The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-05
THE PHILADELPHIA CANDIDATE.


question that the President would be
renominated by the Philadelphia
Convention. 1t was assumed by the
chief Democratic papers as a fore
gone conclusion, because, as they al
lege, he was the strongest candidate.
That was unquestionably the feeling
among Republicans. 1t was that
conviction which produced the Mis-
sonri call for a meeting at Cincinnati
to influence the Convention. 1t was
the same feeling which caused the
Tribune to say that the two Conven-
tons were wholly distinct, and that
those who were welcome at the one
would not be welcome at the other
We presume, however, that the edi-
tor of the Tribune would not now be
displeased if the Philadelphia Con-
vention should welcome the Cincin-
natl candidate Undoubtedly, it was
the general conviction when the year
opened that the President would be
renominated; and in that expectation
the Democratic party was visibly
crumbling, and it was felt that the
reelection of the President would be
the dissolution of that party, and the
elimination of the most baneful or
ganized element from our politics.
And why was the denomination of
the President believed to be assuredy
and why was the Democratic party
crumbling? Because of the general
success of the Administration. The
people of the country saw in the
President an honest, simple, patriotic
man, patiently doing his duty. There
was foolish cry of military despot-
ism, and they saw in the White House
one of the plainesit and least ostenta-
tious of American citizens: the mill
tary hero of the late war indeed: but
whoever gravely declared tenden-
CIV TO military methods in General
Grants discharge of his duties show
ed himself profoundly ignorant of the
facts. If Congress thinks fit to pro-
tect innocent citizens from Ku-Klux
assassins by laws which by some per-
sons are considered to be unconstitu-
tional, it certainly does not follow
that General Grant inclines to be
military dictator Passing from the
President, these people saw also that
national condition which has become
a proverb. Confidence restored; in
dustry active and secure; prosperity
everywhere increasing; taxation re-
duced; the debt diminishing; every
citizen conscious that the Govern
ment would defend his liberty; the
name of the nation respected beyond
precedent; country in which the
scars of the icrcest war were disap-
pearing more rapidly than ever before
in history.
The chief of civil Administra-
ton of which these things could be
truly said--a chief who as leader of
the armies had preserved the govern
ment and saved civilization upon this
continent, and who had sheathed his
sword as modestly a. Washington,
was the spontaneous choice for re-
election of the mass of the party
which had FIRST elected him. Trou-
bles, meanwhile, and dissatisfactions
had arisen. In a government by
party they are inevitable. They have
always existed in our politics-never
more positively than in the time of
Washington. But the trouble would
not have taken serious form except
for the fact of the evident dissolution
of the Democratic party, which was
the crowning proof of the success of
the Administration. Under such cir
cumstances there was possibility of
an alliance between few Republi-
cans and the mass of the Democrats,
which might overthrow the Repub-
lican party and takepossession of the
government And this is the enter
prise which has begun at Cincinnati.
This being the situation, the ques-
ton is, whether the feeling in regard
to the denomination was false and
groundless. On the contrary, there
is no serious doubt that the President
is to-day the positive preference of
the enormous majority of Republi- |
cans for reelection There are those
who say that he is the only Republi-
can who cannot be elected; but those
who say so merely express their own
bitter feelings, and can name no man
who could be wisely substituted for
him. If the Philadelphia Conven-
ton should pass him by, whom would
1T name! 1t is easy to mention hon.
ored Republicans and able men. But
we must consider the situation. III
it We're graveiy proposed to get aside
the President, it would be because it
was believed that the Cincinnati
movement has shown itself to be
menacingly strong, and because it |
was felt that it must be propitiated. |
Yet if this were the reason, and no |