The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-03-28
DAILY PRESS,
PORTLAND.
Saturday Morning, March 29, 1858.
A sspOnfapeous Combustion Cnndi.
Iate.O

dafe.o
When John Brown was in jail and Henry
A. Wise was getting ready the rope whcreon
the old hero was TO swing off at the same
time into the air and into immortality,
"Dave" Barker wrote stirring little poem,
the refrain of which was, "Stand firm, John
Brown" If ''Dave7 is still on tolerably good
terms with the Muses-and everybody knows
he is-he ought to send the same sort OF
warning to the gentleman who presides over
the Court of Impeachment, and is variousy
known as "Mr. Chief Justice and "Mr. Pres
ident."
Temptation has assailed the latter gentle
man in form that our American statesmen
have rarely been able to resist. The sugges-
ton that he should become the Democratic
candidate for:the Presidency has passed from
the stage of mere Washington gossip, and is
becoming a veritabIe feature of the Democrat
ic preliminary policy. The Washington Con-
stitutiOnal Union and the Hartford Times,
two representative Democratic papers, the
notorious Tom. Florence having control of
bUC utsb, nave lutiI HHIluSneEb "
accept Mr.. Chase for candidate The New
York Atlas, another rank Copperhead paper.
goes further, and indicates precisely what
Mr.. Chase win be required to do as condi-
ton precedent to receiving the nomination at
New York on the 4th of July, though it says,
indeed, that in case those conditions are COM
Piled with, the holding of national conyen-
tiop will be mere matter of form, and the
Chief Justice will become ga candidate by a
species of spontaneous combustion"
The Chief Justice, as presiding officer of
the Senate during the impeachment trial, is
expected to become "the champion" of the
executive and judicial departments of the
governments against the encroachments of
Congress; "to assume a firm and digDlfied
attitude" and to ''prevent the consummation
of the impeachment outrage"
No doubt Chief Justice Chase has had as
pirations to become a candidate for the Pres
idency in the ol1-fashioned way, but it NAV
be fairly questioned if he would quite like to
avail himself of spontaneous combustion. as
means OF transit from the Supreme Court
room to the White House. The only good
ground for suppcsing that he is susceptible to
such influences as are being tried upon him
is the tone of the Cincinnati Gazette, a paper
spoken of, we know not by what authority,
as his home organ. That sheet declares that
it is authorized to say that the Chief Justice
is not party to the intrigues of the politi.
clans who are using his name, but that he
would probably accept the Democratic nomi-
nation, If be were allowed to stand on his
own platform, though he (Chase) has never
said so. Now these conditions are promptly
accepted by the article in the Atlas to which
we have already referred. The editor says
that sit is idle to deny, however distasteful it
may be, that as things stand now, the pros
poets of the election of Democratic candi-
date at the next November election are not
very brilliant" Therefore he is willing tacit-
ly to concede to Dir. Chase adherence to his
views on reconstruction, negro suffrage and
the currency, and to place him on platform
consisting of single plank-"the Constitu-
ton as interpreted by the Supreme Court"
This it acknowledges to be the sole point of
agreement between the Democratic party and
Chief Justice Chase, and since the party is
unable to succeed in popular election by ad-
herring to its own dogmas OF rebel supremacy
and greenbacks, it gives them up with all the
collateral heresies connected with them and
surrenders Internationally to the favorite Of
the most rabid aboiitionists.
Though the suggestion of these things in
dicates the greatest Generalization in the
Democratic ranks and the profoundest dis.
trust of their ability to succeed in the COM
ing election, yet we do not believe they
would make so great sacrifices for the sake of
fruitless victory. Before eevating Chase to
the Presidency, if it were possible for them to
do so, they would at least require pledges that
the patronage of the government should be
| distributed solely for their benefit, and those
| pledges they know that he certainly never
| will give. There remains, then, but one ex-
PLANTATION OF the political phenomenon which
| appears in the association of Mr.. Chase's
name with the Democracy. The Democrats
wish to lure him to his ruin, as they have
President Johnson. In case they find him
weak enough to turn his back on his whole
past life, they will desert him with the same
heartlessness, in his hour of trial, as the,
have shown in their repudiation of the pres
ent occupant of the White House.