The Iola register., 1902-02-07
PARTY FEALTY.

o"S uuy Oluu DdupuSOi uh0 Olc NhlCu
gave the most food for thought and
which dealt with facts, was delivered
by Colonel Rossington, of Topeka:
Colonel Rossington said:
81 have often wished that someone
who had been here from the first and
witnessed the formative period of the
States existence might be able to
write and publish true and impartial
history OF the factional conflicts in
Kansas. 1t would be a valuable ad-
dition to political science as showing
to what extent the personal factor, the
struggle for individual aggrandize-
ment might influence and had infu-
enced the fortunes and destinies of a
State under popular government |
used the word factor in its limited
and strict sense: A combination of
persons using subversive or perverse
methods of promoting their own sell
fish views or interests, especially in
matters of State.
kansas was the stage upon which
was enacted the prologue that ushered
in the lurid drama of the Civil war.
And from the day the pro-slavery
cabal acknowledged defeat in its
effort to establish slavery upon our
y
became nearly all one way of thinking
practically. From 1857 there was not
enough opposition to the Republican
party to furnish zest or interest in the
electoral conflicts; and straightway
this dominant party was rent into fac
tious This was most unfortunate,
not only for the party but for the
State. The sense of responsibility
born of a fear of a party challenge of
party stewardship, that menace of
criticism which strengthens and puri-
fes party counsels, that danger of de-
featliwhich lbegets partisan zeal and
unselfshness were altogether absent
"The beginning of the end was in
1891. The Republican party seeming
to be the only power under heaven in
the State, is it altogether incredible
that there should be laid to its door
by many the failure of the early and
the later rain, and the want of money
to pay the mortgages on the farm?
But the vote which chastened the Re-
publican party was not wholly made
up of those credulous ones who we're
persuaded that they we're aiding in the
coming of a socialist millennium and
who believed in the regenerating
efficacy of absurd Populist ideas.
factions had unstintedly abused and
slandered each other. They washed
their party linen without reserve in
the presence of an opponent whose
weakness they despised; and the every
day voter came to believe these scan
dals, and shall we say that their belief
in them was wholly unwarranted? Be-
yond doubt large number of the 80,
900, majority that chose Harrison cleo
tors in 1888 helped to give Weaver a
majority in 1892, and Bryan larger
one in 1896. Nor, though it was tried,
could this wholesale detection be
stayed by placating the Farmers
alliance and affecting to fall in with
Populist theories in Republican plat
forms. The Republican Congression-
al convention that nominated Halo
we'll for Congress to run against Jerry
Simpson adopted a platform Of prin-
ciples compared with which the Ocala
address was coldly conservative, and
the platform at Omaha, drafted by
Ignatius Donnelly was pattern OF
moderation. l forbear to do more
than allude to that unfortunate speech
in the United States Senate after the
first Populist victory, that filled the
mouths of Populist orators with p"eg'
manu- JeNJS uuFlUB Jub rem vi lut
existence of thatparty.
"About this time was born scheme
or device, named by its promoters as
fusion, which bears the same relation
to decent party politics that bunco
steering and the purveying of gold
bricks do to legitimate and honest
business. From 1891 to 1885, during
which this conscienceless device was
successful, men of my wayof thinking,
who had been allied with the Demo
cratic party and who believed in tho
largest measure of local self-govern
ment consistent with the constitutions
exercises of federal authority, who
we're opposed to all schemes of govern
mental paternalism, the party of hon
est money, to be honestly collected anC
economically expended for public pur
poses, the party of Seymour, Tildel
and Cleveland, were disfranchised il
the State of Kansas. They had tn
choice of voting either the Republican
or the Populist ticket. There was M
Democratic ticket named and tendere'
to their sufirages. This was the re
sult of what was called fusion, whic
had for its avowed purpose the success
of Populism in Kansas and its Incl
dental incitement, the procurement @
a few Offices for the so-called Demo
cratic partners in the enterprise.
'Suflice it to say that to the vote
and influence of the Democrats VIII
refused to 90 into the fusion schem
is it largely ascribable that the dc
structive tide of Populism was stage
in Kansas. 1t is self-evident that tn
success OF fusion in Kansas and M
braska inspired the more dangerou
scheme of national fusion with ii
Populists, hatched by Altgeld and hi
fellow anarchists in the so called Den
ocratic convention of 1896 in Chicago
That it came to just and overwheln
ing defeat is largely ascribable to tn
votes and influence of Democrats wh
held the honor and the welfare of ii
country above the mere success (
party. say so-called Democrat
convention, for this reasonable col