Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1872-09-12
Politicians to the Rear

/ EEAaD ESYIEy u5E1
The people are conducting the present
campaign-not the politicians. Never
before in our history as nation, have
the people taken so deep an interest in
political affairs. Politicians who once
dictated public opinion are to-day pow
erless. They make frantic efforts to
lead their old followers into new paths
of policy, but they can neither coax nor
drive them from the old party. Gree
ley fancied himself political load
stone, and thought wherever he went
his old friends would follow. To-day
he finds himself deserted, or so nearly
so that his Republican followers could
be accommodated in an old-fashioned
stage-coach. Schurz, once an infiuen-
tial man, admired by his countrymen
because of his devotion to freedom and
for his marked ability, has opened his
eyes to the fact that he does not carry
the German vote in his pocket, and that
his countrymen still retain their old
fashioned notion of doing their own
thinking. Trumbull, who once thought
himself the leader of Western senti-
ment, has given up in disgust, and will
devote the remainder of his days in try
ing to convince his old friends that he
was as honest in voting against the i'm
parchment of "His Ascendency," Andy
johnson, as he was in leaving the Re-
publican party. Tilton was never
blessed with much influence, so his leap
into the Greeley movement has pro-
duced about as much disturbance in po-
litical affairs as pebble dropped into
the Atlantic. IN TE1TTC7rrT G.,
Simmer has verified his prediction
that principles outlive men," But yes
terday the colored people needed his
words as. an ioracle;l to-day they turn
from him as false prophet. They see
in his false doctrines of the present the
contradiction of the sgrand. truths he )
taught them in the past. For this rea-
son he has no more influence over the
colored vote than the Knklux leaders
with whom he has clasped hands.
General Banks, "the lingering shad-
ow of a splendid character" whose
greatest enemy has. been himself, will
find it hard task to pull down in a few
days the fabric which commanded his
noblest efforts in the past. His elo-
quent pleadings in behalf OF
the party he now abandons are too well
to be lost under the new
departure which he has taken.
Farnsworth had been so long on the
fence that his final step took no one by
surprise, He had worked with the op-
position in the House so long that he
was regarded as one of their number
before he formally announced himself
as such. If he ever had any influence
he lost it before he changed his coat,and
among Republicans can never hope to
recover what he has justly forfeited.
The same conclusions hold good with
Fenton, Fitzpatrick, DoOlittle, and a
class of still smaller politicians, who
once had some influence, but are to-day
without follower. m -t+ ..-
Their old friends heard their story.
They recognize it as the same retailed
in 1865 by the Democrats, and they
turn from them with contempt. They
know that these gentlemen who pre-
tended to be Reformers have been tried
by an honest Administration and found
wanting. They know that the move
ment inaugurated by Greeley & Co. is
purely personal one, whose object and
aim is to bring into power party that
will accept Grants rejected timber and
such men as Schurz, Trumbull, and
FentOn an opportunity to bolster up
their falling fortunes at the public ex-
penSe.