CLEVELAND FOR PRESIDENT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 14

CLEVELAND FOR PRESIDENT.

(From the Boston Pilot.) The man who received on the second ballot, 683 votes oat of a total of 820, in a Democratic Convention, is unquestionably the choice of the party. The wisdom of the choice can only be tested at the polls. We considered it unwise to nominate a new man in direct disregard of a most extraordinary national Democratic opposition. But this has been done ; and we trust that the precipitate action of the Convention has not thrown away the Democratic opportunity. It is too late now for criticism ; but we feel bound to say that the enforcement of the unit rule on the dissatisfied New York delegates compelling nearly one-third of them to vote against their will, was a disgrace to the Democratic party. That it is an old custom of that State may be a palliation, but it is no defence. The praise of the rule by the so-called independent Press, which condemned it in the Republican Convention, proves the moral value of such support. The presence of an impudent clique in the galleries, aided by a well-instructed band, which supplied rapid musical cocktails to the excited delegates, to hurry up " the stampede," was a discredit to an assembly gathered for the most profoundly-important duty which civilized men are called upon to perform. But we opposed the nomination of Cleveland, the candidate ; we shall faithfully and earnestly work for the election of Cleveland, the Democratic standard-bearer. The Democratic principle is the Democratic party ; and this is infinitely greater than the men it selects or rejectß. It involves much more tban the personal likes or dislikes of individuals. Not the interest? of present men alone, but the future of American liberty is bound up with the preservation of the Democratic party. Those who wish to abide by it 3 principles must not follow wandering fires. It is useless to conceal the fact, that hundreds of thousands of Democrats were dissatisfied with the nomination of Cleveland. Bnt the NatioDal Convention sslected this man by an immeuse majority ; and we do not doubt that he will rise equal to the vast responsibility laid upon him. To the dissatisfied ones we say, as we have said to ourselves : Look around, and ccc where you are going if you leave the Democratic fold. Democrats belong to a party oE beliefs, duties, principles. Can they desert it for a party of offices, men and privileges ? Looked at with ethical or practical eyes, the exchange would be deplorable folly. The Republican party is tottering on its last legs ; its work is done ; it has nothing but the spoils to live for. The most selfish but the clearest-sighted of its members are flying from it, as rats desert a sinking ship. Their " moral objections " to Blame are pretense and excuse for the desertion : the same men accepted Hayes and Garfield, the one coated with a false title and the other stained with a personal history quite as dark as Blainc's. To Irish- Americ aus in particular we gay : What is the record of the Republican party in relation to you for the past twenty years 1 What American citizen of Irish birth has it protected abroad ? What shameful outrages on American citizenship has it not allowed when England was the perpetrator and citizens of Irish extraction the victims? Not one Republican hand has been moved to redress these astonishing evils, except President Arthurs ; and he had to whisper and smile bis objections, because he represented the Republican party. Mr. Blame's voice, during all those years, and when he sat in the Cabinet as Secretary of State, would have been powerful to correct ; but it was never raised — not once. We say to Mr. Blame now that had he b2en a defender of the rights of naturalized citizens when tho3e citizens were flung into foreign prisons, untried aud uncharged, the Pilot would support him to-day, and a million Americans of the Irish race would vote for him in November. But he did not do it, and his pretensions of fair play and friendship now arc sheer humbug. Ue and bis party have a lesson to learn from all this : and so has the Democratic party. The advantage of the latter is that its lesson lies in its coming opportunities. One-third of the American people belong to the Irish race. They have a malignant and powerful enemy, always seeking to diatroy their mother-country, which it has invaded, gagged and robbed ; and also seeking, in order to justify and protect itself, to destroy the good name and influence of Irishmen and their kindred in this country. Every citizen has a vote as every savage has a knife— to protect himself and his interests. The Irish-American who would trust the Republican party with his vote, after those twenty years of experience, would be as foolish as the Indian who has trusted its rascally agents on the reservations. We do not believe in sudlen conversions under the suction of necessity. We liked Blame's " foreign policy ": it had an American ring to it that was good to hear amid tba jabber of the dudes who are ashamed to be American. But Mr Blame, powerful and brilliant as he is, is not the Republican party ; and we do not believe that, when in power, he would be allowed by his party, even if he bad the will himself, to have any policy but one in keeping with its own narrowness and selfishness*. Irish- Americans would take an absurd step in abandoning the Democratic party before they tried it/and just as it is coming into power. Let them wait four years,i. and see. Mr. Blame can afford to wait, too. There will be some hundreds of thousands more IrishAmericans to vote in 1888 than there are now. And we shall advise them to vote then, as we ndvis^ now, for whatever party they believe in and against whatever party has earned their opposition, no matter who may be the candidates.