The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-04-03


ne Is northern man in education and
sympathies, as wen as bv birth In tbe last
election before the war be 1vorlyad IN save
the Union Though the Doue,as marty. But
when the first great reasonable act of the
Democratic party glared at him. he was
astounded, convicted and converted, and L
9eheve him sincere at the time regardless of
le9ef9l occupation. Remembering manyvery
Pstipdole pa illustrations OF the orthodox theory
S',I y, lIeseheiat!on, am compelled to believe in
49, =; L " ,tIIhS as conversion, just as l believe
IN Total depravity when remember Chicago.
Eq9aiy do L believe in political regeneration, /,
anu tnat even DemoCrat-wboSe law and
go5pel was taught in my youthful days to
believe was merely TO lick the wbigs and
steal good hOrSes.-is a subject for political
saving grace. In times of violent political
excitements, like we have gone through, such
radical changes in mems minds are to be ex-
pected. Test oaths ought to recognize the
iact, and not require a clean record, and not
require clean recoIe, any more than would
cnufch at a converted man. Hence, so be-
lieVing, when satisfied by mans works that
ne Is true 10 MS new professions, | don't be-
lieYe in referring to the past by Way of taunt.
know a good Presbyterian minister that. up
tc the second quarter OF his college life, used
to swear like the army in Flanders, and break
about all the commands in the decaogue. 1t
would be mean, however, to taunt him of it,
every time he exhorted the brethren to great
er diligence. In the case of Drake, it is
equally ungracious, for he hath this ofense
ana nothing more. Had he shown the
CioVen loot OF Democracy, as the President
mas been doing all the time, it would be
quite advisable to recall such antecedents.
But Drake has eVinced throughout radical
meIamoIpnOsiS in his political cause. The
democrats love Sumner much the better OF
the two. Hence, it in his enthusiasm he
tails to defer to everybody else in the Repub-
lican party, and even lectures the old leaders,
though il would naturally provoke such COM
ment ON his past career and party truthful
ness, 1t IS no ground for the assertion that
'he has killed his influence forever" that he
has reached the end OF his tether as public
man" as SMACK" says. Like all new men
IN Congress he has to go through the ordeal
OF the correspondents, who graduate the
right of the State to be heard in the ma
tlonal councils, to the time the representa-
tive has served in Washington. For re-
centlyelected senator to talk boldly in the PIES
ence OF Pitt Fessenden, Wilson & Co, is rank
lnpudence; the summary winding up of a
promising public career. | see the new sell
ator from Kentucky is being snubbed in the
same way, and so it ever is with the Wash
in9ton correspondent Mr.. Drake is man
OF no common ability. As legal and pOlit-
lcal WriGel, ne mas no equal IN MISSOURI, ana
few superiors in the West. Trumbull has
better senatorial style, and is no doubt an
ADLER man every way, though during the
war he could not draw a larger crowd.
Matt III. Carpenter of Milwaukee l regard
as the most brilliant lawyer in the West.
he will make the finest appearance at the bar.
His great legal efforts are grand, but his po-
litical speeches do not read so well as brakes.
During the war Drake addressed the largest
audiences, and no speaker was better receiv-
ed. He spoke often and vehemently, and
did an immense deal of hard intellectual
fighting, and few men at Washington deserve
better OF the North. He has earned the right
to talk in the presence of those old New I'm
gland magnates who recline with such ease
and dignity upon an old established constitu-
ency that they had no rough work to do in
organizing. Mr.. Drake labored to make
radical party out OF political chaos, and his
labors with others have enabled him to reap
the honors OF a successful party warfare,
And now, if his manner was little less epin-
ionative and absolute; if he was all things to
all men-a champagne-and-cigar politician,
instead of somewhat rigid Presbyterian
elder-we should expect to see him praised
by all the writers of the capital. But men OF
such personal traits very rarely win gratui-
GUS applause from the Washington CORES
pondent, and they are not apt to court them
Tor the sake of tiattering dispatches.