New-York tribune., 1872-09-13
MR. ADAMSS SOBER FIRST THOUGHT

MIR. ADAMSS SOBER FIRST THOUGHT
1t is consoling reflection that no man Is
quite capable of destroying the effect OF
good action. When Mark Antony was on the
stump in Rome he thought more of sensation
than of exact truth, or he would never have
said that the good men do is inferred with
their bones. Mr.. John Quincy Adams IS doing
his best just at present to undo all his work Tor
the last two years, but he will find it difficult.
The movement which he and others SGT on
foot goes alone very well without him, but his
work in the cause will not be readily forgot
ten. He was not quite satisfied with the nom
nations that were made at Cincinnati-Or per-
haps it would be more accurate to say, he would
have been better satisfied with those which were
not made. He has, therefore, taken to cursng
what he came out to bless, and has pettishly
turned his back on the Liberal movement and
gone to coGuetting with the extreme reac-
tionary and prO-Slavery faction of the
Democracy which he has been fighting
and denouncing for years, and finally
succeeded in utterly defeating inside
of the party. The result achieved on Wednes
day at Worcester must have given him
singular mngling of qualification and reproach.
For months he has been laboring to bring
about this precise result, the emancipation of
the Democratic party from the thralldom OF re-
dictionary tradition, and sincere and close
coalition with the Liberal Republicans for the
purpose of rescuing the Government from the
hands of the dull usurpation which was gradu-
ally demoralizing the political conscience of
the country. In his own State, he has seen
~. IL Il. a..
The two parties have met in perfect harmony
and agreed upon joint campaign. They have
joined in accepting and announcing platform
of principles unexceptionable to the political
school to which Mr.. Adams belongs, and in
presenting as candidate for Governor the
purest, ablest and most illustrious citizen of
Massachusetts,. Yet this hour, which ought to
have been the most triumphant of Mr. Adams's
life, sees him repudiating his own work, turn
ing his back on his own loud professions, and
plotting, with the ghosts of the dead Bour-
bonism he helped to slay, the destruction of
the great progressive party he helped to
found
We do not pretend to deny that we
should have greatly preferred to see Alr.
Adams with us In this great fight for reunion
and reform. III the nomination he desired and
expected had been made at Cincinnati and
Baltimore, he would have been precisely
suited for once in his life. Every word of the
platform of principles there adopted would
have met his full approval. He had
beforehand declared himself in fa-
vor of the precise political programme
adopted by the Liberals and Democrats.
The Liberal candidates for President and
Vice-President represent the principles for
which Mr.. Adams has so vigorously con-
tended, and their election is the only practica-
bic way of putting these principles in practice.
They are men of unsulled character, of emf
nent public services, of distinguished and un-
questioned abilities. But their nomination was
not the one desired by Mr.. Adams, and there
fore he threw himself into the arms of that
absurd mob of reactonary Cop
Derheads at Louisville, who were laboring. by
dishonest pretense of re0rganizin9 the old