The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-02
SPIRIT OF THE PRuss.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-Compiled Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
WANTED, A REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE
FOR THE PRESIDENCY.


FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
From, the NJ Y. Sun
AS long as George II. Thomas was alive,
the Republicans had q sure candidate for the
election of 1872. No other man could have
beaten him. The masses of the people were
for him; the radicals honored and trusted
him. and the conservatives would have raj
lied around him with enthusiasm. His nomi-
nation would have been equivalent to his
election.
Since the death of this great man the be-
wildered leaders of the Republican party
have been vainly scanning the roll of their
Presidential aspirants for name to fill the
place made void by the fall of Thomas. The
list has become hackneyed and stale, and
bears the name of no statesman who has any
such hold upon the confidence of the people
as the crisis demands. Some shallow politi-
clans believe that Grant will be taken but no
disinterested person with sense in his nodde
supposes that Grant can be available. Gene
raj Grant himself, of course, does not think
anything is the matter with his prospects;
and what dispenser of patronage, breathing
the incense of adulation, ever could be made
to see that his role was played out, till the
fall of the remorseless curtain that shut out
all hope tor the future? Franklin Pierce,
rather a shrewd politician and not over san
guine, could not be made to believe that the
Democracy were not going to renominate
him until the telegraph told him that his vote
in the Cincinnati Convention had dwindled
down to a. The fattery of office-holders
and ofice-beggars has added brains great
deal larger and clearer than Grants.
In this condition of affairs q singular
change is coming over the minds of the more
intelligent and prudent members of the Re-
publican party. They are turning their eyes
back to their ancient champion, Salmon p.
Chase. For year or two past Chief Justice
Chase has been counted as a Democrat. In
the impeachment of Andrew Johnson he
broke with the extreme radicals, and thereby
did the Republican party service which all
sensible men among them will now acknow-
ledge. But this does not constitute the rea-
son why thoughtful Republicans are led to
inquire whether it would not be better to
make friends with Judge Chase once again,
with view to running him for President in
1872. The fact is that on the essential doc
trine of Republicanism, as it stands to-day,
there is no man in the country sounder than
Judge Chase. He Is a Republican, and not
Democrat. We mean, of course, the great
principle of universal suffrage as set forth in
the fifteenth amendment. Opposition to that
principle considerable body of clamorous,
stupid old Bourbons. who have nicknamed
themselves Democrats, propose to make the
main issue in the next Presidential campaign;
and who SO fit to lead the Republicans in such
fight as Salmon p. Chase?
But even this does not constitute the most
powerful among the motives which are lead
ing 80 many intelligent Republicans to look
to the Chief Justice as a possible candidate
for 1872. The great reason is that Judge
Chase can certainly be elected. This renders
the movement we are speaking of one of the
most interesting ever developed in our politi-
cal history. 1t may not result in the actual
nomination of the Chief Justice by the Re-
publican party, because there are plenty of
Bourbons in that organization as we'll as
among the Democracy. But it affords most
impressive illustration of the present rather
chaotic state of politics among us, and of
the scarcity of commanding talent and popu
lar availability, that any number of Republi-
cans should perceive that they cannot posi-
bly, be so safe with any other candidate as
with the Chief Justice.