Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-11-13
THE cHANCEs no BEAT CRAM.

IL
The future is SIN before us, and we
should meet its duties ike men, however
arduous or unpleasant they may seem. The
only practical Oenefs of discussing past
failures, Lies in the lessons we may CLEAN for
our guidance hereafter. "Anything to beat
Grsnt":-It was not Grant alone whom we
egsrded as dangerous, but rather the Cam
erons, and Mortons, and Buffers, and Por-
tiers, and Leets and Stockings who surround
him, the military rings and the money rings
and the various rings of political corruption.
The Cincinnati Commercial has an elab-
crate article on the "lost chances" of the
past campaign, as they present them
selves from q Liberal stand point.
1t says the first chance to beat Grant
That of overthrowIng him within the or
gaBizaiion Of the Republican party-was
lost when it was determined that the Cincin-
natl Convention should nominate candi-
date. 1t does not seem unlikely that if the
force which was expended in Cincinnati
bad cen resel we'd and judiciously employ
! ed at Philadelphia, tie drop curtain with
| the man on horseback might not have been
unrolled. The Cincinnati Convention gave
! Grant the Republican nomination without
a contest, and yet did not succeed in pre-
! pairing his defeat before the people. mr..
| Greeley was fairly nominated for the Presi-
deDcy, and the most potent pen in the
country was put out Of the combat. With
another candidate Greeley's leaders would
have been of immense service. Then,
with sixty thousand office-holders shouting
to arms, and beating the war drums, it was
impossible, especially in the beginning Of
the canvass, to carry into the Liberal move
ment the masses Of the Republicans.
There is good deal of force in this view;
but it is a matter that concerns the Liberal
Republicans exclusively. The Commercial
thus discusses a secondary chance to beat
Grant:
The other chance was that the Demo
cratic party should, as an organization, take
Itself out of the way-that il consent to
lapse. There was nothing improper in
Democrats going for him IS Liberal whom
they preferred to Grant, but there was
something grotesque ia making him formal
II the Democratic party candidate. The
party in making the nomination was affect
iCg a capacity in affairs it did not possess.
With Greeley as the regular Democratic
candidate for the Presidency, edge was given
to the constant assertions of the Grant pa
perS and orators that the election of Greeley
meant the restoration of the Democratic
party to power.
There is in this much food for the sober
consideration of Democrats. We were
ware that to induce the ''unterrifed" De
mocracy of the North to vote for Greeley,
was an extraordinary demand on their
patriotism. The only hope CT achieving it
lay in the power of Democratic organiza-
ton. But the South, generous and patriotic,
was ready to "forget and forgive" and
thought that if we could take Greeley, our
Northern friends ought to do so. As Sen |
ator Bayard said, in yielding his adhesion
to the nomination, it was the South which |
forced Greeley on the Northern Democracy. |
The result speaks for ITSELF The Balti- |
more nomination did not suffice to mar
shal TO cur standard the Democratic hosts
Of New York, Pennsylvania, and other
States; but Ie must believe that it induced
many Democrats to vote the ticket who
would otherwise have spurned il.
But the Commercial urges the influence
of this denomination on the Republican
ranks. Now we submit that the effect
would have been iden tically the same if
the Democracy had ''formally ard con-
spicuously withdrawn from the field" as
the St. Louis Republican insists. Every one
would know that Democrats we're still in
existence, and that the bulk of them would
vote for Greeley. The same "edge" would
have been given to Radical assertions that
it was political ruse, and that Greeley
could only be elected by those Democrats
who had pretended to withdraw. Or, fur
ther, if the Democracy had simply lapsed,
as the Commercial suggests, the same
i'edge" would be given to Radical assertions
that it was "Rebel ambuscsda,' "mask-
ed battery" "plot of the secession Dem
ooracy," and they would have had this ad-
1hional argument, that the Democrats were
certainly engaged ia some foul conspiracy,
since they were ashamed to show
themselves or say what they
we're dcirg. There would have been lef,
Ii open field for all the horrible Ku- Klux
and inventions of the most ,
loyal" and INSCRIPTIONS, and the fears Of q
he North would have been played upon to
! far greater extent.
Evidently the fight was between the same
orces, whatever tactics might be adopted,
md we had most to gain by our straight
Onward adoption of the Cincinnati plat
Orm and nominee, because if Northern
suspicious of our sincerity could not be al
aged By our most earnest and honest en-
leavors, these same suspicious would have
,een enhanced ten fold by any sinuous,