The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-04-06

kTalk with a Democratic Conyressman.s
Nothing, not even the following communi-
cation of George A. Townsend to the CleYe-
land Leader, can convey an exaggerated idea
of the straits to which the Democratic party
;s driven for a Presidential candidate:
since the New Hampshire election the vic
torious notes of the Democracy have been
nitched upon lower key. I seldom see Re
publican who has doubt that Grant VIII De
elected / seldom see Democrat on the con-
tary, without doubt that bis party can
uav of nutting it is this: "The country is ru
ned there's no liberty here; Missionaries con-
troll everything the people are as mad as
their leaders; we'll have monarchy within
four yearsw That means that he believes the
Democracy have no hope of the Presidential
I said to leading Democratic Congress
man Yesterday:
who will be your candidate, any way?"
"Well," he said, johnson, l suppose,
if he is not convicted and made ineli-
gible." rsalsf f-.i... .o ~ I.a-e5. b..
"But the World and other of your party
newspapers refuse TO accept him. -i ~ i.-i-
"The World" he said, "has no influence with
the Democratic party. 1t will never express a
choice until the convention has nominated,
and then it " i'll support any nominee, Pendle-
ton or anybody. All these papers are on the
fence, afraid to decide in any mans favor for
fear of losing the spoils if he is unsuccessful.
The whole hope of the Democracy is in the
future mistakes of the Republicans, or in find
ing some sagaciouS manager, like Dean Rich
mond, who can read the public mind and
choose man and platform strong and without
fault"
as there anybody like the Dean above
ground nowW -. isal % dl rI sai .ud
"Nobody! That party of fellows that made
the National Committee had just sagacity
enough the other day to decide for nobody, be-
cause, in fact, they had NOBODY to decide for.
They fixed New York for the place OF the con-
vention, hoping for something to turn up" '
"Does New York shelve Pendleton?" @
81 think it does. Not that the party would
not take him up readily, if we could win with
him. But we never could win with Pendle
tons platform. We couldn't collect ten thou
sand dollars in America, out of Ohio, to run
him with, on his Reputation principles"
"What OF SEYMOUR" all u m3a mo
Seymour is the Lest man we have, in mind
discretion and force. But he put his foot in
| at the New York riots. If he could canvass
| the country in his strong, manly way, he
| could gain us some strength. But then, we
broke down in the personal canvass even Of
| Douglas $50 EoasIGG 15i4gls on -a.iduQ
| 81 see that the New York Sun suggests
| Chase"
| "The suggestion is good, !" he said, 'sbut there
| is no authority for it. The Sun only repre-
| sents the small enthusiastic body of men
| around the Chief Justice who will have him
President anyhow, 1T they can. he WOULDN'T
| run with us; if he did, we couldn't con-
| troll him after electing him. OF course, we
could bring the old masses of our party to sup
| port anybody against a Republican. We could
poll as big vote for Chase as for Pendleton
| or Seymour. That isn't enough. We must
| have a man who will divide the Republican
| strength" rszi .rfif.sals g-,i y i-g .-t'-
| 'And who will that be?"
| "Well! Judge Davis, of the Supreme Court
| Mr.. Lncolns executor is understood to be
| with us. We can use him as if he was the
| ghost of Lincoln, opposing extreme radical
| ism. We have Lincoln already on record as
| an opponent to Ben Wade. By George! we'll
| put his long jaws on our lanterns and elect
him again by proxy" casa.
wont this be somewhat inconsistent as a
piece of history?" ,.f etff a. ,ss}.i,., s+-o. 4.
| "We must win!" said my informant; "this
| time is all the time for u.s. But for the cleo
| tons last fall we shouldn't have cog of ma
| chinery to work with. Our party newspapers,
| never well sustained, were nearly extinct for
| want of public support. When rebels like
| Longstreet and jeff. Thompson were going
| back on u.s. what could have been our status? ?
| All that is left to us now is the Supreme
| Court and the instability of the public mind"
| I was surprised at my informant's frank
| ness till 1 afterwards heard that he considered
me a Democrat, because, some years ago, 1
wrote news for a Democratic paper. might
! have told him, indeed, that all the editors of
Democratic papers are Republicans.