The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-05-30

Is the common centre for the salt
and shipment of these cattle. In my
humble opinion, whoever looks tc
the future of Kansas will find hel
one of the greatest stock-producinl
, States in the entire country. Imam
other letter [ will say something O.
the towns, people, &c.
Yours, AL. BELL.
WHATS the Matter with Gree
- ley?''
The few Democrats who have de-
eided to swallow Greeley, when ask
ed how they can consistently Go so,
plume themselves upon asking the
question, "what's the matter with
Greeley ?' deeming that thereby
they make the best use, in the world,
of that Yankee device of answering
one question by asking another
They habitually follow this up with
other questions or assertions intend
ed to amplify and prove the first.
Their speech is like unto the folio
wing : "Have not you Republicans,
for the last fifteen years, held up
Horace Greeley as the man of i'm
maculate honesty, of broad and COM
prehensive brain, the man who
towers above all others as the great
est journalist in America, the phi
loSopher, par excellence, upon all
questions of economy, home and
foreign relations the man whom no
clique or party could buy or run? If
so, and Republicans are honest in
according such perfections to him,
why did they change their estimate
so quickly when he became the can
didate- of the Cincinnati Liberal
Convention?-In the first place, we
deny that Republicans, generally,
have an opinion now different from
the one they have held for years.
A majority of the party are willing
still to accord to Horace Greeley the
high praise of possessing a great
brain and a greater heart, the most
incorruptible personal honesty, and |
of being Il splendid theorist and phi
losopher, just such man as every
age needs many of, to bless and in
struct it. While admitting this to be !
our estimate of Horace Greeley, we
will mention one thing which his
Democratic admirers seem to over
look. Many men are able to build !
theories, who cannot put them into |
practice. In fact, the general histo-
ry of men teaches US, that the theo>
rist is gene rally an impracticable
person. Many men, too, who can
not be excelled in argument, who
when they deal with first principles
possess a wonderful faculty for ar
irving at fundamental truths, and
who can take tho wings of the
and chase an abstraction to
the ends of the earth, are as a rule en-
tirely at sea when human will and
motives enter into the problem. In
other words, given a certain number
of definite propositions, and men of
this class will soon reach all the log
ical conclusions flowing therefrom
but so soon as a variable factor is
added, such as we find expressed in
the phrase "the popular will', they
are entirely at fault.
We contend that Greeley belongs
to this class, and is therefore unfit
for President, that is, if, as in this
case, we merely consider his fitness
from a personal standpoint. Gree
ley is too much of a perfectionist 10
ever cope with the personal ques-
tions which beset the President on
every hand. He can be meta
phorically as rigid as the bluest Pu-
ritan, yet he cannot Withstand per-
'onal appeal. He has dealt too much
with the should be to ever shine,
where the possible plays so large a
part, as it does in the administra-
ton OF the government. He would
heed theory and principle more than
aw and precedent. He is an extre-
list in theory, but more than a
conservative in practice. He is a
lifelong protectionist, yet is the can
iidate of faction of purely free
trade parentage.
Our experience as a nation is,
and history proves the same, that
he best writers on the art of war
make Indifferent generals. So, also,
the best writers on political economy
generally fail, when they attempt to
put their theories into practice. A
of Horace Greeley
would show him to have blundered
iearfully and frequently, and to have
been deficient of that rare and neces-
;ary sagacity which enables a man
10 read the signs of the times.
Hence we would say to Greeley
Democrats that their man as a Jour-
alist, as a philosopher, and tariff
champion, is a grand success, but as
statesman lie is failure. An apostle
of theories, he cannot become re- ;
former of politics; being no disciple
of the times, he cannot becomes a lea Z
i 4 L. u. I 4 /