Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1896-11-20

voted against their own convictions,
excused themselves on the ground
that they must be loyal to their
party, and stand by it whether it
was right OF wrong. This is con-
dition of moral imbecility, from
which men who wish to be good
citizens ought to be restrained. To
think that it better to be reg
ular" than to be right, is to surren-
der ones own independence, and to
be governed by a mob. In the
choice of candidates and the adop-
ton of platforms, every man will
concede a good deal to the conven-
tions, both as to the nominees and
the measures for which they are to
stand. Up to a certain point a man
can be a partizan, yet not lose his
personality or sacrifice his se1f-re-
spect. In points of mere expedi-
ency, it is assuming a good deal for
one man to stand out against a hun
dred. 1t is to hold his Judgment to
theirs and claim a consideration to
which no one is entitled. To refuse
to vote for a party's candidate sim
ply because one does not like the
choice, is often denial of sacred
obligation from selfish pride OF silly
pettishness.
But conceding all this, there is a
well defined limit to party loyalty.
No man need be in doubt about it
for a moment. Whenever a major
ity of the convention put up false
principles or base men, the bond of
obligation is dissolved, and every
man is bound in honor and by right
to repudiate them. The slavery of
compulsion to vote the ticket forced
upon him by Fictitious majority,
is too bitter for any voter to bear
and it is an usurpation of rights
which must be rebuked and re-
pressed by every manly sentiment
in the nations heart. We may go
further and say that convention
ceases to be representative when a
majority puts these indignities upon
the minority. The men who faced
the Chicago convention when it
stampeded to Bryan and his danger
GUS platform, with a firm protest
against its folly and fanaticism,
though in hopeless minority, were
really more " regular " than all the
others. The fact is, this jumping
Of chance majorities upon the necks
and sensibilities of those whom they
happen to outnumber is itself an
archy. From that moment the
minority is right and regular
To surrender ones own convic-
tions on a point of honesty, or of
morality, is personal degrada-
ton, of which we have had signal
illustration in New York city, when
over a hundred and thirty thousand
voters followed the dictation of
Tammany Hall Now the starting
point of Tammany Hall is that the
first duty of every member is to
stick to the organization The first
duty of man-that is of Tammany
man-is to be regular" even if he
cannot be right if he has to go
against his own Judgment or con-
science. A man who stoops to any
baseness, trickery, stealing, squan-
dering of money and selling of con-
tracts by the " organization, or to
help it at elections, being reg
ular, )" is not to be called in question,
simply because the organization
must be A." regular" Well said one
of the city papers: Z" A body of
voters that will stand together for
any enormity is an element of dan
ger ~
Our first duty now is to break up
these unholy associations. We must
show the sin and peril of subservi-
ency to party regardless of princi-
pie. The whole fabric of our gov
ernment by franchise falls when
the voter runs blindly with the
crowd, merely registering the man
dates of the men who have got con-
troll af the nominating assemblies.
That man is unworthy of citizen
ship whose boast is that he never
bolts party decree however base or
bad it may be
Further still 1T is quite in order to
revise our conduct in other matters
than politics and to review the cur
rent conception of the right of a ma
jority to rule. If, as often happens,
the majority of a convention, court
or party, is clearly in the wrong, we
may have to submit for the time,
but we can never make wrong right.
While in ordinary concerns we sub
NIT to the viii of the majority, we
can never yield in a matter of con-
science, of truth, or justice. of duty
to God or to our country. - The
Evangelist,
Ripans Tabules: for sour stomach.