New-York tribune., 1872-09-02
PARTY INTOLERANCE.
THE OPINIONS OF AN AVERAGE VOTER.
No H.

munication as a single feature Of the canvass to
wit the utter intolerance of differences has come To
be its only feature and could only wonder at 1t as
it grew. What supposed two months ago was TO
be good d-natured campaign, with great deal Oh
fun and spice and sprightness in 1t and yery nttlo
Of the old setting together Of teeth and clencbng OK
fists and scowng and violent talk. has grown to be
the most reckless and bitter and positively
venomous / ever knew. l have been trying to
understand it, but | confess it is beyond me, forit
plain enough that there is call for any such
| thing. We not at war certainly; that Is
| all over. As Republicans we have accom-
plshed vastly more than the most sanguino
of us expected or had any right to expect or hope
when the party was formed. We have got all
through with Slavery and clinched the business be-
| yond possibility Of reversal by enfranchsing tho
chattels themselves and eDkemeling-if may coin
word-the best thought of our philanthrophy and
political economy in the center of the organic act
out OF the reach of everything but revolution All
we set out for and better thousand times has been
secured amply and irreyersbly and at the end of it
we stand in front Of issues entirely new with tho
| page turned behind us. II seems 70 me quite in tho
order Of nature that with all this accomplished,
there should be new capitalization; that the old
parties should fall asunder and combine afresh
Why not Even if this is personal controversy
merely, and the question is only whether Mr. Gree
ley or Gen. Grant should be President, it does not
follow because my neighbor and hayo heretofore
acted together in opposition 10 Slavery that vo
should agree on the personal merits Of these two
And certainly there is as strong liability that VS.
should differ if the two men represent conflicting
theories What else could be expected than that
there should be at this ending and beginning OK
chapters just such q crossing over and inter-
mngling, and mixing and, if you please to call 1t
So mudde of politics and parties as we see. kno"
men who have been expecting it for the past Tour
years, and it seems to the analogies OF history
and the natural flow and current of political thought
warranted the expectation.
But instead of taking it philosophcally, or even
trying to be recOnciled to It, find all round mo
getting very angry and excited about it. Men who
have no stake whatever above that we all have az
citizens in the result get red in the face loud, yo-
lent, and profane, because some one probably M
honest as themselves who voted with them last
year proposes to vote against them this. Both arc
Republicans, and both will vote for men who not
only have been but now are Republicans, but they
differ as to their merits, and then comes almost a
mortal feud between them Well, l don't nnder-
stand it, but do thank God it will be over III threo
months more, and we shall have all the rest OF our
lives or at least till another election to be ashamed
Of ourselves in.
suspect very few Of who are proposing to our
selves the solemn satisfaction of taking hand IN
President-making in November will vote for tho
actual Greeley or the actual Grant. The average
voters have our ideal Greelcys and ideal Grants.
and shall vote for them The fesh-and-bones cam
ddate is to all of us, reckon, only sort Of rough
model over which We shape our own ideal, molding
one into heroic stature and grand and beautiful
form whae we punch the other into moral ugliness
aud distortion All, if each of should project
upon canvas the candidate we think we are voting
for and the one we think we are voting against,
how widely we should all differ from each
other, and form the actual likeness Very
little likelihood of choice in such ballotlng
We sometimes have political discussions in our
post-oce which is Kept in the village store, but the
tendency to heat and anger is such that the moro
discreet of the frequenters of the Office avoid pOli
cal topics to save their tempers was struck with
a remark that was made the other evening by tho
lawyer of our place, who Is an active Grant man.
The talk had run quite high, and had gone princi-
pally to the personal merits and dement's of tho
candidates; on one side Grant charged with
drunkenness and dishonesty, and even his military
record roughly oyerhanled; and on the other.
Greeley was charged with being Secessionist,
coward Tammany Republican. and FREQ
lover 1t was not an inspiritng debate. In lull
of it the lawyer said Well | suppose these men
are both pretty bad but if Greeley had been
nominated at Philadelphia and Grant at Baltimore.
I have not the least doubt we should be calling
Greeley q saint and Grant a mean cuss." l thought
the remark suggestive to say the least but
understood next day that the " true men" of tho
party, beginning with the postmaster had lost
fdence in my friend the lawyer. " No man would
talk that way" they said, whose heart was in the
causep
1t is queer how little grain of philosophy dropped
into that kind of a discussion settles a good many
things, and sets men TO looking each other in the
face in a blank, dazed way as though they were
ashamed of something. There ought to be about
philosopher to the thousand voters-if you could
find them IN that prOpOrton-tO go around whom
they have these empty headed, angry talks about
candidates and CONCEAL their gabble with a single
grain of common sense.
/ am inclined to think that the politics of this
campaign is a good deal matter of temperament.
There are some very excellent people in the world
who don't somehow seem to forgive easily. They
are very honest men, but they have hard lines in
their faces and a sort of conscious goOdnessn their
manner that is not attractive 1t is not their fault
that they do comprehend the idea of reconcilia-
ton they are made 1t is a great thing in their
favor that they have outgrown the war Of 1912, if
indeed they have. They miserly of grudges and
grievances, and treasure up accumulations of them
to be unhappy over. hope II am not uncharitable
in credting to this element the only earnest and
serious thought in the party of the Administration.
1t seems to me that as the central idea of the Liberal
party is this RECONCILIATION around which all the
lesser issues cluster the central opposing thought
is that of the rrecOncilables who honestly believe
the South should be punished by policy of dstrust
The men who think below the surface of things di-
vide upon this main question. Altogether subordi-