New-York tribune., 1872-06-18
THE WAYS OF WILSON.

In these DAYS of political changes we hear
great deal of the paramount duty of fidelity
to party organizations; and great many par
asitical gentlemen who certainly have lost
nothing by their adherence to the Republican
body, and who seem willing enough to add to
their gains, protest that it is really sinful for
citizens to vote for any man who has not re-
ceived the sanction of the Renominational
Convention. Once for all, we repudiate the
authority of these self-constituted censOrs, and
remembering that this is free country we
entreat each of our readers to vote as he
pleases, although his doing so may offend Mr..
Senator Wilson. In order that those who need
precedent and authority for acting as they
wish to act may be amply furnished with
both, we venture to point to the public career
of Mr.. Senator Wilson himself--a man who
has belonged In the course of his life to sew
eral parties, and has left them without any
apparent heart-ache, and always with re-
markable degree of prudence We remember
Mr.. Wilson, who is now such stickler for
regular nominations. as a Wing, as a Con-
science Wing, as Free-Soiler as Know
Nothing, and as Republican We remember
h1m holding so slackly his party allegiance,
that his political career may be regarded as a
series of bolts. 1t has so happened that almost
every voter above the middle age of man has
belonged to more than one party, but few
have simultaneously belonged to more than
one. Nor has the General been particularly
nice in sundering such ties; he has never
fingered by the death-bed of an old love, and
he has never been seen at the funeral
Somebody, the other day, quite vehemently
denied that Mr.. Wilson had ever been a
member of the Know-Nothing party. This
good d-natured friend had much better have
left the matter at rest, because the mention
of it recalls the remarkable fact that Mr..
Wilson, while candidate of the Republican
party for Governor of Massachusetts, was ac-
tually q member of one of the KNOWN Nothing
Lodges which were secretly working for the
election of Henry j. Gardner Many men
have made their little party changes as con-
science urged or as interest guided them; but
how many men of Gen. Wilson's public stand
ing are there who can boast of feats like his !
In public and in private he has given various
reasons for his temporary membership of q
Know Nothing Lodge. He has not made it q
secret that one of these was his anxious wish
to kill the Whig party, of which he had once
been an active and honOred member. lie
has not said that he deserted the little body
of Free Sellers (who were still in good faith
rallying under his banner) for the sake of a
seat in the Senate of the United States; but
perhaps he might have said so without telling
a falsehOod. There were over 5000 OF his
friends who in that remarkable year were truer
to him than he was TO himself. He had gone
off with the mob of $4,000 Know-Nothings who
voted for Gardner, remaining still candidate
in the field, keeping his detection secret not
to be revealed until he should turn up in
the Legislature as the Kn0w-NOthing can
didate for United States SenatOrl Matters
did not work altogether smoothly-there was
a slight opposition, but it was hardly sufficient
to attract attention, and the Free-Soil Mr..
Wilson went to Washington Senator pledged
(some say by oath) to support measures which
if they had passed into laws would have
made it impossible for US to build the Pacific
Railroad for want of laborers, or possibly to
crush the Rebellion for want of soldiers.
We do not say that Mr.. Wilson may not al
ways have acted conscientiOusly, but 1t is not
from gentleman of his record, nor from
those who support him, that we wish to re-
ceive homilies upon the duty of sticking to a
party. Fortune has given him much, but she
has not given and could not give him a
monopoly of all the independence and cOnscien-
tiousness In the country.