The sun., 1897-05-27

/ ITCE SllNeT tApIGSheS lnC SplTlI
which animatcs his supporters OF 1896,
whatever may have been their previous
relations. In Congress, in both the Sen.
ate and the House, the silverites, whether
Democrats, Populists, or Republicans, are
working in unison and with entire cordial.
| ity. At the South the old hostility between
/ Democrats and Popu!ists seems TO have
ceased. The silver Republicans have left
! their party for good, and are securely in
the Dryanite alliance. We do not dis
cover anywhere any indication OF dispo.
| sition or the part Of the silver combination
to give up the Chicago platform or any
| plank OF 1t. The Democratic Bryanites are
| not inclined to exclude from their State
and local conventions the Democrats who re-
volted against them last year. They are
ready, even eager. 10 welcome them again
! into political fellowship, with the view OK
! getting their help in carrying elections
| That will occur in the interval be-
| tween the contests for Federal supremacy !;
but in no quarter are they willing to recede
from the Chicago platform as the standard
! OF Democratic faith. In a few particular
cases. rs here in New York, for instance,
they may consider propositions to keep that
for the time being; but nowhere will they
listen for a moment to any proposition to
abandon 1t. Their manifest determination
is to keep control of the regular Democratic
organization in all States and all places in
order to use 1t for their purposes in 1900 !;
and they are glad Of any help obtainable
from gold Democrats, which will assist
them in accomplishing their purpose.
Democrats loyal to the essential and dis
tinguishing principles of Democracy, who
rightly believe that upon them depends
the perpetuity of our republican institu.
tions, are accordingly in very trying sit
uation. The Republicans have been their
natural political enemies, against whom it
has been their duty and their joy to wage
unrelenting war. They do not want to help
Republicanism; their desire is the triumph
of Democracy. But neither will they lend
any assistance, direct or indirect, to the
revolutionary enterprise in which the COM
bination of Democrats, Populists, and
silver Republicans made at Chicago last
year is still persistently engaged. Popu-
lism, even more than Republcanism, is es-
sentially opposed to every Jeffersonian prin-
ciple and abhorrent to 1t yet both are con.
name of the Democratic party to designate
the revolutionary conspiracy formed by the
combination. On the one side. therefore,
loyal Democrats are confronted by the ne
cessity Of temporarily subordinating their
partisanship to their patriotism, and join
ing hands with the controlling majority of
the Republican party against the repudia-
tion scheme. On the other hand, IL they
should yield to their partisan feeling and
go with the nominal but spurious Bryan
Democracy, they would become political
allies of Populism and silver Republican
ism, both infamous in their eyes.
1t cannot be doubted what their choice of
positions will be. They will never assist in
Transforming the great and conservative
Democratic party into a party Of revolu-
tion; yet the strain which the necessity Of
making the choice puts upon them is hard
to bear. 1t is natural. therefore, that they
should seek to ward off the period when
they must again take the step they took last
November. Consequently, suggestions that
for the moment, in State and local cam.
paigns, the issues of the Chicago plat
form should be set aside, nominally with
view to obtaining Democratic unity for
They long to vote a square Democratic
ticket, but actually there can be no square
Democratic ticket until the poison injected
at Chicago is thoroughly expelled from the
Democratic party. The forces making up
the Chicago combination are in control of
the Democratic machinery everywhere, and
by using that machinery to win State
and local elections, they will strengthen
further the deadly grip they have on
the Democratic party. If, for instance,
they should succeed in wheedling the
true Democrats into voting with them in
the Greater New York election, they
might gain the political mastery Of this
great community, carrying with it, in all
likelihood, the subsequent mastery of this
great and pivotal State, to use in behalf of
the revolutionary Chicago combination at
the elections for Congressman in 1898 and
for President in 1900.
Loyal Democrats consequently will be.
tray true and genuine and essential Demo
cratic principle IL at any time or at any
election they make any compromise with
Organism, or accept anything short of abso-
lutte repudiation Of the Chicago platform as
prerequisite to their support. BY so doing
they will be intrenched behind impregnable
principle. and in the end they will force
the surrender of the revolutionary conspira-
tors who have usurped control of the Demo-
cratic party.
The Democratic party has lived through
manifold political transmutations, the only
party in this republic in which the vitality
of enduring and indestructible principle
has inhered; but now, in the enemies, dis
l.. n.
to destroy Democratic principle, it is en-
countering and must Withstand the most
dangerous assault it has sustained in its
whole long and glorious history. The only
salvation of the Democratic party Is it's
rescue from the revolutionary hordes led
against it by BRYAN last November. There
must be no compromise with them. Every
where. at every election, it must be uncon-
diticnal surrender or unceasing warfare.
In VirDinta