Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-07-11
The Issue Made Up.

81 1AN pACoAAChhAhA pm hi~AA '"
have entered is to be fought out, so far as
candidates are concerned, between the nOmi-
nees at Philadelphia and those at Cincinnati
the Baltimore convention being, in fact, only
a ratification Of the action at Cincinnati both
as to candidates and platforms. If we can
judge from the near approach to unanimity
at Baltimore, Democrats will very generally
support the Cincinnati ticket, although there
are doubtless localities IN which some will
not vote at all, and few may vote for Gen.
Grant. Some portions of the party appear
to enter upon the campaign enthusiastically 7,
and there is no doubt purpose among the
managers to prosecute it vigorously. With
the help Of local nominations and the hope
Of Office, nearly full vote of the party will
be pOlled, no doubt. The Republican party,
therefore, with Grant and Wilson as candi-
dates, will be confronted by the bulk of the
old Democratic party, increased by whatever
Liberal Republicans determine to support
Greeley and Brown and il now seems proba-
bic that this Liberal Republican strength will
be larger than the gain to the Republicans
by the Democratic votes which will be given
to Gen. Grant This foreshadows a canvass
close enough, as it now appears, to be some
what exciting, and in the scrinony likely to
arise out of what is called party treachery
on either side having already fOretaste Of
bitterness. 1t seems to us, however, posi-
BILE, in Vermont, at least, to conduct the
canvass upon its merits, to adhere to facts
and arguments, to avoid invective, and yet
to make tolerably square issue in the cam
paign.
As we have frequently said in she FREEMAN
we do not regard platforms as of much real
value in a campaign. Any persons who as a
party or as individuals want votes, will make
a platform acceptable to the majority of the
voters if they know what they want. 1t is,
therefore of much less consequence what a
party processes than what it is likely to do
if it comes into power; and, as consequence
Philadelphia or Cincinnati or Baltimore has
its chief significance in the character and
real purposes of those likely to control the
policy of the next administration. In this
view we have been wholly unable to see any
promise Of reform in the Cincinnati move
ment. Certainly very few, if any of those
Republicans, who have earnestly desired to
see the Republican party take higher ground,
aud shake itself free from the control of men
who care nothing for the success of the party
except as they may use it for private or
speculative purposes, ever thought of Mr..
Greeley, or indeed of any one heretofore
much connected with New York politics, as
a suitable person for President. If that
class of Republicans had had the naming of a
candidate, Mr.. Greeley would have been one
of the very last named indeed he would not
have been seriously named at all. And this
would have been SO chiefly, not so much
because Mr.. Greeley has not many qualities
that make him respected, as because he lacks
those qualities of thorough and
complete independence of what are called the
managing politicians, necessary in chief
magistrate who is to make the presidency an
Office for the good of the country and not for
the division of party plumber.
Yet the reform campaign, as it is called,
has come to just this complexion now. 1t
is a contest for the control of the patronage,
with, possibly, an element of hatred and
disappointment and revenge infused into it
by men like Mr.. Fenton, who have been
allowed recently no share IN the disposition
Of the spoils. Every person who wants an
office, and has no expectation of getting it
under Grant, is tolerably sure to go for
(-raalav and thara 10 HE
that every person who has been removed from
Office for any cause, in the last three years,
Will oppose Gen. Grants reelection. 1t
also may as well be admitted that many sup
porteTs OF Gen. Grant are influenced by no
higher considerations and we should not
mention this phase of the campaign were it
not that Mr.. Greeley's candidacy is called
reform movement.
In this aspect of the campaign we are
unable to see any reason why any one who
was ever Republican should support Mr..
Greeley in the hope of reform, or of any
better administration Of affairs And we
cannot see that in reality the campaign has
any other aspect, except the probable distur-
bance in our foreign relations and in affairs
at home by the new ideas that Mr.. Greeley
would bring into Office with him, and the
possible, and perhaps we ought to say proba-
Bile, evil results Of the national success of the
party whose managers have not hitherto
themselves to the country as the
depositaries of political or financial wisdom,
or devotion to the integrity and welfare Of
the whole country. We should be glad TO
believe that the Democracy had made
departure from all in their previously ex-
pressed opinions hostile to what now ought
20 be the law of the republic, but we can
hardly accept their profession of new faith.
even evidenced by a support Of Mr. Greeley.
as proof Of q change of heart, when we know
that some 900 Offices, more or less, are at
the end of the road upon which they think |
they have now entered. The Liberal Re- |
publicans, like Mr.. Schurz and M Trumbuu. |
who really desire reform, have come to the
support Of Mr.. Greeley with the utmost
and because, in fact, there seemed |
no course open TO them but that, or an entire
withdrawal from the political campaign
md such Democrats as Senator Bayard of
Delaware, who believes in what have hereto
ore been proclaimed as Democratic princi-
oles, finally supports Mr.. Greeley because he
lislikes him less than he dislikes Grant lie
{ not clear, since the reformers have so
Itterly failed to satisfy themselves even, and
be Democratic support of their ticket gives
. such questionable character, that Repub-
leans may be fully justified, in the interest
f honest as well as free governments, in
citing against it ?