The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-13

The politicians seem TO have revolted
against General Grant, and there is much ex-
element In the taverns and legislative lobbies
Some weeks since politician named Mcclure,
who had been member of the Pennsylvania
Legislature, and possesses a local fame as the
friend Of Governor Curtin, the present Minister
to Russia, made q sensation in Penn
sylvania by running for the Senate as q coali-
ton conservative candidate in opposition to
ministration. He was beaten, and, although
his vote was not as large as the democratic vote
cast in the district at the last election, the
fact that the successful republican had q
smaller majority than was given at the previous
| election made a panic. So the anti-Grant
organs are in an uproar. The politicians begin
to fear there will be an overthrow of Grant"
And, as if to add fuel to the flame, Colonel
Forney has suddenly resigned his position as
Collector of the Port in Philadelphia.
This act has made o good deal of ex-
element in the country; but, upon analysing
1t, there is no new feature to change the situa-
ton. Colonel Forney says, in fact, that his
principal reason for resigning the place is that
he is sorry to have taken it at the outset. The
Office, we are told, is an Insignificant one,
as may be imagined when we remember
that it Is the collection of customs at
port where there is very little impor-
tation of merchandise. A politician as ex-
perienced as Colonel Forney might we'll
turn away in contempt from an Office
which did not pay more than his election as
sessments. An editor as brave as Colonel
Forney might be glad to retire from o position
that compelled him to sacrifice his independ-
ence as journalist while it gave him no ade-
quate compensation-moKal, pecuniary or
political. He deserves great honor for having
taken this step. No editor should sacrifice his
independence" for any Office. And no
partisan editor-not even as untiring
and sincere partisan as Forney-
is justified in sacrificing his Journalistic
independence" for five or six thousand
dollars year and the kicks and cuffs of party
/ leaders, and the ISLANDERS of what he calls
''superserviceable knaves" in the bargain.
But Colonel Forney makes a merit Of
natural and praiseworthy proceeding.
He means to put himself into the po-
sition of leading General Grant out of the
wilderness, and showing him the way to vic
tory. He desires to support the politician,
Mcclure, whom, with charming irony,
he calls "a statesman;" he means
to restore friendly relations between the
President and Sumner, Greeley and Fenton;
and there are desperate men who are striv-
ing to sway the President, to whom he must
cry ''Halt" All of which we admit he could
not very well do from the steps of the Phila-
delphia Custom House. If he does not sue
coed in these elaborate enterprises the infer
ence is that he will oppose Grant.
The fact that the politicians are in revolt
against Grant, and that as shrewd and expe-
rienced a politician as Colonel Forney leads
them, does not change the situation.
If the politicians elected President,
or If even they made Presidential
candidate, we might be anxious. They
are men who trade for power and place.
They follow any flag that wins. And their
senses become 80 blunted that in time they
mistake their own loudly expressed dis
appointment for the anger of the people
and frequently are led by their own
noise to abandon the winning side. Presi-
dent Jackson had revolt of more
serious character than any that has
menaced Grant. Calhoun and Duff
Green and Samuel D. Ingham and Duane and
hundreds of other democrats fercely opposed
him and with them was the stupendous power
of the United States Bank. But the people
saw Jackson's merits With that clearness
of vision which the people always re-
tain, and which no political mists can dim,
and they elected him again. In 1864 there
was arevolt against Lincoln. AS great man
as Chase was at the head of it. Fremont and
Wendell Phillips and Greeley and hundreds
of others took part. But the people saw
that Lincoln was honest and patient and true,
and that it was no cause for his displacement
that he had not appointed every politician to
Office. We believe Colonel Forney took no
part in that movement, although he is about
the only conspicuous follower of the present
anti-Grant party that did not. He knows
what came of it! He will surely not initiate
the example of the foolish men who went to
Cleveland to nominate Fremont and Cochrane
by going with Schurz and Trumbull and Cox
and 'the statesman" Mcclure to Cincinnati
to nominate some General like Hancock or
politician like Gratz Brown.
We can we'll understand why even the Phila-
delphia Custom House would be an indignity to
Colonel Forney, and that he should in time
throw the Office back at Grant and publish to
the world that he had left Washington without
accepting his invitation to call at The White
House, at the very time when 1t would do the
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