Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1868-10-02
Scynorar's Sstatcsman-
ship.

| one. lhlS appiieS eihIhatlcaliy u
the case of Seymour. 1t means
something more than ability, to ell.
terrain Democratic meeting or @
mob with eloquent speeches, and
this, is about the sum total of Sey.
mours craftsmanship. He has held
Office, but this does not prove him q
statesman. He was Governor Of
New York, but he evinced no origin
ality of purpose or measures, except
the singular plan of organizing skele'
ton regiments, into which enlisted
men of the volunteer army, were
mustered as officers, and then mus
tered out with the skeleton regi.
ments, in order to deprive the nation
Of their services. He has never held
a national position. His statesman
ship, as it is called, has been confin-
ed to New York, yet he failed to de-
wise a single measure by which the
enormous debt of that state might be
reduced.
He put forth no plan by which the
extensive canal swindling should or
could be stopped. The only means
of getting at the question, whether
he has the ability of a statesman, or
the stuff from which a statesman
may be made, is through his speech
es delivered to masses of men who
have praised him for his panderings
to their passions and violence.
His views of finance, one of the pet
themes of the Democracy, are singu-
larly ut war with those Of the great
mass who praise him for his genius
and craftsmanship. If they measure
his ability by his views on Recon
struction, it affords no indication OF
his craftsmanship, because he only
echoes the arguments and opinions
entertained by the whole body OF
pot-house politicians who shift the
scenery of the Democratic party.
His hands have never been brown
ed and blistered by rugged toll. He
has eaten at the tables of the rich
and fawned upon and flattered the
great. He has been the favored child
OF fortune and received the legacy oil
q classical education. He has lived
i'm circles far above the mob of his
party, whose sufrrages he has condo.
scended to decline and accept. He
has managed, by his aristOcratic
bearing, to invest himself with the
character of a statesman, and catered
to the mob just enough TO show them
that whilst he had judgment to re.
fuse to put his hands to their infam-
Gus car, he could still consent to be
drawn along by the hands of men
who were made to be yoked to the
wheels of power and ambition.
Seymour has ambition but not
craftsmanship.
He pledged his honor that he VOID
not accept the nomination, and yet,
declining with seeming modesty, we
see this statesman receiving from the
hands of the Ohio exile, the crown
he thrice refused, whilst PendletDn
who had been successfully tried, ac-
cording to the copperhead standard,
was slaughtered in the house, and by
the hands of his friends.
Either the record or Evolutionary
evidence of Seymour's statesman
ship is in existence, and we call up
on Democratic orators and editors to
produce it, for the fame of their lead
er is in jeopardy by reason of the
skeptieism of ignorant Republicans.
If it is in the archives of New
York, give Hoffman and his hire
lings the contract of enlightening
the "Jay hawkers" Of Iowa, for we
have learned the fame of Grant in
his military successes, which have
wonto the Union, the soil of the
South, and sent in dismay and defeat
the ardent friends of the newly bap-
tized leader of Democracy.
Seymour is not statesman, hut a
demagogue of the polished school,
His artful sophistry, his mobbish co,
quetries and his reasonable sarcasm
crowned him i'm the Tammany wig
wan, and invested him with the
Craftsmanship of all the clans that
have coveted power by "rule or ruin. j"
We would not detract from the fair
fame of the Democratic leader, if he
had any nor do we wish to diminish
the furnished lustre of his glory as
the first of demagogues. But whilst
we vie with the best of Democrats i'm
assisting him to the pedestal of in
fanny he has himself raised, we can
not forget that true fame, laudable
ambition, unfading glory and endur-
ing memory in the hearts of the peo-
pie, rests upon wise, sublime, patri-
otto and useful achievements, such
as those of Gen. Grant, who, in all
the characteristics of greatness and
natural ability, is the an,ithesis of
Seymour the demagogue-