The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-09-27
More Exhibitions of Amnesty.

Perhaps the history of the United States
may show that other candidates for the Pres
idency besides Horace Greeley have relied for
success chiefly on the facility with which
they could adapt their principles to the re-
quirements of the different classes whose sup
port they desired to obtain, but we doubt it.
Mr.. Greeley in the course of his present Yves
tern tour has taken occasion to make two
fresh recantations of long-cherished opinions,
in compliance with what he conceives to be a
popular demand. What reader of the Tribune
for the last few years has not heard him
again and again asseverating that if he were
in authority he would write over the door of
sUMED" and would thereupon1 begin to pay
out gold for every greenback presented
This is the heroic method by which he has a
thousand times declared he would reach that
goal which most people admit it is desirable
to attain, while holding that the diff
ing it are tremr ndous, and sur
mountable only by the highest degree Of
prudence, caution and wisdom. The friends
of the Democratic candidate have been aware
that the business men of the country look
with contempt, which has been changed to
alarm since Mr.. Greeley's nomination, on his
erratic notions of finance. Accordingly Hon
est Horace was in no wise disinclined to
make satisfactory explanations, and found
fit occasion to recant in speech
before a commercial body in Gin
cinnati the other day. But unfortunately
he thought it necessary to keep up show of
holding in some small degree to his original
opinions in order to save his surrender from
being too shameful in its completeness and
obvious insincerity, and it is said that his
hearers were as much alarmed at his adher-
ence to the notion that all the money in
the treasury except small work
king balance should be paid out as if he had
manfully upheld the most absurd of his fnan-
cial crotchets.
During his present trip he has attempted
in like unsatisfactory manner to modify so as
to make less odious his notorious theory that
it is best to let States really desiring to Sc
cede go in peace. His essay in this direction
only led him into new quagmires, for he is on
record so fully touching this matter
that it requires more tact than
he possesses to explain away his
previous utterances without manifest absurd
ity. The result was that he had to explain in
one place what he said in another, and,
after all, to leave on the minds of his hearers
the impression that he would bow as sub
missively as ever to an unmistakable popular
expression in favor of seeding from the
Union on the part of the people of any State.
So Honest Horace's record up to date is
about as follows: He has attempted to ig-
more his secession and financial theories; he
has made a contract to let alone his darling
protection for the present he has renowned
prohibition; he has turned right about on
the Ku-Klux and federal election laws, of
which he was the foremost advocate; he re-
CARDS as patriots and statesmen the drunk
ards, thieves, shoulder hitters and pimps who,
according to his former views, make up the
Democratic party. 1t is doubtful if there is
another man in the country who can show
so great "reative loss'' since the first of last
May.