Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1872-03-06
THE POLITICIANS AT WORK.

THE POLITICIANS AT WORK
A convention Of so-called workingmen
met lately at Columbus, Ohio, and NOM
mated a candidate for President. The
nominee is Judge Davis, of the Supreme
Court of the United States, man worth
five millions of dollars and no more rep
resentative of the men who chose him, or
of the principles they advocate, than Will
liam B. Astor, the New York millionaire.
A convention under the style of liberal
Republican - is soon to meet at Cincin-
natl, under the direction of professional
politicians, to ratify the first nomination.
The two conventions are, in fact, in the
interest of a shrewd set of political schenl-
ers, who are behind the curtain pulling
the wires. These men, realizing that
the Democratic party must see the
hopelessness of success under their true
colOrs, presume upon their greed for office
and their hatred of President Grant, to
whip them into line and win the White
House by their votes. We say this whole
plot is the work of politicians, and so it is.
It bears upon its face too many badges of
fraud To begin with, what is there in
common with a rich judge and lawyer
like Davis and the working mems party?
The latter demand eight hours for days
labor, certain legislation to reconcile capt.
tai and labor, and the recognition OF the
working men as an element i'll the govern
ment upon the same basis as capital. If
a convention of such men should have
put forth champion Of their principles
or a representative man of their Organiza-
ton, it would have been consistent
and had force. Bat when, contrary to
all expectations, it dominates millionaire,
almost as far removed in temperament and
antecedents from workingmen as Senator
Hammond, of South Carolina, was when
he called them "mudsills of society,""
how can people fail to suspect their sim
certify? How does Judge Davis come so
suddenly to be laboring mans friend
more than Gen. Grant, whose earlier years
were burdened with the cares and toll Of a
real working man Why should every
one feel that the Cincinnati Convention
will ratify Davis nomination Is it be-
cause the people believe that the same
political ring controls it, or is it appropri-
ate and natural? If the former is the reason
is it not remarkable that Mr.. Davis sud-
denly becomes the hope of laboring men,
whose interests he probably never before
thought of, and of Liberal Republicans
whose chief aim is political power? Is it
not still more remarkable that this same
man should at the same time combine
qualities attractive to that corrupt, treas
enable old organization, VIGOROUSLY and
odiOusly known as Democracy? What
remarkable exigencies are these that at
tract so suddenly Laboring Men, Liberal
Republicans and Democrats all towards
very clever old gentleman supposed to be
busy with law principles in the Supreme
Court room at Washington? Is there
any alarming danger to the country to
fuse so promptly all these heterogeneous
elements into one mass?
We do not know of any. The people do
not either, and they will therefore be anx-
iOus to know the real cause. We believe
the cause to be the ambition and disap-
pOintment of class of sore-head polite
ians, who have cunningIy used the
Labor Convention to spring a NOM
ination, which they hope in desperation
will be taken up by the other conventions.
The whole combination is so unnatural
and uncalled-for that no other eyplana-
ton can be found. Judge Davis is. per-
sonally, very clever and unobectionable
candidate, but his prompt acceptance of
the Columbus nomination and all the
contemporaneous events, lead US to believe
him the politicians candidate and not the |
peoples. Gen. Grant is nearer the work
ingman's candidate than Judge Davis. |
Gen. Grant is a better Liberal y Repub-
lican than those who assail him. Gen.
Grant, by his integrity, by his successful
administration and by the confidence of
the people, is more entitled to be designa-
ted as their candidate than the leader of
all the elements opposed to him. The
people have sense and can not fail to de-
tect this huge political trick.