Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1884 — ILLINOIS INDEPENDENTS. [ARTICLE]

ILLINOIS INDEPENDENTS.

They Enter the Campaign in a Way Indicating that They Mean Business. A Vigorous Address to Repub* lican and Independent Voters. The following address has been leaned from the Ulinois Independent headquarters, room 26, Palmer House, Chicago: The nomination of James G. Blaine for the Presidency by the Republican National Convention of 1884 has precipitated a qnestlon of' great difficulty and supreme moment upon the American people. By this action the voter’s attention is forced away lrom the consideration of party principles and policies to the scrutiny of party candidates and the duties of citizenship. It is all the more deplorable and dangerous because Mr. Blaine’s nomination was made with all tho outward forms and circumstance of popular party choice. But those who were on the spot know how fictitious is the claim that it was. the irresistible demand ot the great body of the Republicans of the Northwest. They are not qblivioue to the necessity of honor, integrity, and a pure record in a Presidential candiaate, however noisy and bawling politicians may misrepresent them. We know that Cook County was represented in the June convention by at least two men who were elected to oppose Blaine and voted for him. One of these men deliberately betrayed the trust reposed in him by his district. We know not how many others were brought to Mr. Blaine’s support as he was, nor the means used to accomplish his conversion. Living in Chicago, some of ns remember the spirit of liberty that animated the Republican convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and We saw the political vultures who dominated the convention which nominated James G, Blaine in 1864. The men who had been fighting to keep on the outside of a jail in Washington fought for the nomination of James G. Blaine In Chicago. N o unknown man was nominated. His record is notorious. Its “ magnetic brilliancy” oan not hide its utter lack of principle, unselfish purpose, or public good accomplished. As a hnember of Congress his voice was never raised, his vote never cast, for a measure to protect the public domain from the raids of landgrabbers and corporate plunderers. As Speaker ot the House of Representatives, he did not scruple to prostitute a judicial decision to personal gain. As United States Senator, in the language of Senator Edmunds, "he jumped up, musket in hand, from behind the breastworks of Jay Gould’s lobby, to lire into the back ” of those senators who were endeavoring to make the Union Pacific Railway Company keep its contract with the Government, As Secretary ot State, for a brief period, he made the United States rloicnlous in the eyes of foreign powers of the first rank, while indulging in questionable interference with the affairs of minor nationalities. His appointment of a disgraced officer of the army to represent this country as Minister to Peru, in order that he might holly that distressed power. into the recognition of a private claim, is not forgotten ia Illinois, where that officer was known. As a private citizen of national influence he has not shrank from advising the distribution of the snrplus in the Treasury among the States in such a way as to afford a vast corruption fund in the hands of the dominant party. The public standards and methods of Mr. Blaine are thoroughly corrupt and demoralizing. He treats public office as a private acquisition. He makes use of its opportunities to enrich and advance himself. He prostitutes its powers to reward his friends and to punish and proscribe those who oppose him. What has been accomplished toward administrative reform has been effected without his aid. in fact, he and those closely associated with him have been conspicuous among those to be reformed. His late profession of acceptance of the reformed system most be viewed with great suspicion by those who are familiar with his career, and do not now overlook the methods of himself and his friends in the present campaign. Those who stand behind the Washington committee and receive its “collections" can not be trusted with the execution and improvement of the civil-service act. Our opposition to Mr. Blaine is based upon the evidence furnished by the candidate himself and the public records. The strength of our position is exactly measured by the force of that evidence. Everything now known against Mr. Blaine was known when he was nominated last June. In the conventions of 1876'and 1880 a healthy respect for the honest sentiment of the country defeated him. Bat in 1884 the corrupt influences which he represented, in defiance of repeated warnings, forced him upon the party. Believing that popular indifference to dishonesty and corruption in office is a menace to good government; that a party nomination cannot cleanse a sooty record; that when party action ceases to respond *to the pure and honest sentiment within it it becomes party tyranny; that it is the duty of all intelligent citizens to look qn parties as the aids of good government, not the idols for Individual worship; that to accept Inevitably the offerings of a party oonventloivgood or the voter of his inalienable rights; that Blaine’s nomination compromised the Republican party, and his election would dishonor the nation; and believing that its defeat now may be the salva-

tion of party, that through the r&iley of tribuJath.n it may come into a purer life, we declare our unalterable opposition to the eiectiion of James G. Blaiue. Whether we shall support Grover Cleveland must be left to individual choice. Or him, we have tills to say: His nomination was made 'bv the Democrat!e party in response to the call for a man whose official life In sterling integrity and unwavering honesty should afford the strongest possible contrast to that of James O. Blaine. He has been thoroughly tried, and found Arm and able to withstand the worst elements of his own party. The manner of his nomination commends him to us. No malignant assaults upon his private life have weakened his publto record, or can alter the just and high aim of the convention which nominated him. The present is a good time to rebuke the insolent arrogance of unprincipled iioliticians who gut up their chief and invoke party fealty to make tm ruler of 55,u00,0u0 p.ople. The pernicious doctrine that the act of a convention, if it nominate Beelzebub, binds the consciences and votes of the party, is the issne of this campaign. Shall It prevail? \Ve firmly, honestly, sincerely believe not. To elect Blaine is to set him up as a model for the youth of America. To. defeat him Is to make his course a warning for all time. Therefore all Republicans and Independents who believe that the interests of good government, official honesty, efficient public service, purity of the primaries, and the honor of the American people, demand the defeat of James G. Blaine are invited to place their names upon our rolls and aid us in every honorable way to prevent his election as President of the United States.