men have associated themselves to-
gether for political action, met to con-
suit and devise as to the best declara-
ton of principles to put forward, and
the best scource of advocating them,
and the proper men TO represent them
in that very act they confess their
willingness to abide the wisdom of
the association. Because that act is
not just according to their notion they
have no political right to bolt that
convention and go contrary to its will.
1t is only when it becomes a matter
of conscience that this is permissible,
and not in a matter of pure policy.
The proper place to make party
changes is within the party pale and
not without it, and that man who
deems otherwise has no place in the
party councils. Viewed in this light
it is merely a question of practical
adaptation of theory to fact to deter
mine how. far the recent boilers at
st. Louis were justified in deserving
the party that they had affiliated with
for so many years, to which they We're
bound by association and unity of
views on all other great questions
That Teller fand his associates did
right in walking out of that conven-
ton, pledging all their efforts to de-
feat its platform and its candidates,
when there were many more points
of agreement with the platform of the
party there enunciated than there is
with that other to be announced ut
Chicago, is very open to doubt. 1t is
much like paying tithes of anise and
mint and cGmmin and leaving undone
the weightieA matters of the law. 1t
will appear 80 all unprejudiced
minds that those. men We're more
moved by consideration of their
own business interestA than by that
of the prosperity of the>0arty under
which the Nation had prOspered be-
yond all precedent. Their SsertiOn
of the Republican hosts at thisNime
will lead them into the camp OfftRG
political enemies whom they haze de-
nOunced for thirty years as the au-
thOrs of all the political ills that have
visited this country since 1860. 1t
will not be a pleasant reflection, in
case they succeed, and it will not be a
pleasant one in case of their defeat
Uneasy upon any pillow lies the head
of the bOlter, and for his reflection he
can recall the history of the same and
see that none of them failed of the
inevitable grief that waits upon the
deSerter of his cOlors. The Republi-
can party is greater than any of its
parts.