The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1872-09-13
THE EIOURNAL.
[FrOm the N. Y. Herald sunday.l
Decline Of GreeIeyiSm.
The Tide of Public Sentiment fol-
Grant.


j siAsM-THE PRESIDENTIAL BALANCE
OF POWER.
Whatever the cause, it is apparent
on all sides that since the late North
Carolina State election, there has
been a reaction in the tide of pnblic
opinion on the Presidential question.
From the Baltimore Convention,
which proclaimed the Cincinnati
Liberal Republican Candidates,
Greeley and Brown, the Democratic
ticket and the Cincinnati Liberal re-
solutions, the Democratic platform,
down to the election in North Caro-
lima, there were such signs and man
ifestations of a general uprising in
favor of "Greeley, Brown and Re-
form" as to justify the impression
that we were in the midst of an ir-
resistable political revolution. Nor
can it be questioned that the first
election reports from North Carolina
greatly strengthened this widely pre-
Yailing opinion. But when the dis
tant election districts and the back
counties were all in, and it was as
certained that the Republicans had
secured the Governor, which was the
Presidential test in the election, and
the accepted test on both sides as
between Grant and Greeley, there
was an abatement in the Democratic
enthusiasm for Greeley, and the tide
of public sentiment began to change
in favor of Grant.
The substantial fruits of the North
Carolina election in securing the
Legislature, which is to elect q
United States Senator, and in secur-
ing a majority of the Congressman,
were repeated by the Democrats, but
the Presidential test was upon the
Governor, and here the moral result
was, as we have indicated, Demo
cratic defeat which has changed the
whole aspect of the national battle
field. The Greeley Republicans
may have materially strengthened
the Democratic party in the North
Carolina contest; but with the gen
eral knowledge of their failure to
elect, as the balance of power the
Democratic candidate for Governor,
began this general decline in the
Democratic enthusiasm for Greeley.
In the outset, among the young and
progressive Democracy, the novelty
of Mr.. Greeley as the candidate of
the Democratic party for the Presi-
dency was so fascinating as to csrry
with it the idea that 'the fountains
of the great deep were broken up"
and that a deluge was rising which
would oVerYhelm Grant, his admin
istration, his party and all their great
expectations and calculations in con-
nection with another four years
lease Of power. But this sudden
flashing up of Democratic enthusi-
asm has died out, and the fear is
gaining ground that the Republic
ans, brought over to the Democracy
in support of Greeley and Brown,
may possibly be outnumbered by
those old line Bourbon Democrats
who are resolved to vote for Grant
or to stay at home on election day
if. they cannot get a straight-out
Democratic ticket on the platform of
''the time-honored Democratic prin-
eiples of Jefferson and jackson.
Seeing is believing; but until we
see that these anti-Greeley Bourbon
Democrats can do, are doing, and in
tend to do something in this cam
paign, which will compel their recog-
milton as a balance of power, we
shall contine to hold them as be-
longing to the same class of make
weights or political guerillas as the
Temperance Reformers, the Labor
Reformers and the Women's Rights
Reformers. The Democratic party
adopted the Cincinnati Presidential
ticket under the impression that
from the Republican camp it would
bring them the balance of power in
the election; but against all the re-
Inducements to the Democracy with
in reach of Greeley and Brown, the
probabilities, since the North Caro-
lima election, have changed in favor
of General Grant. Senator Schurz,
as bolter against the administra-
ton, has been hailed as hero by the
Democrats because of the balance
which it is supposed he may reach,
here and there, in the diversion of
the German vote; but the German,
as a rule, is very apt to vote accor-
ding to his own ideas of the fitness
of things; and SO nothing decisive
has been gained by Greeley and
Brown in gaining Mr.. Schurz.
Again, it was supposed that the fame
of Mr.. Greeley and the great name of
Mr.. Sumner, as the blackman's
friend, would bring over to the op-
positional alliance ticket the balance
Of power from the colored element,
which, in the Presidential election,
will poll probably seven hundred
thousand votes or more; but along
the lines of the African legions the
word has been passed for General
Grant, so that there is no hope in
that quarter for Greeley and Brown.
Our Irish-born fellow citizens in
many places, and especially in this
city, constitute an important Demo
cratic balance Of power; but it is by
no means certain that the Irish ell
ement of this Island will be a unit in
our November national or local cleo
tions. In our municipal complica-
tions of parties, rings, factions,
cliques and coteries, we shall pro-
badly have the confusion of Babel,
demoralizing confusion, which to the
regular Democrats, may imperil the
city and the State. In short, from
the present outlook, the prospect
from every point Of view is growing
somewhat gloomy for Greeley, and
unless, in the results Of the coming
State elections, he shall make a
break in the apparently compact
lines of the administration party, the
Philosopher of Chappaqua, as pill
grim for the White House, may
Lay down the shovel and the hoe,
And hang up the fiddle and the bow.