Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1872-07-25

The contest for the Republican Con.
greSSional nomination in the district
across the river grows more interesting
The Belmont County delegates, thirty.
one in number, are solid for Danford. =
According to the figuring of the Steu-
benville Nei1S, the contest will be be
tween Danford and Bingham, and the
votes of Noble County, not yet heard
from, are expected to decide. We must
confess, as an outsider, that our sympa-
thieS are with Danford. If the geo.
graphical argument is ever worth any
thing, it is good for Belmont County
now. Belmont gives much the largest
Republican vote of any County in the
district. She has been electing Bing-
ham now for some sixteen years; and
her own citizens, of whom there have
always been number as capable and
deserving as he, have time after time
yielded to his demands for reelection.
In 1866 Mr.. Bingham's friends pledged
him not to be candidate again if the
Convention would give him just one
more term, and Col. Poorman who was
the candidate of the Belmont delega-
ton, withdrew on the strength of these
assurances. In 1868, as we have been
Informed by a gentleman who heared
him, Mr.. Bingham, make the same
kind of pledge in a speech to the Con-
vention. We are informed he did the
same thing again in 1870. Now it is
not strange the people of the district,
and especially those who have some
aspirations themselves, should be get
ting a little tired of these repeated and
broken promises. 1t is not doubted
that Mr.. Bingham is prepared to repeat
his pledge at Bellaire, ii the Conven-
ton will give him just one term more.
In spite of his disregard of his pledg-
es, Mr.. Bingham has made a good Con-
gresham and has won distinction
Latterly though, it is apparent he has
been losing the high position he had
reached two or three years ago. The
country has wearied somewhat of his
ornate and stereotyped rhetoric, and his
colleagues of his querulous, irritable
temper; and an impression has obtain
ed, not only by his course at Washing
ton but by his persistent seeking of the
place and the equivocal means he en-
ploys each recurring two years to per-
petuate himself in it, that he is thor
oughly selfish, and cares nothing for the
success of the organization that has so
long kept him IN Congress as compared
with his own, or for the promotion of
younger men in the district who with
equal capacity unite greater personal
deserving than he can show.
Mr.. Bingham's persistency in forcing
himself on the district as candidate
has more than once imperilled Repub-
lican success. Now the district is quite
largely Republican but the same course
may endanger it again. We believe it
is the Belmont Chronicle that thinks at
least five hundred Republicans in Rcf-
mont would vote against the nominee
if it should be Bingham. With SINH
lar state of feeling in the other coun-
ties, and Liberal like POorman, say,
on the other side, it is easy to see that
the district might be lost.
We shall be glad to see the Bellaire
Convention nominate Capt, Dapford.-I
He is a gentleman of genuine ability
and qualifications. He would reflect
credit on the district; and as a brave
soldier and faithful Republican who
has spent years in the ranks, he de-
serves the honor. And we shall not be
sorry to see Mr.. Bingham rebuked for
his persistent efforts to keep himself
perpetually in Congress in disregard of
the pledges upon which he has been
ly nominated, and for his ut
ter disregard for the claims of Others
to whom he owes so much for his po-I
sition past and present. Wheeling In
tett{gencer.