Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1869-08-21
From the Cincinnati Commercial.
Pendleton the Candidate.

After all, George II, Pendleton is the Demo
cratic candidate for Governor of Ohio The
Democratic State Central Committee met at
Columbus, Wednesday, and after an anxious
season, in the course of which Pendleton was
repeatedly requested to accept the nomination,
and as often declined, a dispatch was sent him
signed by every member of the committee, and
a considerable number of others taking an in
fiuental interest in the proceedings, stating
that the use of his name would give harmony
and confidence, and intimating that if II could
not be used there was difficulty and danger
Thus urged Mr.. Pendeton yielded. Very
much after the manner of Donna Julia, swear
ings he would ne'er consent, consented.
When Rosecrans was nominated we had oc-
casion to observe that Pendloton's peremptory
refusal to be q candidate was virtually his alb
dication of the leadership Of his party His
acceptance Of the nomination now, is a disper-
ate push for the mastery of the situation. If
he is ambitious to continue his career as
politician, he has done the thing needful to the
preservation of his vitality. If he desires to
remain in the land of the living, lie could not
have afforded to lose this opportunity of as
serting himself His refusal to accept would
have been confession of incapacity to vindi-
cate his ambition.
He gets the credit now of going into fight
against Odds And his friends can claim that
he has behaved galantly and in a spirit of
self-sacritice, taking so manifest risk of dc.
feat, at so much personal inconvenience
Mr.. Pendleton can not lose anything, and
may gain much by coming forward now as the
Democratic candidate. His nomination of
Seymour at New York, last summer did not
secure support for himself in 1872. He did
not concilatc anybody, or persuade any one
of his availability, by the expression of his
preference for Seymour. If that expression
meant anything more than mere personal good
will, 1t was bid for the favor, in the future, of
New York politicians, and those politicians
have already their Presidential candidate in
training, and his name is not George II. Pen
dleton, but John T. Hoffman With this con-
spicuous failure to win support, Pendleton
could not go into the next National Democratic
Convention as strong as he was last year.
Hoffman has carried tho Empire State, and
the Tammany influence can cast enough
fraudulent votes in New York City to carry it
again, This gives him formidable basis of
operations.
If Pendleton can carry Ohio, he is placed
distinctly in advance of Hoffman, and can
command of his party in 1879, unless the party
should become wise enough in good faith to
take new departure, following the example
of Virginia and Tennessee, and nominating
Chase. If he can not carry Ohio, he will not
suffer in prestige for making the effort, but
rather the contrary. If he had refused the
nomination of the party for Governor, he
could not have been called possible Presi-
dent. AS the case stands hs has q living
chance.
Until within n week, Mr.. Pcndeton has not
been able to visit the city. since his accident
three months ago, and now he can not get
about, except with much care and difficulty,
supporting himself upon crutches. It will be
impossible for him to go about the country in
the usual style of candidate. This may be con-
verted into an advantage, for if Pendeton
should fail of election, his friends may charge
1t to the lamcntable disadvantage of having to
dispense with his personal services in the
field.
The Democracy, in the absence of the will
and the wisdom to take new departure in
deed, have done the best they could. If they
were determined to fight over the old issues
once more before the next Presidential cleo
tion, they could not have selected more elgi-
bic opening, or more strikingly representa-
tive candidate. The weakness of the nomina-
tion of Rosecrans, aside from the fact of his
indispositlon TO serve and that he was citizen
of California, consisted In the uiiatness of his
platform. There was not n reasonable degree
of harmony between the candidate and the
principles prescribed for him. The new de-
parture asserted in the candidate was contra
dicted In the resolutions. There is no such
now. Platform and candidate
harmonize as II made for each other.
Pendleton is doomed to defeat we presume,
but the necessity of putting forth their whole
strength is upon the Republicans The vote
by which Hayes was elected does not show an
extensive margin to base assurance upon. The
Democratic party Is formidable in numbers
and in discipline, and the friends of Pendleton
who have forced this nomination upon him,
will make prodigious effort to elect him. II
may be depended upon that he will get more
votes than Rosecrans could have received, and
that the Ohio campaign this fall will at once
attract attention throughout the country as of
national Significance Upon the result the
future of the Democratic party, In great de.
gree, depends. Success would confirm Its con-
servatlsm and reactionary tendencies. Defeat
might teach 1t the necessity of the acquiescence
of the party In the events most memorable in
the history of the country, the formation, and
overthrow by military force, of the Southern
Confederacy, the destruction of American
slavery, and the Acknowledgement of black
men.