, 1872-06-20
The Political Situation.

We are frequently asked for our opin
Ion as to what the Baltimore Conven
ton will do IL relation to the nomil a
ton Of candidates for President ant
Vice President. The most intelligen
reply we can give to these questions is
we don't know. 1t might be different i
we had not lost all faith i'll the partrior
ism and good policy of professional
politicians, or had any assurance that
delegate Convention would fairly retlec
Or represent the popular will. Very
few intelligent men doubt the fact tn +
either Grant or Greeley will be the mex
President or that the nomination o
another candidate by the Democratic
party wouidinsure the election of Grant
The few who profess to think otherwise
and try to persuade themselves and 9th
ers into the belief that the Democratic
party may achieve party success by
the divisions of the Republicans, take
unbiased conclusions of their judg-
ment
The nomination of Democratic par
ty candidate would divide and distract
the Democratic party, frighten back to
the support of Grant all hesitating Re
publicans, and utterly destroy the Lib
eral Republican organization, which is
solely depended upon to aid in the cleo
ton of Democrat by dividing the op-
position forces. Any man who has
taken any pains to inform himself us TO
the popular sentiment on the subject,
will bear witness that not less than four
fifths, and perhaps nine-tenths, OF the
disinterested portion of the Democratic
party, are opposed to any other nomin-
alton, while a considerable portion of
the Republicans prefer Greeley to Grant
and will vote for the former if there is
. reasonable prospect of his election.
Those who insist upon Democratic
party nomination are almost exclusively
those who have personal inte. est i'll
maintaining a seperate party organlza-
tion-members of Congress represent
ing Democratic districts, and editors OF
newspapers deriving their chief support
from party patronage. The New York
World dislikes to share its present party
lead with the Tribune ; the Chicago
1ia,es objects to dividing its party mon
opoly with the Tribune of that city the
Philadelphia Age and the Washington
Patriot cannot afford to part with the
party prestige which is their chief de-
pendence for support, an. hence they
III patriotic phrase speak ofmalntainlng
the old Democratic organization at all
hazards as the only honorable and safe
policy. Members of Congress who
hold their seats solely by party favor
also haranyue their constituents and the
country on the Inconsistency aud sacr1-
fee of principle involved in the sup
port of the Cincinnati platform and can
didates.
Such pretences are the veriest clap
trap and sophistry' The principles and
policy embodied in the Cincinnati plat
form are precisely such as meet the
views of almost the entire Democracy
of the country. If that platform had
been adopted by a Democratic Conven-
ton, not one Democrat who now objects
to the action of that Convention would
have raised his voice against it. The
declaration of principles being satisfac-
tory, the only other test questions which
Democrats have ever professed to re-
gard, e;re as to the candldate-Is he ca
pable :? Is he honest Not one OF the
Democratic cavillers, SO far as we have
heard, has pretended to question the
capacity or the honesty of Horace Gree
ley, and among the prominent Demo
Gratis OF the country, only Mr.. Voorhees,,
and two or three OF the most ultra of
the s uthern secession leaders, have de-
clared their preference for Grant. The
sole pretence upon which the Cincinnati
Convention Is rejected, is then, that 1t
would destroy the integrity and time
honored organization ct the Democratic
party, which dates its existence from the
formation of the Government, by &C
cepting n candidate who has heretofore
acted with an oppo ition party. Those
who make this objection ignore he his
tory of the party. Like all other politl-
cal party organization the Democratic
party has been subjected to mutations
and changes quite as marked rs that
now proposed. In the days of Jeffer-
son the party was called Republican,
and was known by no other name until
after its reorganization under jackson,
whose first candidacy was against Uraw-
ford, the regular Republican candidate,
Henry Clay, Jeffersonian Republican
and others. With Gen. jackson,
Buchanan, Woodbury., and many other
leading Federalists came into the Jack
son party, which subsequently took the
name of Democratic, without profess
ino to change their party sentiments. =