The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-22
Greeley on the Presidential Election.

Greeley on the Presidential Election.
Greeley begins to see the Presidential can
vass in clear light, and sees every reason to
fear the failure of Grant. He says that the
labor that is to insure the triumph of the re-
publican candidates sis yet to be done;" that
six times as many clubs as the Grant men now
have are necessary, and that before it can
expect to win the clubs must ''gather and CLEAN
half million votes from those who are now
Indifferent or hostile" to the republican party.
And all this, he justly reasons, ''implies such
a canvass as has never yet been made in our
country" For those who fancy the election of
Grant and Colfax certain he says $50 far is
this from the fact that they are this hour in peril
of defeat and twill surely be beaten if their
steadfast supporters are not speedily aroused
to general and intense activity" Republicans
shave to poll their very last vote in half the
States-many more than they ever yet pOlled
in the belt of States beginning with Connec-
ticut and extending through New York, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio to Indana-or
Seymour will be next President" He believes
that ''there is danger-grave danger'-that
Grant will not be the next Executive; not that he
doubts of the real supremacy Of the republican
party in point of numbers even, but he fears
that republicans will be apathetic and demo-
Gratis crafty, and of course dishonest--a view
not quite consistent with his other view that
his party needs to win half million votes
gained either from its opponents or from men
indifferent to party.
Greeley, then, begins to feel the coming de-
feat Of General Grant. He has good reason to
be uneasy in view of the possibility. He may
regard this result as in a peculiar degree the
consequence of his own efforts. lie has
directly contributed to bring it about. He
created in the first place and has kept alive
those elements of disafiecton to the republican
party from which alone Grants defeat can
come. He Is the man who has driven the
common sense, the respectable controlling con-
servatism of the country into an attitude of
hostility to the republican party. He is the
real source in his party Of all its extreme ten
dencies-all those desperate efforts to remodel
the nation in accordance with extravagant and
misty theory-those ridiculous vagaries of
dreaming enthusiast who fancies. he is politi-
clan aud statesman. Had republicanism
acted on the impulses of the people at the close
Of the war, had its policy reflected the true
will of the people, how different would have
been our recent history! But II gave way to
that spirit of which Greeley was the head and
front, and the rest came of course. Thence
came all the Niger legislation and all that per-
cg III. Al. A
not have peace If II was not peace with the
niger in the best place. Thence came all the
legislation outside the constitution and the
effort to cast the Executive Office out of our
system of government because the occupant
of that Office did not agree with Greeley in his
view Of his duties. This is the spirit that has
rendered it impossible for the people to act
longer with the republican party; aud though
the nation respects and reveres Grant for his
character and his history, II cannot even for
his sake accept party Of such tendencies and
subject, as its record shows, to such unsafe
influences.
1t il not the first time that Greeley has ap-
peared in the same character. lie had the
same relation to the disastrous defeat of Scott.
He was the leader who inspired in the people
such natural alarm and fear of what might
follow the success OF the wing party. His
cxtravagant agitation of the anti-slavery cx-
element, his fury, his venomous invectives,
his intellectual antics generally, made such a
sentiment against his party that SCOTS heroic
national record was an insufficient assurance
In the same way his extravaganza and folly
have driven from the support Of his party the
vast masses Of the people, and thus he has
prepared the way for the defeat Of his candi-
date. There is one thing that may save
Grant, and this chance for safety comes from q
queer quarter. The copperheads, by the pecu-
liar character of their opposition to the hero Of
the war, may yet insure his election. Their
campaign against him may stimulate great
popular movement In his favor. Popular
gratitude Is capricious and will not sec indig-
mites cast on one whom II ought to favor, even
though II left alone 1t might neglect him.
Jacksons career indicated once the full force
OF this, and Grants may again. The copper
head violation of all decency in its assaults
on the great commander may give him cham
pion In every respectable voter, and II the
people are thus pushed 10 make the contest
turn on the personal merits Of the candidate
we shall see that the popular good will toward
the nations hero is greater even than hs
| popular fear Of the radicals,