The Portland daily press., 1871-11-22
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
WEDNESDAY MORNING. NOV. 22. 1871.
Advice Gratis.
PORTLAND.

| Advice Gratis.
We gave our friends, the Democrats some
sound advice the other day, concerning tbe
suggestion that Col. Thomas A. Scott. the
railway King of Pennsylvania, should be a
candidate for the Presidency. And in the
! same spirit we beg to counsel with our friends
who are called Anti-Grant Republicans.
Every DAY or two we hear rumor of
great combination" which has been formed
for the purpose of defeating the denomination
| OF General Grant Sometimes it comes as a
mysterious whisper, on ''the best authority"
Ihen 1t resounds with volcanic intensity
from some gigantic Sumner or ever-rumbling
Schurz. There is secrecy about the move
ment almost Masonic. The time has not
come, we are told, to act. We are sagely urg-
ed to wait and see. Everything, at present,
is under lock and key. The witches go round
and round the pot, and throw i'm every con-
ceivable material, but it will not bubble-and
with all their incantations it never becomes
broth. What time of it Witch Dana and
Witch Sumner and Witch Schurz have had
for so poor result! What Witch Greeley
has been doing no one knows-a thing in it.
self amazing, as Witch Greely is full of ingenn-
BUSINESS and candor, and is never more at home
than on the housetop. And here is Witch
Wilkes, brown and fresh from iournevinos in
France and to ancient Thebes-fuli Of the
Commune and International Well, the Star
tells us that Witch Wilkes is about to take
hands and dance around the pot. The Star
is not the best authority upon a matter of
this kind and we allude to the rumor to dis
credit it, Witch Wilkes has other miracles
to do, we hope.
We presume there is really something in
these ''great combinations" and that the
meeting which is soon to be held in New
York to ''propose measures" will be all-im-
portant. Greeley and Fenton and Sumner
and Schurz and Mcclure and Hutchns and
Wilkes are the ''leaders," we are told, who
are to gather. Whether Mr.. Dana has been
invited, we cannot say; but he should be
present, as the real head of the movement.
Senator Wilson is mentioned as guest, but
that Senator's balancing capacities are so
perfect that he will have sense enough to
| keep away We hear that Samuel Bowes
| viii be in attendance, as the representative
| of our dearly-beloved and unambitious Schuyl-
| er Colfax, and that we may have Trumbull
| and Logan, and the debonair George Spencer
| of Alabama and-Dick Busteed!
| A gathering of this kind will have entertain
ment in itself and intellectual resources. We
can fancy the nature of the discussions.
Nothing of the kind has been known since
| the celebrated gathering in the cave of Adul-
lum, to which came all who were blind and
all who were lame, all who were poor or in
debt or in distress. And how interesting the
preliminary conversation will be-the ex-
| change of thoughts and views, as to how each
particular leader came to close confidence in
General Grant," and in his reelection Mr..
Danas grievance is the most prominent. He
was made Appraiser but not Collector of the
Port. Now, if human reason can imagine
more terrible motive than this we are at
loss. Mr.. Dana will dwell upon this evidence
of Grants failure as a President, while the
listening Greeley catches up the chorus and
proceeds to show how his soul was vexed by
the removal of Palmer from one Office and
Merritt from another, and the general ignOr-
ing of Fenton's friends, and how, with these
unspeakable errors and insults, he must and
shall oppose Grant as an utter failure in adj
ministration. Nc Clure's grievance is an old,
old story. Instead of making an assignment
of the whole administration to Andrew g..
Curtin for the benefit of Pennsylvania politics,
Grant banished the bland Governor to the
hyperborean north-to the ice-bound court Of
Russia. Could there be a more conspicuous
absence of acumen than this? more utter
want of appreciation of the duty of the Presi-
dent to PENNSYLVANIA? Fenton does not talk
much, and will confine himself to saying
eyes" to everything We do not know that
Wilkes has grievance, but he has what will
astonish the conferences principle and an
| idea.
A platform Why no one had thought of
| that; A 'candidate!' Everybody had thought
| of candidate, and was only holding back
from modesty. All admit that in essential
| points Grant had done well-he has paid thu
debt, he has kept peace with England AM
4 prevented Indian wars-and that there is a
| much reason-for his denomination and re
election as in the case of Washington, Jack
son and Lincoln. "Yes," we imagine G. W
saying in his quiet way, ''we all admit this
but we want a candidate. l suggest as tn,
means of arriving at the sense of the meet
| ing that we name Horace Greeley!' Mr.
| Greeley bushes to his hair-roots, and takes t.
reading the Tribune upside down. But ther'
is a strange surprise Mr.. Sumner has grea
respect for Mr.. Greeley, his old and honore,
friend, but-but Massachusetts has claims
| and-and-.' Gen. Schurz loved Mr.. Gree
ley-no one more sincerely-but ''there wa
the German vote to be considered, and as W
should, no doubt, have an amendment to tn
| Constitution permitting aliens to be Presi
dent, there was really-no- knowing
! but" And Jack Logan's eyes flash fire a
| he speaks in thunder tones of the prairies ant
| mountains of his own native West-of Hi
| nois-whose claims, especially the claims o
| its soldier element, should be considered
And as for himself, having Joined the Metho
dist Church, he--hoped- d-that-no-prema
ture-' And Mcclure his voice ranging be
tween the keys of and ID, says that Penn
| svlvahia,s own Curtin-the friend of the sol
der, the great war governor, the champion o
| everything and everybody-was the one maj
to unite the country; and If not Curtin, why
Thomas A. Scott, and if not Scott, why as |
patriot he had made sacrifices, and he
would -be- willing-to-" And Samue
Bowles with an atrabiIious enthusiasm tha
makes him speak In his shirt-sleeves, remind
them all that 'God's true Representative
nobeman, the greatest letter-writer and trav
eller, and temperance lecturer, and Sunday
school talker, Schuyler Colfax, still lives, ant
that not to nominate him would be to throw
cold water upon every reform movement nov
/! in existence With Schuyler as President
| and some eminent New England journals
| for Vice-President, some-such-man--as=
/ well as And finally the debonair Spep
Ger says that there were so many question
now before meeting that had only met
confer upon one question that they h2d bel
ter adjourn. And they adjourn without
candidate or platform. And as III. g, an
q. W. walk oyer the Park arm-in-arm
! Park row, we can imagine this colloquy:
| ri. G. fHis eyes saddened and the blushe
or, ,el: Well, George, these men don't know
ssho, !, they want. Now, nothing was easier
G. w. [cramming his unread resouIlon
and no,,as of ideas and declarations OF primer
ples into his overcoat pocSetl: Well, Horace
With Sntfe my s Con mune and international ideas
Our advice to these men is to accept Cd
inevitable There is nothing as Talleyran
would say, nothing but Grant or an IN
trigue'' in the cans ass. With Grant we cal
win and consolidate the results OF the war
four years of good sense and SOUND stale
manship and peace. Without Grant we sha
have season of intrghes and disappoln
ments and divisions the party gong to piece
ON a lee shore For this is an oppositio
without principle, party without leader
a combination without purpose, simply,
group of disappointed men who mean 10 max
as desperate struggle against Grant as Ere
mont did against Lincoln in 1864, and VIII
are doomed, we are confident, to as utter an
gnominious a failure.-Neao York Stdnddr