Year: 1879

the platform of the other. Such plan OF


campaign has the great merit Of certainty.


1t is absolutely sure to secure the result


aimed at Both the factions will be defeated,


and their opponents to whom they wish to


hand over the government will win easily.
/ Such democrats, therefore, as believe that


it would be better for the country and bet
| ter even perhaps for their own party that
| the republicans should elect their Presl-


dent next year do well to prevent by all


means in their power any harmonlzlng
| of differences in the democratic party.
| If the Eastern hard money demo-
Gratis will only so on vigorously shout


ing that they will never, never, stand on
! the same platform with their Western


brethren, and if the Western democrats
will continue in like manner to declare de-
| feat preferable to a union with the East,
| both factions will have the satisfaction of
assuring the election of republican Presi-
dent next year by SO large majority that
| no Electoral Commission will be needed to
decide who ought to go into the White
House.


We do not mean to say that this may not
be the best thing both Tor the country and
the democratic party. 1t may be true--we
do not pretend to know-it may be true that
the democratic party would be the better
for another four years in the minority.
There is occasionally young fellow who,
having graduated from one college,
thinks it good training to undertake a
fresh four years course in another;
and there is something perhaps to
be said for this policy. 1t is a matter
at any rate for the democrats to settle for
themselves. If they were agreed upon
policy, and should 60 into the campaign next
year united upon straightforward, ring
ing and popular democratic platform, and
with a candidate who represented the plat
form, and not grievance or q merely sell
fish ambition, or big bag of money, or a
parcel Of lawsuits, it is undoubt-
edly possible that the people might
about time for change; great many are
tired of being frightened year after year
| into voting for the republican candidates,
| good, bad or Indifferent as it may happen,
| on the ground that this is necessary in
order to preserve our blessed Union. A
! good many voters have Of late grown
suspicious of the desperate tenacity with


which the republicans cling to Office,
and there is growing suspicion that if
they stay in any longer it may be as hard to
| get them out as it was in 1861 to get the
democrats out There is sound sense in
the desire for a change; it shows, at any
rate, the wholesome growth of general
conviction that the great interests of the
country are safe under either party, and
that the people do not mean to let their
servants become their masters.


But however widespread this spirit may
be, it is certain that the people who wish
for change OF parties are not yet numer-
Gus enough to be divided into two hostile
factions and then beat the republicans.


Those democrats. therefore, who would
like to get their party into power next year
ought to try to restore harmony in it's ranks.
1t will be too late to do this next May or
June ut the National Conventions; the st.
| Louis Convention came near being sort
| of Donnybrook fair, and since that time
| there has been no increase Of harmony. It
may be too early, at this moment, to
move in the matter, for the fall elections
| will have undoubtedly q SOLDERING effect
on one faction or perhaps on both.
But when the result of the fall elections is
known when New York has gone repub-
| lican or democratic, as the case may be
I when General Ewing is either elected or
| defeated; when Maine has gone either way
| in the energetic manner in which it went for
Governor Kent; when Massachusetts, has
told her wishes at the polls, and when it
has all been talked over: then, we suggest,
1t will be a good time to summon o gen.
eral assemblage of democrats from all
parts of the country and determine ;con
policy for 1880.


| OF course those democrats who will sup
port nobody but their own predetermined
candidate, on their own predetermined
! platform, had better stay away from such q
convention, for it stands to reason that
there must be give and take on all sides to
! come to agreement. But there
ought to be enough common sense
among the party leaders OF all sections
to make an influential body, whose de-
cison as to platform and policy for 1880
should and would be final, leaving to the
nominating convention next year the simple
/ duty of naming the strongest man to stand
on it, whoever that might prove to be. 1t
might be an Eastern or it might be West
ern man but, whoever he was, he would,


under the circumstances, be sure of solid
support for it would not matter where


he had stood before, so long as he


frankly and honestly accepted the plat


form. 1t might happen, for instance,


that the democrats would declare against


an income tax ; but that need not prevent


General Ewing being the candidate, if lie
| aln,1ll f1irn ont 10 hn TIM NJ rnnnsaat man.