Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-14

One lesson, which the Cincinnati convention
ought to teach, is the folly of sneeriug at a ma
tional convention whose work, so far as it re-
lates to the selection of candidate, is cut out
for it beforehand, and contrasting it unfavor-
ably with one whose members are unpledged
and uninstructed. Those people who make it
reason for diserediting the convention soon to
be held at Philadelphia, for example, that its
work is "all cut and dried, are either very dis
ingenious or very thoughtless. twill be "pack-
ed" they say, to renominate Grant. If so, who
has packed it? Nobody but the people, whose
representatives the delegates there assembled
will be. His nomination may be wise or un-
wise, but, if it should be made, of which there
seems to be no doubt, it will be the act of the
majority Of the republican party, if the majority
of party ever did or can make
party nomination General Grants
prospects and merits as candidate
have been discussed with the utmost freedom
for many months past, not only in the news
papers, of which it might be said that many of
their readers would hear only one side, but in
congress, where his administration has been at
tackled with the utmost bitterness and unfair
ness of partisan malice, and the attacks spread
abroad over the whole country in the congress
sional reports. As a result of this long and free
discussion the state conventions, one after an
other, have met, and, without an exception
hitherto, we believe have expressed their desire
for the denomination of Gen. Grant. Our Glib
eral' contemporaries would have us believe that
all these conventions have been only the mouth
pieces OF "a clique of Office holders. For a Joke
this may do very well, but if it is told as a sober
matter of fact, the demand upon our credulity
is too great.
Inc Philadelphia convention will represent its
constituency, and, with regard to the principal
candidate, will obey its instructions One, and
the chief advantage Of thus anticipating the
work of a convention, is that it is impossible for
adrot intriguers TO force an unacceptable can
didate upon it by any process of trickery. The
abundant opportunity for consideration and dis
cussion, while the mind OF the party is being
made up, puts this out of the question. For
this reason, if for no other, convention pledged
and instructed beforehand TO select certain
candidate, is more to be trusted than one
whose members are left to their own de-
vices and to the mercy of the "polit-
lcal vultures" who always gather about
such assemblies. To so prepare the work of its
conventions has become, we may say, the settled
habit of the republican party. If any one thinks
an irresponsible, unaccountable body like the
Cincinnati convention is more likely to deserve
confidence and approval, be Is welcome TO his
opinions, which, however, history does not JUS
tiiy. The members Of that gathering had no
i
10 constitute an assemblage more truly repre-
sentative than ordinary political conventions
Tor the paradOXical reason that they represented
nobody.
They were called together for the prolessed pur-
pose OF reforming things in general and the
revenue IN particular, and they made platform
more eminently eyasive than such structures usu.
any are, and, through the INSCRIPTIONS strategy
oi notorious political tricksters accepted candi-
oaes whose nomination, il 1t could have been
ioreseen' would have kept great majority of
the members away from the convention and
Killed the movement in advance. The people
who went 10 Cincinnati in good faitb are no.
altogether TO blame for this lamentable failuro
other conventions have fallen into similar sooros
and come 10 grief, though not often So s;a-
nally. The danger attends all such hodiss
which meet for day or two amid
excitement and turmoil to decide important
political questions hastily, though ire
Yocably, 50 far as the immediate policy
of their party is concerned. They can
not be trusted to accept the guidance Of
their best minds, or even the average wisdom Of
the convention, but are more than likely to be
captured and led away by some willy political
manager Of long experience in such business.
1t is far safer, when circumstances admit of il,
for the people to send their delegates with in
siructions, so that they may be sure that their
candidates are selected by themselves, and not
by Knot Of constituencies intriguers