Litchfield enquirer., 1872-07-25
HORACE GREELEY.

campaign into mere personal squabble between Grant and Greeley. supplement, ed as such aconception of the contest is sure to be, by savage attacks upon the public and private character of the repec. :. tive candidates, is one which policy as well as decency should incline both par ties to avoid Such species of contest not only tends to the degradation of the press, and to make journalism mere clash of ibels, but it can be of very slight advantage in the present instance to ei- ther party Whatever injury islander can do Gen. Grant has been long since accom- plished. For years all the papers oppos- ed to him have systematically misrepre- sented his character and designs. Even the Tribune, his latest opponent, has al- ready done it's worst work, while prepar- ing, within the Republican lines, it's at tack upon Republicanism. On the other hand, what intelligent mans opinion of Horace Greeley is likely to be changed by anything said of him by the New York Times, the old rival of the Tribune, but lately foundering in the heresy of John isonism, and possessed of very little weight of personal character Whatever could be said to his disadvantage has already been stated, ,lre-stated and stated again, in the journals of the Democracy and by the Republican rivals of the Tribune. Hence
 
 every Republican voter in the country has already fully formed his estimate Of Mr., Greeley. This estimate has been on the whole favorable, and although what he has done of late has greatly shaken Re- publican good opinion, we doubt whether the severe denunciations with which our press now abound, are likely to be efec- tive. After long life of honesty no man becomes in a twinkGng dishonest. A man so prominent in politics for over thirty years as MT. Greeley, who has never dur ing that time asked for an office, is not likely to become suddenly an offce-seek- CT. A man whose nomination for the presidency was the accident of day can- not be justly charged with having been influenced in his political course by pres idential aspirations. Granting, therefore, as we think candor demands, that MT. Greeley deserves his character for honesty: that he is not now, any more than former ly, an office seeker; and that his recent political course has not been occasioned by presidential aspirations, we do not believe that the motives that have infu- enced him to leave the Republican party are such as should have sufficient weight with other Republicans to follow. his ex- ample. A brief glance at the character and career of the man, and at his .occas sions of disgust, with the present admins tration, will we think be sufficient to es- tablish this proposition. .
 High as MT. Greeley's reputation has stood in the Republican party from the first, for independence, honesty, and abil- ity, he has never been considered sound or safe. He is by no means void of orig inality, but his peculiar culture has been of kind that gives breadth but not depth to character. He has never had leisure for calm and careful consideration of any subject, but hurries about with a head full of crude opinions which he he champions with an immense fervor, exceeding the fervor of the ordinary en- thusiast as much as his arrogance exceeds the arrogance of the ordinary s'self- made" man. The undoubted benevoIence of the man is nearly as freakish as his views are crotchety. Now all this fervor indepen- dence, impulsive benevolence and high self-conceit go to the making up of great oppositionj journalist, but they are not what a party in power likes in it's officials. Hence the New York Tribune has been chiefly effective as an opposition, not as an administration paper. It gave Presi- dent Lincoln about such support as it has given President Grant. Its propensity to ''kick ont of the traces" has always been notorious. Consequently MT. Greeley, though esteemed and respected as he de- served to be, has never seemed to Repub- icans of nature and and education suit ed to the responsibilities of office. In no other way can we account for the fact that a man so long and so we'll know, whose services to his party have been so great, has never been offered high position in the administration of it's policy. It is true that he has never been an ofiice-seek- CT, and that offices usually go in these days to those who seek them; yet the feeling of the party generally, has plainly been one of acquiescence in this exclusion of MT. Greeley from office and in sort of verdict of ''cranky" against him, which found its latest expression in the general laugh that welcomed his nomination. That MT. Greeley, though not an ofice-seeker,i is nevertheless keen1y ambitious of political distinction, is fact that has more than once manifested itself, particularly in his noted letter dissolving the firm of Seward, Ward and Greeleyrby the withdrawal of the junior partner. That he was aware of the feeling that peryaded the Republican party hostile to his advancement in it, was evidenced to the shrewd observer by his characteristically defiant course in ad- vocating General Amnesty, bailing Jeffer- son Davis, and snubbing the Loyal League. aas ,aaz zaF7as so sEs ssaai sre
 That it was dissatisfied ambition alone that led Mir, Greeley into his opposition to the Republican party we donot believe. That the soreness occasioned by the sights he conceived himself to have sqf- fered from his party somewhat soured him towards it, cannot, however, be de- nied. Add to this his natufal tendency to fight 5''the powers that be," shown as strongly under Lincoln as under Grant, 1 and above all the unwise prescription of