The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-15
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.
EDITORIAL OPINIONS OF THE LEADING JOURNALS
UPON CURRENT ToPIcs--coMPILED RvRRI
DAY FOR THE EVENING TELEGRAPH.
General Grants Popularity and How He
was Nominated.
From the ~. Y. Herald.

WIS NOfllHhttus
From Gte ~ y Herald.
Since the nomination Of General Grant as
the Republican standard bearer, the Demo
cratic journals and stumpers, to great ex-
tent, have been laboriDg to create the impress
sion that he is not popular candidate; that
he is cold and austere man, whs has no.
thing OF the elements of personal popularity
about him; that he possesses neither the civil
experience nor the qualities of craftsmanship
necessary for the Presidency; that as a mill
tary leader his record is that OF butcher and
blunderer; that his success against the armies
of the Rebellion may be credited to his over
whelming forces, the exhaustion of Rebellion,
and the chapter of accidents, and, worse than
all, that he has no policy of his own, but is
voiceless automaton, subject to be moved and
managed by the radical powers behind the
scenes. Under all these drawbacks his politi-
cal adversaries contend that his name and
military fame give no strength to the Republi-
can party, but that against Seymour he stands
somewhat in the relation of General Scott to
poor Pierce in 1852.
Now, we think that to establish the popu-
larity Of General Grant it is only necessary to
recite the popular movements and influences
which brought about his unanimous nomina-
tion on the first ballot in the Chicago Conven-
ton. AT this time last year he was not by any
means favorite with the Republican mana
gers and leaders. They, Greeley and all, dis
trusted him and leaned decidedly towards
Chief Justice Chase. In fact in the last Octo-
ber election in Ohio, the Republican managers
made their fight upon the merits of Chase and
his negro suffrage policy, and Mr.. Chase him
self, as if his political fortunes depended upon
the result, took an active hand in that canvass
The result was the defeat of universal negro
suffrage in Ohio by very decisive majority,
Democratic Legislature, and a narrow escape
OF the Republican Governor. So much for
Ohio. In the last November State canvass in
New York Governor Fenton, Greeley, Spencer,
and others of the radical clique of managers
undertook a little more emphatically than it
was done in Ohio to make the election test
Of the availability of Mr.. Chase as the pre-
ordained Republican candidate for the next
Presidency, and the result was overwhelm-
iDgly against him. The conservative Grant
Republicans largely contributed to this result
and lager beer did the rest.
All this time the radical leaders, managers
and newspapers, labored zealOusly against the
Republican organs and movements in favor
OF Grant. Their reasons for this course-very
strong as party reasons-were, they said, that
Grant had not shown his hand; that his posi-
ton on the great party issues of the day was
very uncertain; that OF his anteoedents as a
politician little or nothing was known, and
that in accepting the position of Secretary
of War ad interim from Andrew Johnson, espe-
olally when 1t involved the displacement OF
stanton, the General placed himself to some
extent on the side of Johnson and the De-
mocracy. Nor was this construction of
this incident limited to the radicals;
for the Democracy were SO well pleased
with 1t that in General Grant they began
to think they would have the very man they
were searching for-the man required to
beat the radicals with Chase as their candi-
date. Nor was this discussion OF the chances
and probabilities of the Presidential fight
brought to an end till about the 22d of Febru-
ary last. Meantime, upon the heels of the
Pennsylvania and Ohio elections, and more
actively after the New York election, with it's
forty-seven thousand Democratic majority,
spontaneous outbreaks of the Republican rank
and file, here, there, and everywhere, in favor
of Grant began to be the order of the day.
Thus the popular tide had already set in very
strongly in this direction when an event oc-
Cured at Washington which instantly settled
all doubts upon the subject in favor of Grant
The event we refer to was the surrender of
the War Department by General Grant back
again to Secretary Stanton with the refusal of
the Senate to concur in the suspension by the
President. From this event, and the corre-
spondence between Mr. Johnson and General
Grant resulting from it, the stone which the
radical builders had rejected was made at once
the head OF the corner. In defining his posi-
tion on this business Grant had done It so
efeotually that Immediately he became the
favorite of the radical leaders against all
comer5, and Immediately all the batteries of
the administration and the Democratic party
were turned against him. Had Grant preferred
1T he could just as easily have made himself
the anolnted champion of the administration
and the Democracy, SO manifest on all sides
was his strength among the people.
This change Of base on the part of the Re-
publican leaders, following in the wake of the
masses of the party, settled the question for
the Chicago Convention, and resulted, too, in
change OF base on the part of the Chief JUS
tioe. This was developed on the impeachment
trial, and soon after the Presidents aoquittal
Mr.. Chase, as the defender OF the Constitution,
began to loom up as the most available man
for the administration, the Democratic party,
and the conservative Republicans. But this
immense stride forward was too long for the
short legs OF the Bourbonized managers of the
National Tammany Convention, aud SO we
have Seymour, another poor Pierce, against
Grant, who, in quieter and more amiable
way is another General Jackson, and man of
far more than Jackson's claims to the oar.
tiality and confidence of the people. They
know it, and from the first test election on his
merits in New Hampshire last spring down to
this day they have expressed their confidence
IN this quiet, sensible, COOL and practical man
In voice which cannot be misunderstood
And 30, from all the signs and facts before us,
1t Will be to the end of the battle; for the
masses OF the people, even against the radical
Leaders, nave an abiding faith in the sound
conservatism of General Grant.
.|..f
The War Question in Europe.
From The ~. Y. Tribune
disarmament of Prussia, as announced by
CAhla daanatcb in our iaaua of Satu.da,