The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-02
The Work Before Us.

shall be their President aud their Vice Pcesi-
dent respectively Tor four years from the 4th
of March N xt. How very far we are from be-
ing ready for that ordeal, the intelligent well
know.
Our National and State nominations were
made early, as right. They were received
with very general aud hearty approval. Gene
raj Grant had already been nominated for Presi-
dent by the people, so that the Convention
had no duty but to ratfy the popular choice
The selections of Messrs Colfax, Griswold,
and their associates, are abuudantly proved
wise and happy. We are consciously strong
and therein is our chief danger.
The season has thus far been a very busy
one. The persistent cold and wet of May and
June threw the spring work of our farmers
far into summer. They were a good month
behindhand on the lst of June; and they
have been working hard ever since to recover
that month, which most of them have at
length done. Our mechanics also, but esps-
eially those who are engaged in house build
ing, have generally been driven this season as
they never were before. The gamblers and
loateTs, who have abundant leisure, are gene
rally against us; the men who thrive by USE
full industry are largely with us; and thess
have never been more absorbed in their daily
avocations than this season. Hence, our poll
tical work is less advanced than it oug ght to be
at the beginning Of autumn.
True, we have held many meetiugs-gene-
mass meetings only incite to work; the work
still remains to be done. True we have Or
ganized many clubs; but we have yet to
organize clubs in at least half the townships in
che Union. And that is the work immedi-
ately before us.
AS YET, we have had to struggle against a
very general and sanguine presumption that
no effort is needed. The mass of our voters
cannot be made to realize the possibility of
Grants defeat. They know that many Demo-
Gratis proclaimed him their candidate for Pre-
sldent long before he received any formal
nomination. They know that Line tenths of
those voters who are not partisans are in
stinctively Grant men. If there be a township
which contains $50 pronounced Republicans,
with as many Democrats, and rs voters who
are neither, but vote habitually for the best
men, that township will cast at least 10 vote
for Grant. No American needs to be told who
Grant Is, nor what he has done to commend
him to popular favor and confidence He is
emphatically the peoples man, and will poll
more votes on personal grounds than any
President since George Washington. That
there are and have been more voters who de-
sire Grants than there are who favor Sey-
mour's election, We have ne yer doubted.
But the Copperheads are ravenously hun
CRY and utterly inscriptions. After years of
famine, Johnson's apostacy has given them
taste of fresh blood. They are determined to
win at all hazards; and they will do it by
fraudulent naturalizations and by dodbls
voting, if they can.
Here, then, is seen the necessity for better
and more thorough organization. We cannot
stop their cheating without it. We have or
ganized- in half the wards and townships
throughout the country; but the adversary
can cheat us enough to beat us in the residue,
If we do not organize there also.
Hitherto, blind trust has been made an ex-
cuse for Incidence. Grant can't be beaten
by ''such a man as Seymour" has been the
cry of all the do-nothings. If we do not mis-
read the signs, they are likely to have thsir
confidence rudely shocked within the next six
weeks. For, while the friends of General
Grant are abundantly able to secure his cleo
tion by proper effort, it is grave mistake to
imagine that he can or will be elected without
such effort. And this we look to see demon
strated alike by our successes and our re-
verses in the October elections. We may in
stance the Territory of Colorado, where an
election is to be held one week hence, and
where the Republicans act as though intent
on defeating their candidate for delegate in
Congress. When they shall have done it,
they will tell US how strong Grant is with
them, and what majority they could give
him if they were in the Union Very likely
they could; but such support as theirs would
never make him President.
We know, as every one knows, that General
OIant is stronger tnan nlS party, and Will poll
thousands of votes that will not be given to
our local candidates in the September and
October elections. But let him poll ever SO
many, he will nevertheless be defeated by
monstrous frauds, unless there be seasonably
effected thorough organization of his sup
porters. Such organization in half the towns
will simply restrict the meditated frauds to the
other hall; it will nowise defeat them.
We speak frankly; for the crisis is very
grave, and the necessity for action III gent.
We can certainly elect Grant and Colfax, if we
can keep down illegal voting throughout the
Union to one per cent. OF the total; we shall
be beaten if it shall be swelled to five per
cent. or over. We can keep it down so that
1t shall be harmless, if we can have such an
organization throughout the country that we
shall surely get out our full legal vote and
keep out the illegal votes which in default of
due preparation, exertion, and vigilance, will
inevitably be poled against us.
Friends of Grant and Colfax we need an
effective, working, wide awake club in every
township! Even where we are a small
minority, we can keep out illegal votes by SO
organizing that minority that they will know
beforehand who are and who are not legal
voters in their respective districts, and be on
hand when the poll opens, prepared to chal-
lenge sternly and prosecute fearlessly. Will
you, who are already we'll organized, look at
once to the towns around you which are not,
and see that they, too, shall speedily have
followed your excellent example I?
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