Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-29


 party authority and good party men in
 answer without any squirming. No puck ering of the mouth, wiggling or scrng- | ing. Come on out with it-yes or no. |
 | THE NATIONAL AND STATE CALL. | The call of the national democratic ex- | ecutive committee reads as follows: | "Al democratic conservative citizens of l the United States, irrespective of past l political associations and differences, who can unite with us in the effort for pure, economical and constitutional gov ernment, are cordially invited to join us | in sending delegates to the convention" | This Is a repetition of the call of 1892, and is almost identical in language with | the call recently issued by our state com | mittee. It is call upon all citizens, "ir- respective of past political associations and differences to unite with the demo- cratic party and participate in sending | delegates to Chicago. It would have been | impossible to respond to this invitation 1 if our state committee had refused to | ''let down the bars' to all who wished to return. We would then have had the strange anomaly of a state call in con | flict with a national call. Citizens in vited to act in our primaries by the na- tional call would have been excluded by the state call, and the delegates to the national convention would not be such representatives as had been invited. They would have represented narrower con stituency. Manifestly the state commit tee could not help adapting itself to the
 call of the national committee since the
 same convention dealt with state nomi- tiOnS and national dplapatec ia
 called to nominate state officers and also
 to aid in nominating a president. One
 of it's highest duties is to name pres-
 dential electors. The state and national
 questions could not be separated except
 by calling a separate state convention,
 and to do that is against all precedent and would have entailed great cost and
 inconvenience upon the people. In all
 the history of Alabama we have never
 had separate conventions in a presiden-
 tial year, and the committee would have
 assumed grave and questionable re-
 sponsibility if they had called two con
 ventions. one to follow the line marked
 out by the national committee and an
 other to follow narrower line, which
 the friends of MT. Clarke wished them to
 define The duty of the committee, it
 seems 10 us, was clear. It was tO nave
 only one convention, and to provide that
 the call of the national committee should
 be respected as regards the persons who
 might join in organizing that convention.
 They did their duty. Out of the thirty
 two members only eleven recorded their
 votes in opposition to the policy indica-
 ted by the national committee.
 Immediately after the action of the
 state committee the Montgomery Ad-
 vertiser assailed that body as being
 actuated by unworthy motives. It said:
 Never in the history of the party was
 the committee used so palpably and out
 rageously in personal interest. And
 the indications are that this outrageous
 course will disgust the bulk of the
 party"
 Here is charge that the committee acted not from patriotic and loyal con- alterations, but in personal interests, and that their conclusion to follow the national call is palpable and disgusting outrage.
 The Advertiser also said:
 Captain Johnston's majority of the state committee did not stop at letting
 down the bars: they threw down all the fences besides. Every opponent of de- mocracy, white and black. was invited to take part in the primaries. The party lines have been absolutely oblterated." This is a gross perversion of facts. It is intended to bring contempt upon the committee and to arouse hostility against them for harmonzing their action with the call of the national committee. The consequences which it's disordered mind paints are not alarming to those who obeyed the national call in 1892 and who have acted in the line of that call at every national election. There has never been an occasion except that of the state convention of 1892 when any other course was ever advocated or adopted. The peo- pie of Alabama will stand by the nation al committee and by the state committee in their liberal and patriotic action. The assault of the Advertiser upon the state committee is an assault also upon the national committee. It declares that the | action of the state committee is an out | rage in the interest of Captain Johnston.
 It has not yet declared in whose interest the national committee perpetrated the same outrage. Is 1t possible that the national committee are hostile to the aspirations of MT. Clarke and resorted to | this call in order to aid Captain John- ston? The Advertiser is very weak and silly. Unhappily it occupies a position that enables it to do great damage to the democratic party.
 Some figures recently given out by Col. George Moorman of New Orleans, adiu-