People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1896 — The Political Blander. [ARTICLE]

The Political Blander.

BY C. C. POST OP FLORIDA. Friend Craig: Yours asking my opinion etc., is received. We are in a most unfortunate and embarrassing position, but to me there appears but one way open to us and that is to stand 1 squarely by the action of % our convention. If, as someone has i said, apolitical blunder is a political then in my opinion f the failure of our national committee to call an early conven- [. tiom, and of our party to put a j straight ticket in the field at such early convention, taken in connection with what has folI lowed, constitutes the political crime of the age. To have builded up a party through long years of patient work in educating the people upI on economic questions until it [ held the balance of power in the I senate, and had become the second party in voting strength in j many, and the first in a few I states; to have so aroused pubI lie sentiment as to frighten its I bitterest enemies into regarding I it with fear and trembling, to I have compelled the party in I possession of the government [ with all its powers of effecting I public opinion through federal | patronage and the great daily I press, to steal our platform in I order to keep from sinking beI neath the rising tide of public I condemnation —to have done all I this and then to throw away the 1 staff from which our banner I. floated and pin our flag to that I of our opponents because they I suddenly professed conversion, I leaving staff and banner alike in I their hai ds, was. I say. the I greatest political blunder of this I or any other century. H;. That those men, who arp prim I arily responsible for the fiiral 1 act in the drama, anticipated I any such result I am entirely I unwilling to believe, but the re--1 suit none the less emphasizes I the fact, sooJ'.eu before demon--1 strated in the history of-the I movement, that the road to sucI cess is smoothest in the middle. B What has been done however is I done, and Florida, in her state I convention on the sth and 6th, ■L declared by a perfectly unani- ■ mous vote that she would abide

| by the action of the St. Louis convention. If any were in favI or of rejecting either Bryan or Watson, and a half dozen of each there may have been, (though I ’think but two favored Sewall) l they were uot numerous enough to count, and the convention put Bryan and Waison electors, and j a straight middle-of-the road I state ticket in the field, and will j make the best fight for an inI creased vote possible under the I circumstances, and not withont I expectation of doing so. I For the immediate future more I is dependent upon the west than I upon the south, for while we I have an undoubted, majority of I the votes in Georgia and AlaI bama, and have a strong footing I in most of the southern states, r yet it is not us that the demo--9 crats fear, since public sentir ment will not yet sustain the deI frauded majority in forceful I means of compelling a fair I count, and nothing less than this I will prevent counting the vote I in these states as the Democrat|ic leaders command it to be ■ft-. •; * I done. I The crime sought to be conI sumated at St. Louis by the enI dorsement of the entire demoI cratic ticket consists, in part at I least, in thus seeking to compel I us to surrender our organization I and either abandon the fight or I follow the leadership of the I Democratic party as at present I constituted, the leadership of

men to whom the ballot has no | sacredness, principles no meani ing; who would have supported Hill upon a gold platform as greedily as Bryan upon a populist platform, provided oniy that office lay at the end of either. The Western Populists can not appreciate our situation, and we are in danger of being harshly judged because of the action we have taken and that we must maintain. In many western states the Democrats are the minority party, the populists being in the lead and might possibly hold a controlling influence in any reorganizations of party machinery growing out of a surrender of our own organization. In'most southern states to surrender means to do so uncon ditionally, and to leave all power in the hands of the men who have no regard whatever for the rights of the people, and in this state they are the generaly recognized agents of corporations; the rail road companies especialy. We are told that if elected Mr.

Bryan will use the power of federal patronage to break the power of political rings and cliques which are antagonistic to the true interests of the people, but to men educated in the spirit of a true democracy, or an honest republicanism, this appears dangerous if true. As men claiming to be patriots, seeking to restore the government to the control of the people though the peaceful exercise of the electoral franchise, we are not over much pleased to be told that it will be done through the powdr of federal patronage after we shall have surrendered our party organization through acceptance of Mr. Sewall.

■ That public patronage so long as it remains in the gift of the president should be used to assist in preserving the rights and liberties of the people, rather than as mow in strengthening their enemies all concede, but to what extent it would or could be done with the corporation agents in the saddle in ohr several states, the entire press of the country misrepresenting the facts, they on horseback in front and the

people stuck in the mud or lost in the scrub away back in the rear, is at the least problematical. In all probability the voice of the people would scarcely be heard, their true situations and needs never known to the dispenser of public patronage, and if it were done, it would still be a victory for one man power and a precedent for its use by succeeding administrations not in sympathy with good government, as we honestly believe Mr. Bryan to be. What then would our western brothers expect us to do? What ask of us? Or what ought we to expect or ask of them? At our state convention held on the sth and 6th, of the present month I twice charged in open convention that the delegates from Florida had not properly understood the wishes of our people, ahd that they alone of the entire delegation present, representing nearly all the counties in the state and numbering 162 on roll call, delivered the nomination of anything but

a straight ticket at St. Louis wise, and not a voice was raised to contradict or answer* I mention this as evidence of the feelings of our people and td show how impossible would be the task of inducing them to accept of Sewall also. They will loyally abide the action of the con veation at St. Louis and if Mr. Sewall is withdrawn will give a most enthusiastic support to Bryan and Watson, but they will not consent to yield all, and\f the constituted authorities of the party attempt to force them to do so they will largely remain at home on election day; a few will support the Bepublicans out of a feeling of recklessness joined to the hope of securing a better state government, later converts will go back to the Democracy and the total result will be the practical annihilation of the only organized sentiment in Florida in opposition to the corporation control of state and nation. '

