The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-30
the culmination of struggle between parties.

| EauEer or EXCESSIVE EaktAsaHbups The lesson then that the Nineteenth | Century teaches. in terms that cannot be mistaken, to the Twentieth Century, is that the supreme danger that lies | in the pathwaYs of our progress, the | peril that Is to be feared above all | others, arises from the excesses that may result from the seal of political | parties. If we have had but one Civil | War where our, neighboring republics | have had a thousand, if we, have suc- | ceeded and prospered where they have | so signalIy failed, 1t is not because we are not ourselves subject to the very same temptations which induce them | to war over the results of elections, and | to reverse elections by Illegal methods; but 1t is because we have So far proven | ourselves to q degree better able to resist these temptations than they. Let us bear continually in mind that | in this Twentieth Century the induce | ments to quarrel and to war over the verdicts of fffe ballot box are to be greater than ever before; that the of l fees depending upon the results of | Presidential elections Are to be more numerous and their emoluments larger: that political problems, domestic and foreign, wili.~beS more difficult: that capital is perfecting its combinations: that labor is drilling its organizations: | that millions of voters are without | training in republican methods. and 1 that by means of the telegraph and the daily press all our voting population is so aggregated and unified as that cur | whole body polite can be sw3ysd by | impulses of anger or fear or ambition or sympathy-by any passion noble or ignobe almost as If 1t were a single | human body. There will then te roth- | ing to save our country in times of great excitement from those excessess
 which in all ages have imperiled popu- 1 lar government and from which as we have seen we can claim no exemption,
 unless we shall find safety in c,n,,er-
 vative influences to be born of d yet | broader intellectual culture and q still | higher civic courage than We have ex- | hibited in the past. If our escapes | from shipwreck as experience teaches | have been frequent and narrow, now | that obstacles in our front are mutt l plying, we shall need among those who | are to create and maintain the public
 opinion that is to guide our ship of | State, greater wisdom and more inces-
 sant watchfulness than have heret of ,re
 been required. We must be more | careful than ever in the selection of cf- | ficials. The battIeship Alabama" as
 
 lantic today. stands for the highest
 type of naval architecture. In her | design and construction human science | and human skill were exhausted, yet, | perfect and complete as that ship is, an
 ignorant or a reckless navigator might, | in an evil hour, run her upon a rock
 and sink her to the bottom. just as tlie
 old "Kearsarge." that had so long
 braved the battle and the storm, was
 wrecked on Roncador Reef.
 If our ship of state is ever to be SO | wrecked it will not be because our | people are wanting in capacity or
 patriotism; but it will be because, In
 some hurricane season of incorporate | and partizan passion, intellect end culture will abandon the post of duty
 and allow the vessel which, by courage
 and fidelity they might have guided | safely through the storm, to be dashed | on the rocks.
 What we must chiefly rely upon as
 safeguard against the dangers of ex-
 cessive partizanship is greater inde-
 pendence of thought and of action. This
 seems to lne to be the demand of the
 Twentieth Century and for this I am here b enter a plea today before my
 brethren of the Alabama Bar. Political parties are necessary. Voters who
 agree on broad lines of principle must align themselves to carry out their | policies, but parties cease to deserve
 support the moment they cease to
 stand for the highest and best interests | of the State, and the nominees of
 parties, whatever may be the principles they profess, are entitled to no mans vote if they are not themselves capable
 and true. If there be peril in exces-
 sive partiZanship, then the most dan "a
 ed Is the yellow dog" theory in poli- l tics-that is. that member of a party
 iS bound to vote for the nominee no matter what his char acter or n5w he obtained the nomination. Suca q theory involves surrender by worthy | and intelligent men of heir power in party and State, a turning over Of all
 control to tricksters, whuse only end
 is power and self. If we would have
 our party occupy the high plane upon
 and from which alone 1t can be useful
 in maintaining our principles. the rule should be that political managers must
 understand that at the polls. the party
 can only have our votes with a plat
 from that Is sound and with nominees | who are worthy and true. It may be l and often Is true that we should accept | a platform as the least of two evils, but it may also sometimes be that both ! platforms. or that all the platforms pre-
 sented, arc so full of evils that we
 should reject them all.
 Be the situation what 1t may the | American citizen should exercise his | right as a sovereign to choose or re- | ject. To prevent as far as may he,
 the necessity of resorting to the exer- | oise, after nominations, of the right 70 reject d party nominee or platform,
 every party man, every good zitizen,
 should be active and alert in the prl-
 mariee, failing nowhere in duty 10 | party or country; but it should be even | then understood that delegates to ccn- ventions are only agents, with no right
 to transcend authority, with no :ignt | to sell their votes to candidates, or to
 barter away principle. Let it be also well understood that pronouuc ements | in platforms issued to attract the l ignorant, the credulous, and the de- | prayed, may drive away intelligence. With these as our rules of political
 conduct, virtue and education and
 culture will stand for their normal value in the State.
 Power of Independent Thinkers.
 The views am giving expression 10, | though they may not be common 10 | such occasions as this, are nevertheless
 not original with me. Fortuna eeiy | for the country. and fortunately for the | South especially, the independent voter
 and thinker and writer has been a | growing power in the Northern sec | ton of our Union for many years;
 notably, since the great Greeley move