The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-08-20
The Democratic Candidate for
the Presidency tainted with in
EaniGV.


the Presidency tainted with in
sanity.
In common with a majority of the Re
publican editors of the country we have
heretofore been inclined to look upon the
protestations of unwillingness on the part
Of Mr.. Seymour to accept the Democratic
nomination for the Presidency as little
better than hypocrisy, and the little scene
enacted on the platform in Tammany Hall
as pre-arranged affair, gotten up for the
amusement of the spectators and the de-
lusion of the public; but, after all, it
appears that his professions were sincere,
and that his well-known wishes were
wholly disregarded by the managers of
the Convention, for reasons which are
already developing themselves to the
public, and which are any thing else than
honorable to the parties concerned. 1t
appears, that there is a taint of insanity
running through the Seymour family, and
that Mr.. Seymour himself has frequently
been threatened with attacks of the kind.'
A few years since, on meeting with some
heavy peeuniary losses, it is stated that
such alarming symptoms were developed
in his case, that it became necessary to
hurry him away from the duties of his
office as Governor to the quiet of the coun-
try, to save him from becoming a raving
maniac. His father, and an elder brother,
both became hopelessly insane, and one
at least of them committed suicide. The
New York Evening Post lately made an
allusion to this matter, and was taken to
task therefor by the Times, but the former
came back to the charge in such manner
as to silence all cavil. The Post says
"But the difficulty is in treating such a
subject with the plainness and tirnness
due to the momentous national interests at
stake, and at the same time with the
delieacy and sympathy due to personal
misfortune. The essential facts = =
are as follows, or, if they vary in the least
from these, the gentlemen connected with
the World, who are fully informed, will
doubtless make the correction. Mr..
Seymour's near friends have repeatedly
been assured by him, when in former
years his name was mentioned for the
that it was impossible for him
to entertain the thought. The reason given
by him, when reason was demanded,
was that his family were afflicted with a
hereditary insanity, which threatens him
also, and which he can only hope to
escape by avoiding excitement and severe
labor.
was about to meet, certain members of the
New York delegation were anxious to
make arrangements which would secure
the nomination of Mr.. Seymour as a COM
promise candidate, after the failure of Mr..
Pendleton. The plan had made some pro-
gress, when it was resolutely stopped by
Mr.. Seymour himself. With candor and
which are highly creditable to
him as a man, he named to his friends the
true reason why he felt bound in honor
to decline the nomination.
> . There can be no question that Mr..
Seymour in perfect sincerity maintained
and avowed his determination not to be a
up to the very hour of his nom
ination. Does any man believe that, if he
had been a party to a cunning scheme for
springing his name upon the Convention,
he would, at the moment of its success,
have publicly declared that honor forbade
him to accept, that his nomination would
imperil his party and himself and ended
bV those significant last words spoken by
him to the Convention " Gentlemen, can
not be your candidate? Even if we did
not respect Mr.. Seymour's personal char
aeter far too highly to suppose it possible,
vet his good sense and shrewdness alone
would prevent such humiliation and self
in an aspiring man.
at had, it is said, been arranged between
Mr.. Seymour and his New York friends
that after a few more ballots, when the
names of Hendricks and Hancock should
have wearied the patience of the COnven-
Jon, the Chairman himself should name
Chief Justice Chase as the only man who
could be elected by them and that the
New York delegation should unanimously
second his name, followed at once by all
he States that could be trusted to join the
movement. It was confidently hoped that
he immediate and enthusiastic nomina-
ion of Mr.. Chase might thus be secured.
d" The plot was not kept secret, however;
he Ohio men, provoked either by this
or more directly by the threa-
ening strength of Hendricks on the twen
v-second ballot, resolved upon an i'm
Mediate diversion, and by acting suddenly
md with persistency, forced the nomina-
ion upon Mr.. Seymour. The man of all
,thers most afflicted and disappointed by
his result was not any of the defeated
but the selected one. He still
insisted upon his right and his duty to de-
.line; but those around him, dreading the
fleet of such an act upon the now har-
nonious and jealous Convention, were
prepared to prevent it by physical force, if
and succeeded in convincing Mr..
seymour that it was necessary for the
,arty that he should be their standard
bearer.
&" These facts ought not to be concealed
he Democratic masses themselves ought
@ know exactly what their ticket means -
t means Blair as President. No ordinary
motive could induce the Evening Post to
ouch upon the sacred fears and private
of a respectable citizen but
when the American people are asked to
make that citizen their ruler, his priUGte
ntJnlitjes become public dangerS, the solemn
errors Of his closet become the peril Of the
autioR."