The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-06-03
Wrecked in a Month.

The fierce light that beats upon a throne is
mere moonshine when compared with that to
which, in democratic country, candidate
for the highest official position is subjected.
In that terrific illumination, to which con-
tributions are made from a thousand sources,
every fact in the candidate past history, every
phase Of his opinions, every weakness of his
private life, every aspect of his moral charac-
ter, every word he has uttered or printed and
almost every thought that his mind has
framed, becomes plainly visible to the mill
ions who are intently gazing upon him. The
voter knows whom his candidate voted for in
1850 for Governor, and what is the exact
shade of his hair; what he thought of the
Wilmotproviso, and the size of his boots what
he thinks about original sin, how he behaved
himself toward his grandmother, how much
water he takes in his brandy, whether he
habitually spanks his youngest child, where
he first met his. wife and the cause of their
first quarrel, his rank at school, his ncknames
in boyhood, his opinion about the tariff on
wool and the cost of his best trowsers.
Happy is the man who can afford to be rem
dered as transparent morally as Marleys
ghost was when the trembling Scrooge, look
ing at the front of his waistcoat, saw the but
tons on the back of his coat! Happy the
man who, like Washington, Lincoln and
Grant, can pass through. this trial by light,
and in all essential respects, pass satisfacto-
rily under the scrutiny of the people. Nc
Clellan's chances were instantly consumed
II N nLa I,o
fully revealed. The unstable Seymour and
Blair ticket disappeared under it like a bit of
cotton under the fame of an oxyhydrogen
blowpipe Mr.. Greeley's fate. has been no
less decisive. A month only, has elapsed
since, with his face wreathed in smiles and
with every fibre of his body quivering with
joy and triumph, he received the telegram
from Cincinnati announcing his nomination.
And in thirty days he is an utter wreck. He
is not the stuff that Presidents are made Of
He is found wanting in the most vital points.
His history for ten years is history of errors
of opinion, though it cannot be denied that
the general direction of his mind has been
right and that his intentions, up to the mo-
ment when ambition deprived him of reason
and conscience, were good. These errors of
opinion, had he been the ruler of this nation,
would have been errors of conduct, fatal to
the interests of forty millions of people and
to the perpetuity of republican government,
brief recapitulation will show how conclus- |
i've against Mr.. Greeley are the revelations of
the four weeks that have elapsed since his |
nomination.
He has been shown to be visionary, i'm
practicable and sure to lose all moral courage
in times of difficulty and danger.
He would have surrendered to the rebellion
in 1860, and again in 1864.
He would have ruined the country bv his
precipitancy in 1861. a.. .-t.
He would have restored the Confederate
chiefs to power, thus remanding the freed |
men to virtual slavery, in 1865.
He favored the return of Douglas TO the |
Senate in 1858 instead of Lincoln.
He wanted to abandon Lincoln in 1864.
He brought great scandal on himself by
signing the bail-bond of jeff Davis, and es-
peclally by the superfuous cordially amount
ing to willingness to be toady, that he has
since exhibited toward the Rebel leader.
80 far we have enumerated what may be |
regarded as faults of the head and not of the
heart They betoken an unsafe, if not a weak
intellect, and are calculated to make an in
tenigent people cautious about investing the
man Oh whom such faults are characteristic
WIN the greatest responsibilities that hui
man being can assume. But so far tbera
is nothing indicating an absolute want of
principle. There is enough to show that
Mr.. Greeley would be the weakest President
IN a list that contains some names that are
But since the beginning of the present year
Mr.. Greeley has said things under the in
toxicatlng influence of ambition, that show
as radical lack of principle as has ever been
eAnioieed by any American ASPIRATION office.
We commend the following melancholy re-
cital to the consideration of all Repubicans
happily few in this State, who think s.Gree-
ley would make good President"
Up to the time ofthe Cincinnati Convention
Mr.. Greeley was the foremost advocate of
protection in the world. He made that cues
ZION the paramount one in his political creed.
Since the Convention he has deliberately un-
dertaken to conciliate the Democracy by
waving that matter altogether, and forr.aEtv
promising not to make use of any po,oer he
may hare as President to M,cart the free
trddersl
Hitherto Mr.. Greeley has been one of the
most conspicuous advocates of what is known
as The Ku-Klux lava statute designed to
protect the lives of loyal Southerners, and to
prevent the attempted notification of the
il'sen.h amendment by Southern Rebels.
NO" MI Greeley is one of the most conspicu-
Gus opponents OF that law, because the Dem
ocratic party, whose support he greatly de- u
sires, is hostile to it. -
MIR. Greeley attacked with great asnoritv
in the Tribune the Brooklyn ring con,h;na