The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-07
Mugwumpery in Alliance with Bry-
anism.

anism.
The paragraph below is from the Boston
Herald, q very pretentious Mugwump or.
gan, and it is interesting as indicative of
the deficiency in political principle which
is symptomatic Of true Mugwumpery:
at is reported that the Virginia gold Democrats
are ready to acquiesce in q free-silver platform for
the party in the coming State election. They proba.
bly, realize that there is no hope Of carrying the State
for sound currency in any event. as the Republicans
there cannot be relied on TO send q man to the United
States Senate who Is to be trusted on this issue. Tho
election OF a Senator Ia the most important feature In
this contest. Senator DANIEL whose term is about to
expire, is a strong man intellectually and one nearer
tie old.fashioned Southern type than most of his
Southern colleagues. Unfortunately. Senator DANIEL
Is apt to be wrong in his view of public questions. but
the State can hardly AFFORD to disregard the distin.
guished ability he has evinced In the Senate"
We hope nobody will skip thai extract
from the Boston paper because it is In
small type. 1t contains a confession of
moral feebleness and degeneracy which
suggests that the enemies whom honesty
has to encounter are not alone the Bryanite
Democracy, but that they include also Its
professed but cowardly and unprincipled
friends. The Bryanites, to their credit be
it said, fight in the open. They are not
ashamed of their ~colors, and they boldly
declare their purposes. The Mugwumps
represented by the Boston Herald are afraid
to fight. Hiding behind their false pre-
fences, they are rather trying to help the
Bryanites to intrench themselves the more
strongly for the campaign of 1900.
or course, no gold Democrat. no man of
genuine Democratic principle, in Virginia
or anywhere else, will support a candidate
who is nominated on "a free-silver plat
FORM Such a candidate may be nominally
a Democrat, but really he is no more a
Democrat than If he accepted a nomination
from avowed Anarchists. A Democrat may
vote for a Republican nominated on the St.
Louis gold platform without sacrificing the
essential principles of Democracy. Such a
candidate may represent policies which are
not distinctively Democratic, but he repre-
sents no principles so contradictory, so fatal
to the very essence of Jeffersonian Democ-
racy, rs those which arc proclaimed in the
Chicago platform. Genuine Democrats and
genuine Republicans are politically of one
family as against the spurious Democracy
of the Chicago platform.
On its assumption that Virginia can.
not be carried "for sound currency, in
any event. this Boston Mugwump justi.
fes honest Democrats in making them
selves dishonest, false, treacherous to Demo-
cratic principle, by voting for an unsound
currency Moreover, it wants them to
assist to elect Mr.. DANIEL, an out.and out
Bryanite United States Senator, because
he is "a strong man intellectually, and
one nearer the old fashioned Southern type
than most of his Southern colleagues" II
he is n strong man 30 much more resolute
should the genuine Virginia Democrats be
in their refusal to assist in c%ontinuingh his
power to aid the cause of reputation in the
senate. AS to his type, Senator DANIEL is
not different from the great mass of his
Southern colleagues, as they now are, and 1t
is not the ole -fashioned type, but the new
fashioned type ~disigured and degraded by
Organism.
Senator DANIEL is apt to be wrong in
his view of public questions" says this
Boston Mugwump, "but the State can
hardly afford to disregard the distinguished
ability he has evinced in the Senate" That
distinguished ability" has been expended
in betraying the Democratic party and sur.
rendering its principles, yet tho honest
Virginia Democracy are told that they
"can hardly afford" to refrain from giving
him further opportunity to use it against
them in the Senate Senator DANIEL yields
nothing, but they must yield everything
that entities them to respect.
Papers like this Boston Herald are allies
Of the Bryanites. but they are without
their courage. They nave no strength of
principle, no frmness Of conviction, but
are natural traitors and ingrained towards.