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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1900)
8 'Cbc Conservative. THK NEW MOVJSMKNT. The following address was delivered by Mr. A. B. Farquhar before the "National" convention , hi Now York , Sept. 5 , 1900. In this crisis of American history are wo to remain idle spectators , failing to vote at all or throwing our ballots away on some side issue ? Mast we sacrifice our standing and individuality by ab sorption in the huge hordes that rally under Bryau or McKinley , and thus give all our force and influence to the strengthening of tendencies with which our principles are irreconcilably in con flict ? Is our number so few , our in fluence so slight , or our zeal so lukewarm that we are afraid to stand up and be counted on the side of the right ? Oan it be possible that when this matter ap peals so powerfully to us there are not thousands of others who share our views and would be glad to vote their senti ments in the same way if given the op portunity ? The needed opportunity is for yon , men of this convention , to grant or deny. If you grant it , we may not reach our haven of success , but we will at least do what can bo done to stem the baleful tides that are sweeping the good ship of state towards the whirl pools of chaos and destruction we will point the right course even if the multi tude may be slow to steer by it. If you deny it , we can only drift , rudderless , on a chartless sea. Evident as it must be that all who adhere - hero to the declaration of principles in behalf of which we are gathered , can now have no part either with Bryan or McKinley , we are met on all sides by the cry that wo positively must throw our votes to one or other of those two popular and high-placed aspirants for fear , forsooth , of wasting them. But the real waste is the sacrifice of strength we should make in yielding to that very cry. The votes that will be least of all wasted , this year , will be those given without hope of deciding the election , but in earnest devotion to a moral pur pose to some champion of a cause that neither McKinley nor Bryan can possibly represent. If that cause is true , it de- deserves to have its truth acknowledged in a way that shall be recognized when the votes are counted. If there are any who really care , for our principles , let them support those principles with all their strength with "their lives , their fortunes and their sacred honor. " Nothing is more true than that a new party has to bo born and not made or made like the boy at his catechism who said that God made him , a little baby about so high , so as to grow the rest. But nothing is more false than that therefore individuals can do nothing of their personal'and conscious motion to inaugurate such a movement. As a matter of fact , in the history of our country such beginnings have been fairly divided between imperceptible drifts and intentional departures. The First National Party. The first great formation of a national party since the constitution , that under the lead of Jefferson , was distinct and personal , though so gradual in its en largement round that mighty source of political life that no exact moment per haps may be fixed upon for its origin. The whig and democrat of the twenties and thirties were an insensible growth around two powerful chieftains , Olay and Jackson , as dominant- figures ; yet in this cose the movements constituting the leaders rather than the leaders the movements ; for whatever fame , follow ing , or ability , no political chief has ever equalled or approached the origi nating force of Jefferson ; the man who in all the world's record , without mili tary prestige of any sort , appears to have swayed the public thought of men with the widest and most enduring influence. But the republican of the fifties cen tered on no individual ; only a clear out purpose , necessary for the country's welfare , and embodying a moral prin ciple , served as the sufficient nucleus and constituted the very ideal of a vital party. An effort seems needed to keep in mind that this is the same party , by name and continuous organism , which maintains the title now ; just as we have heard of the same knife surviving with new blade and new handle. Yet those substitutions might at least be made to resemble the old knife , while nought but contrast is to be found between the republicanism of this day and of that. It does not seem to be borne in mind as it deserves , that almost every man who shed any eminent lustre on the earlier days of this party , practically turned his back upon it before the close of his career. Great-hearted Lincoln , cutoff as he was before even the last echoes of the war , had yet clearly marked his deviation from the paths in which that party waste to march. Seward , most its leader in the years of its prime , stood at his ripest season , with his life almost a martyrdom in more ways than one , hopelessly at variance with it. Ohose , its stateliest figure ; Snmner , its unswerving consci ence ; Greeley , Curtis , ablest among its exponents through the press ; Lowell , its most skillful master of pungent satire ; Beeoher , its greatest pulpit and rostrum teacher ; Fossenden , McOnllough and Gresham , illustrious among its best and truest statesmen , with so many more who are nearest like them , lived repub lican but republicans they could not die , at least in the fulness of party ortho doxy. And the noblest now with us who have borne the name , though they may be unwilling to cast it off , yet one by one desert its tracks. The Splendid Leadership of Cleveland. Vast as the nation bos now grown , yet so far from the individual patriot losing himself in its mass , he has but the larger chance , at a time of balance and uncertainty , for useful * work. If he do good , he can then do more good. If a million are hesitating where a thousand wore of old , he may affect the million as well as the thousand , and be greater instead of smaller in the multi tude. A memorable instance we have known , in these latter times. It is seldom given to one man , even in time of war , much less of untroubled peace , to shift the course of a great nation's political history as did President Cleve land , by his revenue message of ' 87. To close up once and for all the whole weary chapter of the war and its abom inable sequels , open a new one and set the country face about with the need of the time , in an act like this , called for a nerve and ascendancy like that of Na poleon , on far better principle than his. And now his own party , under its pres ent leadership , has deliberately turned back from this position , expressly casting aside the issue of tariff reform ; perhaps the single instance in our history of a national party openly receding from a great and glorious step in advance. The timid apologetic attitude of those who had just achieved the first election of Lincoln , as soon as they saw how mo mentous a move they had made , is hardly a parallel. There was excuse for the republicans of 1861 in a threatened civil war , but there was not for the democrats of 189G. If Cleveland's party has proved un worthy of Cleveland the call is loud for a new party. What has been in the air for so long , seems ct last , if we may judge by responsive voices from the country over , to be getting its feet upon the ground. However the movements we have touched on might arise , one feature has been unchanging ; the sense of need , in the utter failure of existing organizations for the strong requirement of the times. Never has that failure been more ghastly than at this day. Never have all the tendencies to evil been so organized , those to good so scat tered. From both alike we must react ; the spring toward the new stand must always be a kick toward the old one. The Work of Cleveland Not Done. There is no need of extravagant decla mation ; the evils are quite grave enough in their actual nature to ask no other statement than as they are. It may be that the coinage danger in its more imminent guise is a thing of the past. No doubt imperialism , in the literal sense that some would seem to put it , as if Mr. McKinley or another would invest himself with powers destructive to free institutions , is an empty spectre. Possibly our Civil Service may have reached in some degree a firm basis of law and practice. But a great deal yet needs , and very urgently needs , to be established in soundness of idea and