The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-03
Ihe Issues Of the Campaisn-Foliy Of the
New York Democracy.

some sharpness the assertion that its party
makes an appeal to the liquor interests for
support in the present election, and says
''The liquor question does not enter into the
contest. The issue is whether we shall pay
the national Indebtedness in gold, where not
specifically so provided, or in the legal cur
rency Of the country in other words, whether
we are willing to pay coin, worth one hundred
and fifty cents on the dollar, in return for
paper money borrowed by us when worth only
forty to fifty cents on the dollar" 1t is an old
truism that doctors will differ, but certainly on
this point our democratic doctors are 80 widely
apart that it is difficult to conceive how they
can be engaged in the treatment of the same
patient. If we take the diagnosis of the case
as presented by the New York faculty
we find it Numerically opposite to that
laid down by the Western practitioner.
there is no thought of paying our bonds, in
Guiding the five-twenties, in anything but gold,
but that the liberty of every man to drink
what he pleases and to trade in liquor as freely
as he trades in dry goods is directly involved
in the success of the democratic candidates.
On this, as on all other great political ques-
tons, our New York politicians show them
selves to be the worst kind of blunderers and
muddleheads, without the ability to extend
their vision beyond the contracted limits of
ward fight or Tammany caucus. They are
not ct to hold candle to the men of the West.
BY giving the party over to the interests of
the bondholders they have lost the sole chance
they possessed of making even decent show
in the approaching election. There is dis
position among the people to resist the further
extortions Of the money lenders and specu-
lators, who have made already hundreds of
millions out Of our unfortunate war; and
while they are in favor of honorably
fulfilling all the nations just obliga-
play on both sides-that no funding bill, no
agents for foreign bondholders and no Manhat-
tan Club parasites Of shoddy aristocracy
shall increase large portion of the national
debt fifty per cent by binding the government
to pay the principal in gold where such con-
diton is not nominated in the bond This senti-
ment, founded upon justice, was the capital
upon which the democratic party might have
advantageously traded in the pending cam
paign; while the liquor question, although of
wholly unavailable to the democracy. Indeed,
it is an element of defeat rather than of sue
cess on the democratic side at the present mo-
ment. In the last State election the Irish and
German population at this end of the State
were thoroughly aroused in opposition to the
absurd and oppressive Metropolitan Excise
law, and upon that issue alone they gave a
majority large enough to carry into Office the
whole democratic State ticket and to Sc
cure o democratic Assembly and Senate
opposed at least to the extreme measures of
radical fanaticism but the democrats, after
they had secured power, betrayed their best
friends and prevented any modification of the
present Metropolitan Excise law, in order that
they might retain its excessive fees, its odious
spy system, its arbitrary arrests and its other
offensive features to trade upon as political
capital in the present election. In this man
ner they FILTERED away their strength with the
whiskey and lager beer interests, and made
themselves in fact responsible for law which
was formerly so heavy burden on the shout
ders of the republican party.
The most striking evidence of the folly Of the
New York democratic leaders in endeavoring
to carry the next election on the exploded
liquor and lager issue is, however, furnished
by their own organs, which every day abuse
General Grant as drunkard and declare that
he cannot stand up before a whskey bottle
without falling down. AS General Grant led
the army Of the United States to victory
through several long and trying campaigns,
the people of the United States will
be slow to believe that he is a confirmed in
ebriate, unfit to be entrusted with power. They
will only recognize in these assaults of pro-
fessed whiskey organs upon Grant as whiskey
drinker an acknowledgment Of the fact that
the republican candidate Is free from those
Purtanical notions that render 30 many of his
party Objectionable to the masses who have no
sympathy with coercive legislation. This will
furnish the Irish population with an additional
reason for voting for General Grant, whom they
already regard with favor on account of his
well known hostility to the rebel sympathizers
In England, which would be likely to lead to a
war between Great Britain and the United
States before the close of his term of office.
On the other hand, Governor Seymour, the
democratic candidate, has no failings that are
likely to draw him near to the hearts of the
people. He is of the Puritanical school,
famous for his strictly moral habits and un-
compromising teetotalism. It shows the utter
faulty Of the New York democracy
to attempt to make liquor issue
at time when the rival tickets are
headed by two such candidates as Gran,
and Seymour; and the same argument holds
| good with the State ticket. The republicans