New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-05-09
Ne. GreeIey as a Candidate.

MIR. Greeley as n Candidate.
"H. W." to the Louisville Cotuier-Joau
zeal, writes the story of the convention
from which we make these extracts:
The nomination of Horace Greeley, which
is good thing come about in bad way
changes tie whole aspect of the campaign
The Greeley and Brown ticket was weaker
at Cincinnati the day of its nomination thar
it viii ever be between this and the day O.
election. The nomination of Charles Fran
chs Adams would have begun at the top anC
descended to the bottom of the popular IN
Outstanding. The nomination of Horace
Greeley begins at the bottom and will e
up to the top as the surprise of the present
moment deepens into a sense of the inevita
Die, and the jests of the facetious begin tC
be roughly handled by the conflicting pas
siOns and interests fthe people. Mr.. Adams
would have made an immediate break in
the thinking portion of the Republican
party; he would at once have taken from
Grant the mOney-pOwer by offering it the
certainty Of constitutional security rem
dered preferable by peaceful appliances to
the enforced and WarlIke order of the ex-
listing military ring.
Mr. Greeley offers no such inducement to
the mOneY-pOwer. The prOtectiOnists of
New England have been well satisfied to
have the use of Mr.. Greeley's pen. but the
cold and calculating spirit of Wall street
will never trust its interests into the keep
ing of a careless, immethOdical and gushing
humanitarian, who is known to be both i'm
practicable and honest as far as jobs and
rings are concerned. The nomination of
Adams would have divided the money
power. The nomination of Greeley con
sOlidates it. The nomination of Adams
would have made the campaign turn upon
reform, cOldly and sharply, but irresistibly,
haf NT,sv ,An11s % ~.
and compelling the judgments of the people
and the submission of the capitalists. The
nomination of Greeley is an assault upon
the hearts of men and will derive its power
from their affections.
1t was Dom Piatt who said in the early
stages of the convention, when there was
more hair-splitting than enthusiasm, that
there lis too much brains and not enough
whisky" There was, indeed, little spirit
nous development even at the close, but the
result goes directly to that part of our
common human nature which is supposed
when reused, TO be most capable Of over
coming obstacles and producing effects:
and, since the organizing power which the
nomination of Adams would have exercised
upon those muscular elements that cut SO
great figure in our affairs, is not assured
by the nomination of Greeley, the support
ers of the Liberal movement have reason
to congratulate themselves upon having a
nominee who makes an appeal to that
higher element than Wall street, the people
in the rural districts, who, ever jealous OF
the money power, are never unable to over
throw it when they have the heart-I viii
not say the mind-tO 60 for 1t.
Horace Greeley is the best known citizen
of America. His career has made a deeper
impression upon his fellow-citizens than
that OF any living man. His face is familiar
TO everybody. His picture swings in more
cottages and log cabins than that of any of |
his contemporaries. 1t is a kind face, the |
face OF an able, honest man, who never pur- |
sued fallen enemy, and is incapable of de- |
ceit. His records, likewise, full of whimsi- |
cal, odd, attractive points. More can be |
said for him and against than can be said |
of any other candidate who was ever nut in |
nomination for the Presidency. But cast /
ing up the balance, this result can be struck |
OFF: he never committed an error that /
sprung from malignance or venalitv, and |
all his shortcomings and his weaknesses
"Lean to virtues side"
He was the over-zealous partisan of free |
dom the over-zealOus partisan of peace
the Over-zealOus partisan of protection. He |
has habit1ally sacrificed him self to good |
impulses, sometimes misdirected and some |
times out Of season, but always generous |
and brave.
He did not fear the slave-power when it |
controlled the politics of the whole country. |
He did not lear the war-pOwer when he |
boldly went to Canada to make an impos- |
sible peace. He did not fear the power of |
prejudice when he obeyed the generous |
suggestions of a nature, always overflow |
ing, and went to Richmond to open the |
prison doors of Jefferson Davis. He has |
feared nothing in a long life of striving af-
ter both ideal and practical standards, hav-
ing been equally courageous and whimsical
able and kindly.
They viii laugh at his foibles, but they
can not deny that there is a certain genial
power even in his fOibles. They may car
tOon him and lampoon him; but their pic
lures and their Jokes will only serve to |
make that comical, kindaOld face the more
pleasing and the more familiar, if that be
possible, to the people, and to render his
peculiarities the less Objectionable by pro-
ducing popular reaction IN his favor.
Mr.. Greeley has as many elements Of
strength within himself-as many of what
the politicians call running qualities"-as
any candidate who ever asked the sutfrages
of the American people. In these he re-
sembles Mr.. Lincoln. His old white coat
will prove counterpart to the famous
suTtOut of Napoleon, which had only to be
raised upon a walking-stick to muster the
troops of all Europe into the field. His old
white hat will be hOmely modern Illus
tration of the white plume Of Henry Of
Navarro, shining with the inspiring bright
ness of an Orifame in the thick Of the fight.
1t does not need George Alfred Townsend
and Frank Blair to predict that much for
the philosopher of peace, whose emblem is
The emblem of Greeley, white.
This is an epoch of peace, and peace has
no representative so conspicuous as Horace
ssreeieg. He is on record as the first to
proclaim universal amnesty. He is on
4 .sqcd as the most powerful assailant of
lose seourges of the South and of honest
~ eminent, the csrpetbaggers. No man, |
4 ~ himself could possess fewer obiectiona-
GAG 'Eal0s 70 the Democrats, who viii take