The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-08-27

full, and How 1t Can be Made Sc
cure. .s-i
The result of the Presidential campaign is,
to say the least, uncertain, and neither party
pretends that it can hope to achieve success
for its candidate except by hard work and q
thorough canvass. Yet four years ago the re-
publcans, under the same leader who now
heads their column, walked over the Presiden-
tial course, carrying twenty-five States out of
thirty-three by majorities ranging from five
hundred in California to seventy-seven thou
sand III Massachusetts, At that time the pat
ronage of the federal government was only
partially in their favor, and the negroes in
several States were not voters, while in the
present contest they have the enfranchised
negroes almost solidly on their side, and every
federal Office in the United States supplying
them with money and votes. Then the demo-
Gratis were united on popular candidate,
taken from their own ranks, while now, if we
are to credit the assertions of the republi-
cans and the ''straight-outs, the democratic
party is broken into fragments, some of
its members supporting Greeley, some Grant,
some the Louisville nominee, whoever
that may be, and some refusing to vote at all.
Under these circumstances it might be ex-
pected that the republicans would command
an easy victory, and there must be some I'M
explmned reason for this singular loss of con-
ftence in their own strength, especially as
they scout the idea that the liberal detection
has occasioned any serious rupture in their
organization cause for the unexpected
closeness of contest which should have been
for the administration nothing more than a
triumphal march. Why is it that North Caro-
lima, which gave republican majority of
eighteen thousand in the State election of 1868,
yields only scanty and doubtful thousand or
so to the Gubernatorial candidate of the same
party in 1872, and gives to the democrats the
State Legislature, United States Senator and
an increased number of Congressman Why
is it that the State of Maine, with its mistaken
republican majority ever since the republican
organization had an existence, is regarded as
debatable ground, and calls for giant efforts
to keep it in the republican line? If, as we
are assured, the liberal leaders have no follow
ing in the ranks of their old party, and the
democracy is demoralized and scattered, whence
comes this opposition element which shakes
the foundation of the powerful republica II
column and threatens to topple it over and
cast it into the dust? How is it that, after
being strengthened by the possession of power
during four years of peace and prosperity, the
organization that elected President Grant so
triumphantly is now compelled to put forth
almost superhuman efforts to save him from
defeat even in sterling republican States
The explanation can only be found in the
unpopular policy of the party which controls
the national administration and puts Presi-
dent Grant before the people as its candidate
for reelection. The President is the same
man to-day he was four years ago. He has
lost none of the prestige he won as the sue
cessful leader of the Union armies against the
rebel Confederacy, and the people honor him
as much now as they did when he was made
the Lieutenant General of their armies by
Congress and when he was elected to the
Presidency by their votes. The nation owes
him now the same debt of gratitude
it owed him when he paroled the
brave soldiers of Lee and Johnston and
declared the rebellion at an end. But
in the last Presidential election General Grant
stood before the people on his own personal
record and ON his individual political views
and principles as indicated by his words and
acts. No person knew or cared to know what
had been his political antecedents. He had
proved himself during the war independent
of the politicians and disposed to resist their
interference with the military authority. The
terms granted by him to Lees soldiers his
prompt denunciation of the attempt to violate
those terms by the arrest of General Lee for
treason the conservative tone of his report
on the condition of the South his desire to
extend to the subdued rebels'all their rights
government to the Southern States his APP
probation of the wisdom of educating the ne
groes up to the standard of intelligence neces-
sary to enable a citizen to exercise the elective
franchise with advantage to the community,
and his famous expression, 'Let us have
ciples upon which he stood before the country
for it's support. He was not looked upon as
a distinctive party candidate. At one time it
seemed uncertain of which political organiza-
ton he would be the nominee, and he received
the votes of thousands of citizens independent
of political considerations, for the reason that
he was believed to be free from partisanship
and as capable of leading in peace as he had
shown himself to be in war. In the present
campaign General Grant is put forward as the
candidate Of the republicans, and bears on his
shoulders the policy of the men who surround
his administration-the policy of the radical
Congress and Of an incompetent Cabinet The
people are called upon not only to re-elect
the General Grant of four years ago, but to