The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-06
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GoYernor seymour.


retirement by the cordial good wishes and
ltFectionate admiration of the great Demo
cratic party that selected him for the post oil
tonor in the memorable canvass which. has
ust closed. IL is great misfortune TO the
country that bis preGminent abilities should
not be exerted for the public advantage in
she first Office of the Government but to
him personally the exemption brings sense
of relief. The Presidency, with adverse
Congress TO thwart him, would have been
cramped and fettered position, full OF em-
barrasem ment and annoyance. He could nave
carried ont no enlarged policy of his own.
Instead of an engine to move the train, he
Iyould have been merely brake upon the
wheels to prevent ito swift descent down the
deolivity of ruin. Before the four years shall
have ended the country will repent in sack
cloth that he was not chosen President. Bat
The only regret felt by himself is that the
nation must suffer the further consequences of
a policy conceived in fanaticism and brought
forth in malignity; policy which has arrayed
section az anst section and race against race,
when the common interest requires the reno
val of distrust and the healing OF wounds that
have been too long kept open.
When the time shall come for calm review
of the CANVASS, the party will be constrained
10 acknowledge that Governor Seymour has
shown himself the wisest and most sagacious
of all our leaders. We impute no blame to
those who were more impetuOus and less far
seeing. The fagrant misrule of the Repub-
licans provoked and justified vehement in
dignation. Governor Seymour shared this
feeling; but his clear and solid judgment
made a true estimate of obstacles. 1t was
plain that the Senate would be Republican
for the next four years. 1t was therefore idle
TO load the canvass with any issues which
would merely provoke that body into
an attitude of resistance. The greenback
question was an issue of that character; and
Governor Seymour did his utmost, in speeches
made before the Convention met, to prevent
the party from committing itself to an i'm
practicable project. To pay the five-twenty
bonds in green backs would require legislation
by Congress. There could be no such legisla-
tion for the ensuing four years without the
assent of Republican Senate. But before
the four years expire, we ought to be so near
TO specie pay ments as to render the question
of no practical consequence. If the question
had not been made a party one, num-
ber of Republican Senators were ready,
on financial grounds, to adopt the theory
against which they are now fully committed.
If this issue had been kept out of politics, the
bond holding interest would have stood neu-
tral instead of spending large sums of money
to defeat the Democratic party. II not in
principle, at least as point of party strategy,
all must now be convinced that Governor Sey-
mour was right, and that the Convention erred
in overrulDg his judgment. Had the able
and popular states man who represented the
have lost every Northern State, as we have
lost his own, by heavy majorities. The we'll
known opinions of Governor Seymour have
saved us from such a calamity.
Another point in which Governor Seymour
exhibited consummate Judgment as a states
man and party leader was his wish to pitch
the canvass in moderate key. The same
Inevitable fact of an opposition Senate con-
fronted him here as on the other question. 1t
was not expedient to bring into the canvass of
1868 things that caunot be accomplished, ii at
all, until after 1872 Sufficient unto the day
is the burden thereof. The people might easily
have been now educated up to all that is now
practicable, and the education would naturally
have gone on and kept pace with the opening
possibilities of reform. 1t is lawful to learn OF
our enemies. The Republicans have succeeded
in carrying SO many extreme measures by
always protesting less in the elections than
they have undertaken afterwards. You cannot
put your train in full speed at the very in
stant of starting. Governor Seymour formed
correct estimate of the conditions of success;
but some other leaders, equally honest and
patriotic, had not reached 80 enlarged a view
of the situation.
One mistake we think Governor Seymour
made, and grave one. 1t was not for the
interest of the party that he should have de-
cllned, so long and SO persistently, to permit
his name to be used as a candidate. He did
right to yield at last; we do not see how he
refusals were unfortunate. If he had allowed
his friends to make a canvass for him some
months before the Convention met he would
have prevented the long struggle which finally
came back to the same point OF his nomina-
tion. Had he come into the Convention with
strong body OF delegates pledged TO his sup
port, and widespread expectation that he
was to be the candidate, he would not have
been foiled in his attempt to mould the
platform. The greenback issue got in be-
cause it came supported by strong candidate
and formidable force of active delegates.
Mr. eynour's views came inscribed on the
banner of no candidate and supported by no
powerful combination. The opposition to Mr..
Pendletop, though intense, had neither unity,
organization, nor leader If Governor Sey-
mour had come into the field early, he would
have been nominated on the second or third
ballot, if not on the first; the platform would
have embodied his views; the candidate for
Vice-PIesident would not have been selected
by al nexhausted, impatient Convention, which,
in its hurry to adjourn, had ceased to be a
aeliberative body.
The suggestion of Chief Justice Chsse's
name in connection with the Democratic
nomination was every way unfortunate, and
did the party great mischief. 1t prevented
practical views like those held by Governor
Seymour, and advocated in the month of June
In the World, from gaining fair hearing in
the party. AS soon as we began to advo-
cate such views with some zeal, it was inferred
that we were squirting at the nomination OF
Chase People sometimes read their OWL
preooncepuOns into newspaper articles, as
seots hnd their own invented tenets in the