Another danger ought not to be underestimated, and that is the danger that every other issue will be swallowed up by that

of free silver. Already the public mind is becoming confused over it and we are being classed simply as free silverites. The grealer issues are being over* looked and forgotten, and even our Own speakers, because of the prominence which we have pern|itted it to receive through our the silver Republicans and the Democratic party, have,, not infrequently of late, themselves almost forgotten that it was not the main issue; and havg said little about anything else. If a halt in this direction is not called/by the time Bryan is in the presidenta! chair, if elected, the assertion will be made and generally accepted that free silver was the only thing really promised, or earnestly demanded, and that will be the extent of monetary reform that will be granted. I do npt sajr that this assuredly will j&e so, but that there is gravp danger of it, and that it is an added reason why we should be careful now not to yield further of the power to direct pub-

lie thought which organization gives. But again, what ought the western populists to do. You ask my opinion and I am now ready to give a direct answer, having at such length reviewed the situation that my answer might rest upon the facts and arguments thus advanced and not be thought to.be dictated by a stubborn pride of opinion, or an unpatriotic adherence to party. My opinion is, and there lingers in my mind not the faintest shadow of doubt, that your true and only safe course is to stand by the action of the St. Louis convention, put forth a full electoral ticket for Bryan and Watson and* unless Sewall is with drawn and Watson substituted vote for it to a man. Until Sewal is with drawn and Watson substituted we have no evidence of the sincerity of the Democratic party that should induce us to fuse with them on state or county 1 tickets, no not so much as on constable. Even when that is done I hold it would be better for us to run straight state and local tickets, since only so can we maintain the organization which will give us most influence with the administration if success crowns thq effort, or line up for the fight

in 19<X) if unsuccessful in Nov., 1896. If the Democrats are really and earnestly in favor of the reforms demanded in their own platform they will, rather than prevent a satisfactory union of forces accept Watson. If they in earnest and honest then we cannot accept more of them. * Upon no possible theory or basis can we be asked to. yield more; and by no argument can it be shown that we can safely Mo so. If we would preserve our organization we must stand by the action of the convention and that means Watson quite as sincerely, honestly, aud earnestly as it means Bryan. Neither does it mean that we may make a show of standing by Watson while giving him away as Kansas has unwisely done. Kansas alone could have com paled the putting of Watson on the ticket and Indiana can do it yet, . for without Kansas and Indiana. Bryan’s election would be \seriously jeopardized. They do pot risk, and do not feel that tbiey risk the ultimate carrying out of the reforms demanded by copceding the vice-presidency to us. We do feel that in surrendering everything to them we would

risk, all that we have contended for, therefore, they and not we, are responsible for failure to elect Bryan, if it fails through not making the union of forces perfect by putting Watson in place of Sewell. In doing it they yield only a 'portion of par tizan pride. We have given that much alieady, and would give more but that with it we must give to those we would, but cannot, wholly trust, the power to crush our hopes of seeing our country torn from the grasp of the plutocracy. If the Democratic party was really wise in its leadership it would wish us to bave the tail of the ticket and to make the union of our forces as close and as perfect as possible, for such a union on the national ticket in 1896 will, if it have the result which must logically be presumed to follow, restore th 9 Democratic party, purged and purified of its corruptionist leaders and influences, to power in every western as well as southern state in 1898, and insure its continuance in power for many years in the nation. For it would be impos sible as it would be undesirable, and undesirable as impossible to continue separate organizations of Populists and Democrats when once confidence was firmly

established by the aecomplish- | rnent in part at least (and so far I as could reasonably be expected of the next congress and a Demo-Populist President or Vice president) of the reforms demanded. Naturally the fusion of the two parties in 1898 would be perfect, they would properly and unavoidably merge in one and that one would in all probability retain the name of Democrat or possibly the new democracy. Whoever will look at the situation calmly unaffected'by the clamor of the unthinking or angry partizans on eitner side, cannot fail of recognizing the fact that the placing of Mr. Wat son upon the ticket instead of Mr. Bewail means if success follows at the polls, the llnal absorption of the Populist party and the revolutionizing of the Democratic party against which we have so long contended andt at the hands of which we have suffered verything except death. It is not, therefore, pride in party name that ,ua to refuse to go a step further than we have gone, but instead to demand that the tail of the ticket be given us. It is the earnest conviction that so, and only so, can victory for our principles be assured. It is the feeling, growing if possible, stronger with every passing day, that we risk the principles for which we contend if we do not now halt, line up, and hold every inch of ground left us as a party. This communication which is intended to go to your readers, if you wish it, is already long, but not longer than the necessity of making my position clear compeled, and I have still left some points untouched, one of which I wish yet to notice as an argument to our friends the Democrats. I have said that a complete union such as is meant by Watson in place of bewail means victory for the national ticket now and restoration is power in ‘9B of the Democratic party in the south and west. It will not be just the same Democratic party that has held power in the past, but it will be the Democratic party in name with new leadership—the Democratic party of Jefferson and Jackson breathing the spirit of the patriotism of those men and of such Republicans as Abraham Lincoln and Thadeus Stevens. To you as Democrats will be left your pride in party name, and with you through the administration of Mr, Bryan, will remain the Federal patronage. To us populists, way-worn and scarred with the battles of twenty years, will remain the consciousness of a victory won by your later conversion, and the joy of seeing our country freed from the grasp of the money power. That only,but it is enough we are content that it shall be so since it is the logical result of events now passing or which we hope to bring to pass. But if you in your pride of power given you through the action of delegates which, if Florida be & fair example, wholly and totaly misunderstood and therefore misrepresented the party, if you refuse us the little we ask and thereby weakening still further our confidence in . your honesty of purpose to secure th