The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-09-16
The Maine EIectiOa--The Current o,
Thought.

The blaine EIection-The current Of
Thought.
Although the democrats could scarcely have
hoped to carry Maine, they labored hard for
the moral effect of u reduction in the repub-
lcan majority; but the decision is so posi-
lively against them that they must be very
wilfuly blind if they can find any comfort in
it. Maine indicates that popular instinct has
taken the full measure of the democracy.
Democratic principles and purposes have been
judged, not by the guarded phrases of careful
party writers, nor by the nice negations OF
the party platform, but by such utterances as
that spontaneous and thoroughly genuine out
burst with which Wade Hampton gloried on
his return from the nominating convention to
his home in South Carolina. Such utterances
were felt to be sincere by the people who
| jealousy watched every act of the returning
| Southerners denial only deepened their
effect by keeping attention fixed upon them,
and the nation has determined that Seymour
is only put in the front of the party as a dis
guise and cover to men who hold resolutey
and desperately to the views of Hampton,
Cobb and Toombs.
The trick that made Seymour the candidate
of the Fourth of July Convention was poor
piece of dexterity, for it destroyed the only
chance his party had to carry the country. At
the commencement of this canvass there were
two courses open to the democrats. There was
o positive popular distrust of the radical party
and q clear desire on the part Of the people to
| go little nearer to the democracy, il the
democracy would only come little nearer to
the people-that is, If it would abandon its
hostility to what had been done by the people
in the war and go with them in the future
The visible signs by which the democrats
might indicate their disposition to do this were
even recognized by every one. First, they
had to make the fourteenth amendment the
main point in their platform: and next. to
nominate as their candidate for President
man in whom the people had confidence as one
! who had believed in the war; Had they
| accepted this course, and thus by sublime
| piece of tact put behind them the issues of the
war--those towers of strength for the party
that was on the right side-they might have
fought the campaign out to good result for
| they would have had a clear field to thunder
on the issue of the party corruption. With
| the war issues put aside the bunders Of radi-
calsm and its corruptions, that had awakened
whemed il.
| The other course open to the democracy was
to be consistent-we might say to be honest, if
such word as honesty had any application to
the case-to stick to its text-that old formula
| OF 1864, which declared the war to be a failure
and gigantic injustice. BY taking this course
the democracy would commit itself to reac-
tionary policy, and while it would command
the intense admiration of its extreme admirers
would rally all its force around its strongest
idea, in democratic sense; it would drive
into the arms of the republicans all men whose
heads were clear as to our recent history. II
was put on this course by the extreme men
in the Convention who maneayered the nomi-
nation of Seymour and who represented the
element that had opposed the government
during the war. Bullied or cheated into CON-
piance by these men, the democracy may now
| see III the NerulCl iIOnu Mdiiic tliat tne people
look upon il as merely fighting the lost cause
over again, and are as rcsolutely determined
that il shall not win as they were when the
arena Of that cause was the field Of battle.
The FRENCH IN THE PACIFIC. Cur ycster-
days news shows how active is the policy
of France in the Pacific. Napoleon does
not content himself with merely orna-
menting Paris. His eye is ever open to the
interests OF France abroad as well as to The
interests of the French at home or in Europe.
He sees the immense Importance of the Pacific
in the future of the worlds commerce, and IS
doing his best to secure for France fat
amount of chances. England is even more
active than France. The thousand islands in
the South Pacific, all Of them rich in agricui-
tural and mineral wealth, are too valuable not
TO be cared for by the two most advanced o
European nations. The wonder is not thai
they are, but that the United States authori-
ties arc 80 careless about what is maniiestly
their own interest We cannot be too active
now. Indifference or carelessness will be the
source Of trouble in times TO come.
| -------------
WHAT DOES Mr.. THORNTON WANTING
are informed that the British Minister, Mr.
Thornton, has had another interview with the
President. What is Mr.. Thornton looking
after9 Is it Canadian reciprocity, or the Fe
i mans on the border, or an extension of tim,