Omaha daily bee., 1896-03-22
A nANnrRnrs rRncrnrnr.

y IN NfE MUS ffEtFUHNIs
on tho eve OF n national campaign
Nebraska republicans are about to cs
tabllsh a precedent that cannot but ex
crt n baneful influence on the future OF
the party in this state. Only four weeks
ago Senator Thurston made the follow.
ing declaration in a speech delivered al
Lincoln before n large gathering of rep.
rcsentative republicans:
The great issue In the republican national
couyeuticn Will be between the people and
the politicians. . . . The success of the
bosses at that convention dS76) very nearly
wrecked the republican party and is re-
spousible for almost all the republican dis
asters which have followed. . = = | have
no other wish today than that the will Ct
the people shall be expressed. Whatever man
is honestly the choice of a majority of the
republican voters of the union will be nomi-
mated for president. To defeat their will is
to endanger our success. Whatever man Is
the choice Of the republicans Of the state Ct
Nebraska should be voted for by the delega-
ton from Nebraska in the next national CON.
vention. This 10 all I ask; 1t is all I desire.
= > We hear altogether too much as to
what this political boss will do with the dele
cation from New York. or that political boss
will do with the delegation from Penneyl-
vania, or the other political boss will do with
the delegation Of his state. 1t is time for the
republican party to end the rule of republican
bosses. Dictatorship in the party of Ameri-
can progress must come TO an end. Let the
people speak, and let no man arrogate to
himself the right to misrepresent the people
or betray their own expressed wishes.f . '
So far as l am personally concerned, l shall
not remain to take part in any contest that
may arise. 1 only ask that the friends of
William Mckinley see to 1t that the will of
the majority is not thwarted.
These were bold and manly utter
ances and If the senator had adhered
to them, neither he nor the party would
have anything to regret or explain
away. 1t is, however, notifying that
the very abuses which Senator Thurs
ton so forcibly denounced at Lincoln
seem to have Deer fathered in his
name ut Omaha last week.
For the first time in the history of
Nebraska the spectacle is presented of
n junta acting in the name of Il United
States senator, a%rrogating to itself the
authority to forestall the will of the
party usually expressed through pri-
mary elections and conventions and to
dictate absolutely who shall represent
the party in the national nominating
convention. In one breath we are
warned against the danger Of wrecking
the party on the rocks of bosSism, and
in the neXt breath notice is served upon
the republicans of Nebraska that their
state and district conventions will have
nothing more~to do han to ratify the
dictation of Il self-constituted committee
of sub-bosses, who in turn claim to be
acting under imperative and imperious
instruction from their head boss at
Washington. AS the champion of a can
didate who stands for popular sover-
eighty exercised by free men through
the untrammeled expression of their
wills at the ballot box, Senator Thurs
ton should disavow this whole business
and wash his hands clean of the imDu-
tation which it must leave upon his
reputation at home and abroad.
1t may have been, and is doubtless,
for the SAKE of party har-
mOny that all fractional differences be
amicably adjusted. But no arrange
ment that smacks of absolutiSm should
countenanced Never before have
the republicans of Nebraska, or of any
other state, been officially ordered to
John Smith or Peter Jones or any
particular man or set of men as dele
gates to a national convention. AS a
Of fact, Nebraska republicans
have never felt constrained to moose
any of their senator's as delegates to
conventions. And no senator
has ever before attempted to designate
the men who should be chosen. Re
publicans of Nebraska have reason to
feel proud of Senator Thurston's prom
inence in the councils of the nation
and his high rank as an orator in the
senate of the United States. But when
puts himself into the very position
which he himself has so recently de-
nounced in scathing terms, they cannot |
feel that he has done himself and
them n grave injustice.