The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1872-10-10

IEElA VII Vas III llO hLN LllN Qll
my presence might well have tende
to compromise Mr.. Adams in a mar
} ner which he would hardly approved
/ holding, as he then did, a high publ
: position. Accordingly I staid s
! home, and very glad 1 now am that
E did stay at home.
/ AS you all know, the Cincinna
2 COnVentiOn-the convention whic
originated in the movement for free
trade, civil service reform, and tn
protest against all centraliZing legis
! latiOn, nominated Horace Greeley a
: its candidate for the Presidency. /
= due time the Democratic Convention
duly assembled, ratified this nOmina
ton. have nothing to say agains
Mr.. Greeley personally. He ha
achieved marked success in his spe
cial calling; he has done great WOrl
in life; he has exercised a prodigiou
influence. l have, however, rarel-
had the satisfaction of agreeing witt
him, and have ever entertained pc
culiar and, perhaps, exaggerated lacl
of confidence in his practical judg
ment and administrative ability. II
use a vulgar but expressive phrase
he "slOps over" too frequently:
popularity which he has not succeed
ed in holding in check during the
coures of the present canvass. Mr.
Greeley's views upon every single
question in which the Cincinnati
movement originated aIe, and al.
ways have been Numerically OppOs.
ed to that movement. To force him
upon us as our candidate is, there
fore, an absolute insult, and is only
redeemed by its humorous features
which, however keenly we might ap-
| preciate them, we could hardly be
! expected to enjoy. We went to Gin.
cinnati in open revolt against the
party mauipulations of Messrs. Conk-
ling, and Cameron, and Morton, and
Chandler. When We got there We
were met by Messrs. Fenton and
| COchrane, and Mcclure, and Went
worth and Tilton, and WarmOth, and
| they, with the aid of Frank Blair, kind
ly proceeded to manage" things for
us in the good old way, and, in the
first place to provide US with a can
didate. do not see how we gained
greatly by this change of masters F;
for myself prefer the old set. We
went protesting against "carpet-bag-
ism," and they "carpet-bagged" oar
convention with an ingenuity which
excited even our Tueful adlai-
ration. We went calling for free
trade, and they gave us the most 10
tOrious and consistent proteetiohst
in all America. We went crEfhs
out against Capitalization, and saying
''the world is governed too much, /"
and we came back with the great
apostle Of unlimited legislation on all
conceivable subjects, for our chosen
candidate. They not only insisted
upon our accepting an empty change
in lieu of the improvement to which
we had aspired, but they actually car
ried their undisguised contempt for
US as refOrmers to the extent of OPEN
ly asking US to go into contOrtiou of
supposed ecstacy over their ridiculous
campaign "Joss," made up, like a
scare-crOw, of a dilapidated hat and
shabby coat.
We believe in our principles as free
traders, as civil service reformers, as
friends of local self-gOvernment; we
propose also to continue to believe,
and, if we can, we further propose to
make the belief that is in us respec-
ted of others.
We feel very much now, under the
candidacy of Mr.. Greeley, as we
should have felt in 1860 had the "un-
terrified" assumed control of the
Chicago convention, referred the
question of slavery to the several con-
gressiOnal districts, nominated for US
Mr.. Jefferson Davis, and then rolled
up their eyes in spirit of sanctity and
assured us that some garment of our
candidate covered physical conforma-
ton of surprising beauty and excell-
ence.
There is but one thing we can not
suffer and live under; that is dishon-
or, made more unendurab!e because
ridiculous. With what hope or even
face could we, during the rest of our
lives, go reforming" again, when
once we had allowed Ourself to be
made such very stool pigeons of with
impunity, and even actually assisted
those who cozened US in the successful
prosecution of their game. We may
not be successful politicians, but we
can at least try to be honest men.
Meanwhile, for a long time past, and
especially during present campaign, 1
have acted in close sympathy with the
class whose feelings now find vigOr-
Gus expressions through the columns
of the New York Evening Post and
the NdtiOn-a class insignificant in
numbers only, and one not safely to
be disregarded. We and our princi-
Piles have in this matter been brutal
ly and grievously insulted, and we
propose to show that we are not dis
posed to be accessories to our own dis
honor. We at least never invited
Mr.. Greeley and his singular follow
ing into any party affiliatiOns-we al
ways protested against it; and, from
their first introduction, looked upon
our unlimited associates with undis-
guised apprehension. Those who
brought about the alliance are, per-
haps, bound by the principles of what
is called political honor not to repu-
diate the consequence of their own
act; they made the game, and they
lost the stakes; we, however, are not
disposed to allow ourselves to be
as a portion of the con-
tents of that spool"
The defeat Of Mr.. Greeley has, there
fore, become, from our IOint of view,
the one good thing which can result
from this campaign. His success
would be our complete discontinue.
It would go far to demonstrate what
we have most persistently denied, and
the denial of which was at the basis
of the original Cincinnati movement.
We then insisted, as We still do in
sist, that the people of this country
were a body of which we ourselves
were part; that the mass of our fellow
citizens disliked to be humbugged,
and liked to be treated as rational be-
ings, Just as we did OurselTes-nO
more and no less.
The thing seems altogether too ridi-
culoUs to be gravely stated, and yet it
inatiOn was wholly and avOWedly
urged and justified on the ''white hat"
''tidal wave" and "prairie fire" hy-I
pOthesis; the "blOOdy chasm" melO-
drama was a somewhat flimsy after
piece, introduced to cover up the aw-
full failure of the great original "wOOd
chopper" farce. The defeat of Mr..
Greeley will go far TO convince the
linen inside politics" that things ut
terly incOngruous can not as yet be
Jumped together, that the
rise of "tidal WaYes'' and "prairie
fires" has some connection with real
cause, that the people, of
whom they pirate so much and think
so little, are not mere children to be
pleased with a rattle and tickled with
a straw, and, finally, that the cast of
garments Of an eminent editor are,
after all, but a poor substitute for car
'dinal principles.
AT one time 1 freely confess L hop
ed for more than this-far mOre-as
the result of the present canvass. l
did hope that great principles might
be gravely discussed, and that much
progress might be made, NO matter
what party achieved success in the
grand work of educating nation. In
common with many others, was
but, if I can not have