New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-04-04
From the New York Times
The Philadelphia Convention and
Mr.. Greeley.

puDncan party concerning Horace OfeeleyS
refusal to sign the call of the National Com
mittee for the usual nominating convention.
This feeling is particularly strong in the States
where elections are pending, and where the
sight of the Tribune, distributed under Demo-
cratic franks, by Democratic committees, is
not uncommon. There is, so far as we can
see, room but for one opinion of Mr.. Greeleys
course. 1t is simply an act of treachery to
political obligations which were voluntarily
assumed, and the general observance of which
is absolutely necessary to the continued use
fulness of the party. 1t is a practical decla-
ration, more significant than words, that Mr..
Greeley is controlled more by his prejudices
and passions than by his desire to see the
right and just cause win.
The National Committee is nothing more
nor less than piece of machinery, cOntrived
to render the continuous and consistent action
of the party possible. Its duties are divided
into two pOrtiOns-the supervision of the cam
paign following the convention by which it is
selected, and the determination of the place
and time for holding the next National Con-
vention. The first part of its duties the
present National Committee discharged three
was to provide for the meeting of the repre-
sentatives of the party to consult in regard to
the nominations, and the declaration of prin-
ciples on which the party should go before the
people in the Presidential election of this year.
1t is plain that if the party is to exist at all
if it is to make any effort whatever to impress
its principles upon the government of the
country-this simple action of the National
Committee must be taken. 1t is difficult to
see how any one whose duty it was to share
in that action, could undertake to prevent it,
unless he had made up his mind that the party
ought to be dissolved, and the Government
be abandoned to the Democrats, who stand
ready to seize it at the first opportunity. If
all the members of the National Committee
had chosen to do as Mr.. Greeley did-tO re-
fuse to take part in selecting the time and
place of the National Convention, and to re-
fuse to sign the call for one, there would have
been an end of the Republican organization
for the time being. Practically a near APP
proach to anarchy in the party must have
been the result, and the severest possible
blow would have been dealt to the principles
the Republican party represents.
Every one must see that with the members
of the National Committee it was not ques-
ton of whom the party should nominate, or
what principles it should announce it was
only question whether the party should
nominate any one, and whether it should alb
solutely surrender all the principles it ever
prOfessed, and take no steps to avOw new
ones. Moreover, this was question which
the highest authority in the party-its repre-
sentatives in the last National Convention
had decided beforehand, and that decision the
National Committee had no right to undertake
to abrogate. The very existence of the Com
mittee grew out Of the purpose Of the party
to maintain its organization. The Committee
was appointed for that chiefly. To decline
to perform that plain duty is something as
indefensible as for Presidential electOr to
refuse to assist in casting the vote of his
State. If any member of the Committee
could not attend to its duties, it was his BUSH
ness to resign, and give an opportunity for
the selection of some one who could. But to
remain in the Committee and decline to act
with it was to betray trust perfectly well
defined, and compulsory in its nature.
1t surely cannot be said that Mr.. Greeley's
independence would not allow him to do other
wise than he did. That would be forcing the
doctrine of independence beyOund all reason.
Mr.. Greeley is, as every man who hopes to
influence political action must be, partisan.
He has often acknowledged and enforced the
principles of partisan obligations. He knows
as well as any one what are the necessities
of associated action, and he has exhorted the
linen and brethren of his party to observe
them, times without number. He is even an
extreme partisan. He did not hesitate, for
instance, in the name of the party, to de-
nOunce Senators Grimes and Fessenden for
their action in the impeachment trial, with a
bitterness that utterly ignored the claims of
individual independence, or even of official
duty. And he has been known to assail his
friend Hank Smith for partisan dereictions,
with a severity which that gentleman's swind-
ling Of the widows and orphans depositors
| in the Bowling-green Savings Bank has never
for moment called forth.
We point to these facts in order to saw that
any force that may be claimed for Mr.. Gree
ley's abuse of the Republican Administration
on the ground that he is at the present mo-
ment representative Republican, cannot be
fairly allowed. In his present attitude. Mr..
Greeley has been untrue to the simplest obi
cations of Republican. He has betrayed
one of the most important trusts Republican
could receive, and one concerning which he
had had left to him no discretion. He has
done what he could, as the representative OF
the Republican party in its highest Executive
Committee, to interrupt the organization OF
the party. Whatever he says or does politi-
cally must be interpreted in the light of this
fact, and in the light of this fact his political
sayings and dOings are of small Importance,
except to those few persons who think, with
himself, that Horace Greeley is the best man
to be the next President of the United States.