Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-06-18
SALMON y. CHASE.

The Assistant Editor of the APPEAL
expressed his opinion yesterday in regard
TO the man whose name is at the head
Of this article. We propose now to ex
press those Of the Elitor-in-Chief, which
we had concluded for the present not t.
do.
We agree with our neighbOr, the AUd,
ldHche, that the nomination Of Chic.
Justice Chase, as the candidate Of the
Democratic party for the Presidency, is
one not fit to be made.
The Democratic party owes its vitality
TO its principles. They are its hfe-bloOd
and when it sbandons them, or barters
them in the hope Of winning a victory
It will go to pieces, as it will deserve to
do, like q vessel borne by an irresistible
current against lee-shOre. 1t does not
need the warnings Of history te teach US
this lesson; hut if it did, they are to be
found on every page. For parties as for
individuals, honesty is the best policy.
Crooked cOurses are rarely the ways to
permanent prosperity, or even to tenn
porary victory; and if victory could
be gained by accepting Chase as can
didste, it would be a barren victory,
fruitless, or its fruits like the apples Of
the Dead Sea, that turned TO dust and
ashes In the mouth.
1t is the triumph Of the Constitution
and Of principle, that the country now
needs; and not the triumph of q party.
For the Democratic party to make
Chase its candidate, is to pledge
Itself irrevocably to the fatal
principle Of universal suffrage, which
means political corruption and miscege-
nation, and national decentralization.
Chase will not consent to run on any
other platform; ard to accept him is to
accept the burthen Of all his heresies,
and incorporate them in the Democratic
creed. Already the New York World
announces its willingness to accept negro
suffrage as = finality, and the support Of
Chase by the New York Herald means
the same thing.
The Chief Justice presided, with dig
nifty, firmness and impartiality on the
trial of the President, as it was simply
his sworn duty as a magistrate to do,
and that has inclined US to forget his
Rntecedents, and believe him half Con-
servative. But we do not forget his pill
grlmages Southwark, after he became
Chief Justice, to secure the negro vote
for the Radical faction, nor that he then
disgraced the ermine that he wore. The
JscObin faction owes its vitality TO him,
IS much as to any other man in the
United States. II he should be nomi-
mated by the Democratic party, and
elected, he will owe it nOdebt of gratitude;
for he will well know that it selected
him, not out Of any love it bore him, but
% use him and he will be justifiable IN
using it, and then abandoning it, to re-
new his old associations. He could not
be accused of infidelity to his obliga-
tions for he will have contracted none:
nor of abandonment of principle, for he
will have abandoned none.
1t can hardly be expected, we suppose,
that anySSouthern delegate to the Con-
ventioh will assent to the nomination OF
q candidate who is TO be permitted to
dictate negro suffrage as an essential
part of the platform on which he is TO
stand. Victory on such a platform
would be the most fatal Of defeats. To
assent to it would be 30 utter a betrayal
of the people OF the South As at once to
outlaw the man who should so undertake |
to sell his country for meas of pottage. |
five have not learned that to follow |
the ignls fatuus Of expedieney eventually |
leads men, parties and States into the
1uaen Tres Of dishOnour, and gives them
eAlsmitles for a sure inheritance, We
have learned lite from the bitter lessons
,f the pact and the ;Slsf0r'nnes that