The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-07-25
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The TWo Tlekets Compared.

Amongst all the estimates of the two
tickets now before the country. we
have found nothing nearer the mark
than the following, which we copy
from Frank Leslie's Ne,0 YORK Weekly
which is not distinctively political
paper:
On one side we have the foremost
General of the age, and to whom, per-
haps, more than any one else, the
country owes its first debt ofgratitude,
and who, If he has had little experience
in craftsmanship, has nevertheless
shown, when occasion has offered
some of its highest qualities. He is
supported on the ticket which he heads
by man of great legislative expert
ence, OF unblemished character, and
who is thoroughly familiar with pub
lie affairs. We need not say we refer
to General Grant and Speaker Colfax.
The Democratic party, after an ami
mated struggle, has nominated for Its
standard bearers Ex-Governor aoratio
Seymour and General Frank Blair.
The first is man of fair average abili-
ties, of thoroughly respectable private
character, and of line that has given
us number of very worthy, II not
very distinguished, public men. lie
has no experience in public affairs out
side of his own State, in which he once
rose to the rank ofGovernor. This was
during the war, and he used his POSI-
ton to thwart and embarrass, rather
than aid the General Government, and
was only restrained from active SYM
pathy with the rebellion by n prudent
regard for the public temper. He adj
dressed a mob of incendiaries, assas-
sins and thieves in this city as his
'friends," and proposed that the
breach between the South and the ma
ton should be healed by an acceptance,
by the whole country, of the Constitu-
| tion of the so.called Confederate States.
He has never uttered a noble sentiment
that any body remembers; never origi-
mated measure of public benefcence
or utility, and owes whatever position
he has reached entirely to the intrigues
and mapipulattons OF party. He has
no traits of character to inspire attach
ment or enthusiasm, and has no claim
whatever on the gratitude of his coun-
trymen. His nomination against a
man like Grant is piece of presump-
ton unparalleled in the history of pol
tiles.
General Frank Blair belongs to no
torious family ofplace-hunters and I'M
appeasable office-seekers, who, in their
career, have been "everything by turns,
and nothing long" He has had some
service in Congress, where he was a
fierce Republican, and did some fair
service in the field during the war. The
expulsion of his brother from the Cabi-
net of President Lincoln, and his con-
sequent withdrawal from his former
political associations, carried the Gene
raj in the same direction, and tor some
| morose and querulous "outsider," be-
longing to no party, and sought by
none. His principal, II not sole claim
on the Democratic Convention, seems
to have been a letter, published on the
eve of its assembling, full of the most
revolutionary and reasonable seti-
| ments and suggestions-propos in
fact, to overturn the existing order of
things by force of arms, invade the
capital, and coerce the Senate. We
quote the extraordinary and infamous
document in full inanother column, as
the most conclusive evidence of the
unfitness of General Blair for any po-
sition of public trust or responsibility.
In the whole of our history we have
never had two nominations SO utterly in
contrast as those now presented by the
respective parties; none between which
it was less difficult to choose. Itwould
be ludicrous If it were not audacious
to ask n man TO deliberate between the
great soldier and the small politician,
and wholly Insulting to ask him to
consider between small General, the
open advocate of dictatorship and
calm and enlightened statesman like
Colfax!
We need not repeat that we would
have been glad to see the Democratic
party reorganiZe on broad and
healthy plan, and become an active
and vigorous organization, in harmony
with the spirit and necessities OF the
times. We thought, as did many thou
sands like us, that the time had come
for that reorganization, under the lead
ership of man who deservedly shares
with Gen. Grant the first place in the
national esteem. We knew that his
acceptance by the Democracy would in
volve a surrender of many of
their prejudices and complete
cutting loose from dead issues; bat we
| believed there was wisdom enough in
the party to see that such sacrifice
must sooner or later be made, and that
it would be made as an alternative to
defeat and disintegration. Even after
an obnoxious platform had been adopt
| ed we had hoped that, with MIR. Chase
| to interpret 1t in practice, it would be
harmless. But neither sense or expo
diency prevailed in the Convention. II
never rose to the dignity of the crisis.
Its elaboration were only series OF
tricks and plots. and paltry combine
lions, in which the party strumpets Of
New York were the leaders and pro-
moters, We have the result in The
shape of the weakest nominations thai
| i'm becility, narrowness, and utter lack
of the appreciation of the exigencies o
the times could devise or secure. i
leaves to all men who have the glory
honor, and prosperity of the country al
heart no alternative but to throw thu
whole weight of their influence in the
scale for Grant and Colfax.