The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1897-08-27
An Independent Element in Politics.
BIZ Hon. w. E. BoRAH, BOISE.


we Join ourselves TO no party that does not
carry the flag and keep step To the music OF
She Union---Choate.
The most promising of the signs of
the times are the loosening up of party
ties; the great strides of political pro-
gress follow these periods which are
characterized by independent action
upon the part Of the individual voter.
1t inevitably leads to the selection of
better and more efficient public SER
wants and to the endorsement and en-
forcement of truer and more equitable
principles Of government. Such sea-
SONS are always unfavorable to profess
sional or machine politicians. Those
periods in which the voter is guided by
a self-dependent purpose, careless of
party fealty and anxious concerning
the Nation, sweep away the choice of
the ring, Mr.. Seward, and carry to the
front the choice of the people, Mr.. Lin
coin. History teaches that when our
people think for themselves and re-
fuse to worship, and cease to regard
their party as a fetisch, our govern
ment is perfectly safe. The partizan-
ship which takes its life from an intel
iigent approval of the creed
of the party and its candidates,
cannot of course be too sanguine or in
tense; it should be commensurate in
zeal with the love of the commonwealth
itself. Such partizanship is essential
in representative democracies, as it
places the responsibility somewhere,
and is the only effectual means of crys-
tallizing the floating wishes of the mas
ses into law. But the partizanship
which supports candidates wholly in
competent and principles wholly VIC
ious and felt and known to be so, sim
ply because they have been put forward
by the party, is infamous in its effect
upon the government.
~
The old political dogma, which has
won many campaigns when everything
else has failed, that you must settle
everything in the convention or eau
Gus, and support the party right or
wrong, should be "decently buried at |
the public expense" The only place
to settle everything is the silent sanct- |
ity of the booth where the citizen sum-
mons forth his conscience and his
ripest, best judgment for the the proper
~ ha EoI 0e
freemen. l am aware that this is trea-
son, but make the most of it, for it is
the truth. The last quarter Of cen-
fury will answer that it is so. We
might name four men living in the diff
ferent States who, by the corruption of
the caucuses and the ineffable efficacy
of the party lash, have driven the best
men in their States from politics, fill
ing the public places with satellites,
corrupting courts and legislatures and
bringing into doubt and disrespect our
very system of government itself. Of
the evil effects of this style of partizan-
ship, we have some examples near
home. Our legislatures are constantly
cursed with the presence Of men, whom
no one would have ever dreamed of
voting for had he not been on sour"
ticket. In our last legislature there
were many upright and capable men,
who desired to serve well the State, but
there were also those who brought con-
fusion and shame upon the law making
body and stamped an indeible disgrace
upon the commonwealth. They were
not there because Idaho is lacking in
competent men, nor because they were
of this party or that, they were simply
the pilfering accidents of civic negli-
gence, the pestiverous spawn of parti=
san fetichism. By accident, chance or
negligence they were nominated, and
then party zeal elected them over, per-
haps, competent opponents. Ordinar-
lily when polluted imbecility crawls from
its cerements of slime and forces itself
upon public exhibition, it is best sim
ply to let it pass into forgetfulness soon
as possible, but when it appears in pub
lie places, carrying large constituency,
it is time to ask why it is there, even
at the risk of recalling incidents which
all self-respecting men would fain for
get. II is there because the caucus has /
either been neglected or controlled, 7
and because when once upon "our"
ticket, the candidate is clothed with re- ,
gal endowments although he may in
in fact be but dwelling idiot. t
~
The next campaign in Idaho will have 4
to deal with those who are casting their d
first ballot. Everyone is anxious con- 5
oerninR this new force in politics. The ]