The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-03


right to re-elect General Grant; that they
mean to try and do it. When that is done,
they will take up this principle and consider
it calmly and with thoroughness, and without
the suspicion of making war upon the Presi-
dent
So, Diminishing this intrigue as having no legit-
innate place in this canvass, we ask the witches
to suspend their nominations long enough to
give us a candidate. Well, Mr.. Wilkes names
Senator Sumner, and, as Mr.. Wilkes seems to
be the head witch of the group, we listen to
him. Would Mr.. Sumner be a good Presi-
denta We give him all honor as Senator.
But he belongs to class Of men like Burke,
who, by their temperament and genius,
are foreordained to be in the minority. Mr..
Sumner is not an American nearly as much as
he is an Englisaman or Frenchman. He
has never made himself II place in the peoples
affections. The republican party respects
Sumner; but sometimes it fears and
at other times it derides him. No man
can expect to be President who inspires his
party with either fear or derision. Then in
the matter of availability, Mr.. Sumner has
many elements of weakness. Nothing but a
miracle Of God would give him the votes Of
the reactionary Southern States. The Bour-
bon democracy would abandon him in shoals
His party would find they had a wintry frozen
canvass; candidate to be carried instead of
one who could carry any marked strength. Mr..
Sumner must live out the career he has made
himself. He is Senator; his mission is to
criticise and lead necessary and judicious
opposition. He cannot now, in the ripeness
and maturity of fame recalling that of
Burke, go back into the devious and uninviting
paths by which aspiring politicians like Van
Buren, and Buchanan crept into the Presi-
dency.
so, dismissing Mr.. Sumner, we come to the
remainder of the group: some negative, others
positive. Mr.. Greeley is perhaps the only
really positive candidate; for the others
we regard as so many anxious virgins, with
their lamps trimmed and their garments tucked
around them, waiting to be called. They are
accidental, make-shift asprants for power, with
the merit of having no special merits or de-
for good or evil upon the country. Mr.. Greeley
is a positive, candidate. He would give his
ticket strength that Mr.. Sumner would not
have. In Virginia and North Carolina, where
the old line whig traditions survive he would
beat any candidate but Grant, and would
even run Grant very close. He would be
strong in Pennsylvania, because of his pig-iron
fancies, and on the Pacific coast for personal
reasons. But Mr.. Greeley edits partisan
newspaper, and in that position he is like
Coleridge's Ancient Mariner with the albatrOss
around his neck. AS partisan he has been
in hundred fights, and has made enemies
whose animosity slumbers, but who would rise
to confront him in his canvass as suddenly as
the followers of Rhoderic Dhu sprang from
the heather and bracken when they
popular man, partly because he has been
assiduously advertised by the association
which prints his newspaper, and partly be-
cause he has hale, lusty, generous sympa-
thy with the people in all of their struggles
and aspirations. He would develop elements
of political strength that none of his party pos
sesses, and, perhaps, on the other hand, ele-
ments of antagonism that would be silent
before tepid, Indifferent statesmen like Trum-
bull and Cox. He is temperance man,
which would not please the Germans. He
would hang nobody, which would please
nobody very much just now. He is pro-
tectionist which would ALLEVIATE the import
ing, free trade interests. He bailed Jefferson
Davis, which reduced every member of the
stern old radical republican party, over fifty
years of age, into state of implacable
wrath.
AS it is, even with Sumner or Greeley or
any one, we take Grant against the field. He
has done well, and has been in every respect
good and faithful servant. The republican
politicians cannot defeat his nomination by
any zone term" intrigue, and the American
people are too generous to permit him to be
sacrificed to the ambition and animosity of
rebels democrats and disappointed republican
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