The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-31
Plainly Answered.

From Brick" PomeroyS ". Y Democrat.
A correspondent, writing from Columbus,
Ohio, asks:-
** "And now few of MS would like to have
your opinion as TO the causes which led TO our
defeat, and would like the same IN print If you
have no objection to thus giving it,"
To our friends we make this reply, believing
it to be correct in fact and position:-
First, we had the strongest man in the
country to contend against in Grant, and
another strong one in Colfax, against whom
the only thing to be said was that he had been
a Know Nothing But as Blair had been
Know Nothing and Republican, the opposi-
tion had US even in that. Grant was strong.
He had succeeded in leading an army to vic
tory. To be sure, his victory was at most
frightful cost, but the people of America have
not yet learned the true difference between
genius and butcher, who had but to lead up
men and see them shot down till the enemy
gave up from exhaustion.
Besides this, Grant had been endorsed and
named for the Office by many Democrats, in
Guiding the chairman of the Democratic Ma
tional Committee and his private mouth
piece. He was and is in sympathy with the
Dondholders, and these people take care Of
their own.
The Democratic campaign was badly man
agcd-the Republican campaign was managed
admirably. They outbrained US. The Demo
Gratis, as general thing, believed one thing,
wished for one thing, and talked another.
They defended rather than attacked The only
gains made by our people were where they at
tackled boldly and persstently.
The holding of the convention in New York
was suicidal. Scores of delegates came here
with hardly money enough to last two days.
The allurements of the city were too strong.
They ran out OF money. This is an expensive
city to stay in-that is, if you would see all
of 1t. The successful managers of that con-
vention wanted gold interest on bonds more
than Democratic victories, and they invested
accordingly.
The action of the Southern delegates hurt
the Democratic cause greatly. They compli-
mented Johnson till they beat Pendleton, a
strong man, identified with the West, whose
present and future interests are with the
South against New England avarice grasping-
ness. They played smart till they beat them
selves. And their leading men, with pardons
and credentials sandwiched, talked too much.
They were better warriors than politicians.
They should have come up from the South
like men of dignity-held their peace-helped
their best friends, the Western men-voted
with their friends from natural interests, and
then gone home and worked for the victory
within reach.
1t was by the Republicans made to appear
to the people that the South was doing all the
managing, no matter what were the real facts
OF the case. The Republicans had more
papers, more political pulpit orators, more
persistent, outrageous liars than we had, and
the majority of witnesses, swearing even to a
known falsehood, generally win. The result
would have been different had the convention
been held in the West, out of the reach of
bondholders' money-if there had been less
talk and more work-it the entire Democratic
party had not been given over to the bond
holders, and to men who originally wanted
Grant, and who intend to go to him yet.
If the delegates had acted solely for the
people, for the States, for the Constitution;
if they had not, to so great an extent, been
willing to sell out to the very interests they
were sent to fight; if brave, bold, determined,
earnest Democrats, who from the first had
been in favor of equal taxation and equality
of States; II the management of the grand
plan of the campaign had not been given so
much to those who so often had sold and be-
trayed the Democracy; if the fight had been
from flank to flank, from right to left by bri-
gades, battalions, and companies-one steady,
continuous, aggressive attacking of cunning,
unscrupulous, and vulnerable opposition-we
should have won the day.
But for all this, we made good fight, and
by 1872 will have learned wisdom sufficient to
win the fight, restore the Democracy to power,
and save the country.