The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-05-22
THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

The Chicago convention yesterday nom
mated Grant by reclamation. The great
leaders of the Republican party were not
named. The statesmen who had contrived Its
policy and shaped its destinies were set aside
in favor of military chieftain, whose only
merit consists in his silence, and whose silence
is due to a conspicuous incapacity to form an
intelligent opinion. The nomination of Grant,
if not surrender in advance, is confession
of weakness. 1t is an admission that the Re-
publican party has so lost in conscious
strength, that it dares not encounter its adyer-
saries on a field in which the principles and
policy of the two parties shall, alone, be at
issue. Such an acknowledgment is the pre-
cursor Of defeat. The people of this country
are Just now in no mood to yield to the fas-
cinations of the brass button. The questions
before the public are too serious to be settled
by an appeal to the memories of war which,
thus far, has been productive of nothing
but dissension and disaster, and the results Of
which are seen in the prostration of indus
try and commerce, and in a political revolu-
ton which has almost converted the govern
ment into Congressional despotism. The
next election canvass is to decide whether or
not this revolution is to be consummated ;
whether or not an ambitious and vindictive
faction is to lule without regard to Constitu-
tional limitations whether or not the execu-
tive and judicial branches of the government
are to be made subseryient and subsidiary to
the designs of the radical party, expressed
through a fraudulent majority in Congress.
1t is not to decide that Grant took Vicksburg;
or won the battle of Missionary Ridge or
captured Richmond or even that he acted
like gentleman in the Stanton affair and in
his attempts to force the expulsion of Mr.
johnson from the presidency. These are
questions which the country regards as sim
ply puerile, in view of the momentous issues
which are to be decided. And, under this
aspect Of the case the election of Grant is
simply impossible. If he were the greatest
statesman and purest patriot of the age he
could not carry the weight which radical
tyranny and radical blunders have imposed
on him. On the other hand, if the Republi-
can party had not already forfeited all claims
to the confidence of the people, it would risk
defeat with such a candidate as Grant.
The nomination of Colfax is late sacrifice
to the demands Of decency. Wade's vote on
the impeachment was enough to disgust even
the violent partisans who urged him to it; and
doubtless this influence contributed to his
defeat before the convention. Colfax is a
confirmed radical; but he is a man of some
ability, and he is free from the repulsive pecu-
harities which are Wade's salient charac-
! teristics.
AS to the platform, we have no data on
which to form an accurate opinion. The
synopsis of the telegraph is more remarkable
for brevity than intelligibility. 1t appears,
however, that the convention declared in favor
of impeachment in terms so strong as to con-
stitute a condemnation of the recusant sena-
tors 1t remains to be seen whether or not
those gentlemen will accept the logical conse-
quences of the position into which they have
thus been forced. On other points, the plat
form seems to be sufficiently radical for the
radicals with, perhaps, an attempt at con
servatism, with view to retain the timorou:
brethren in the Organization. Of this, how
ever, we cannot judge until we see the docu
| ment In ertenSO.