The Portland daily press., 1872-12-31

PRESIDENT Baez of Hayti was favored with '
imilar compliment. +
EvENTs-THE UNITED
STATES.
The event of the year in the United ates
was the Presidential election. The result of
,he New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode
Island elections in the spring seemed TO prog
nosticate an easy Republican victory in the
national contest. But the action Of this M s.
souri, Liberal M IS Convention, which met
on the oath of January, in calling Conven-
ton of the disaffected Republicans to meet
at Cincinnati, was felt to have introduced
very dangerous element into the contest.
Senators Schurz, Trumbull, Sumner, Feuton
and Upton early expressed greater OF less
degree of sympathy for the movement, while
the immense influence which the New York
Tribune and its editor had exerted in Amer
can politics was directed, so far as possible,
in the same drec ion. In the House of Rep
resentatives the detection was less serious, |
and did not declare itself till much later in the
season, when Blair OF Michigan, Banks of
Massachusetts, Ingersoll and Farnsworth Of
Illinois, Perez of Mississippi and a few others
gave in their adhesion to the Democracy.
The National Labor Reform Convention met
at Columbus, Ohio, on the 22d of February,
and nominated Judge David Davis of Illinois
for President and Joel Parker of New Jersey
for Vice President. On the same day, and
at the same place the National Prohibition
Convention nominated James Black of Penn
syvania for President and John Russell of
Michigan for Vice President Neither of
these nominations was followed up by put
ting regular electoral ticket in the field i'll
any State, and the chief Importance attached
to them at any time arose from the notion
that Judge Davis's chance of receiving the
nomination at Cincinnati was improved by
his success at Columbus. But no expression
of the popular preference awaited against the
in.rigues of such adroit politicians as Fenton
and the Blairs. The Cincinnati Convention
met on the LIST of May, and before it adj
! journed it nominated Horace Greeley for
President and B. Gratz Brown of Missouri
| for Vice President. Then the rage of the
political contest fairly set in. Many of the
originators and Of the most prominent advo-
Gates of the Cincinnati movement were most
| bitterly disappointed at tine nomination Of
the leading protectionist Of the United States
at convention in which the chief cohesive
element was 'revenue reform" According
ly a conference of "Liberals" was called to
meet at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York
on the 10th ofJune. But by that time the great
er part of the Liberal leaders had made up their
minds that they must accept Greeley, how
ever unwillingly, in order to retain the small
est prospect of success. Accordingly Sena-
tors Schurz and Trumbull appeared at the
conference, together with Horace White Of
the Chicago Tribune, Theo lore Tilton, and
other friends of the Cincinnati nominee, and
outvoted the malcontents. But the latter.
mostly ultra zee traders, like Col. Grosvenor,
of Missouri, David A. Wells, ex-Gov. Cox of
Ohio, and William Cullen Bryant, met the
next day and nominated William S. Groes-
beck of Ohio and Frederick Law Olmstead of
New York for President and Vice President.
Meanwhile the Republicans had met at Phil
|
President and Henry Wilson of Massachu-
sets for Vice Presi ent. Will Greeley be en-
dorSed at Baltimore by the Democrats was
from that ii ne the question which most agi-
tated the public mind. But it was answered
in the affirmative long before the 9th of July,
when Greeley received all but 80 votes, which
were distributed between Bayard of Della
ware, Jerry Black of Pennsylvania and
Groesback of Ohio. From this time till the
first of August the confidence of the politi-
cal coalition under the lead of Mr.. Greeley
was very great, while there was something
like panic in the Republican ran ks-a state
OF feeling that seemed tosbe justified by the
first reports from the North Carolina election,
which occurred on that day. But the situa-
ton was greatly changed when fuller returns
showed that the election had resulted in an
overwhelming Republican victory. The Vest
Virginia election on the 22d of August
also indicated prenonderance of Republican
feeling. But Vermont on the Sd and Maine
on the 9th of September showed most con-
clusively that the Republican strength had
not been perceptiDly impaired by the defec-
ton of a few prominent men. The tide was
now fully turned against the Democrats, and
it needed not the BOURBON convention at
Louisville on the 4th and 9Th of September,
which nominated Charles OConor of New
York and John Quincy Adams of Massachu-
sets IN opposition to Greeley and Brown, to
confuse and enervate the masses of the oppo-
sition. The Republican victories in Penn
sylvania and Ohio in October reduced the
coalltionists to despair, yet few even of the
most ardent Republicans were prepared to
ind, when the smoke had cleared away from
the great struggle of Nov. 9Th, that at most
Greeley had carried but six States, all in the
South, and that Grants popular majority,
would not fall much short of three-quarters
OF million. But the natural exultation of
the vlctors was speedily silenced, Mr.. Greeley
having died broken-hearted on the 10th of
November
Among the public events of semi-polit-
cal character was the reduction of taxation
by Congress over $50,000,O00, the French
arms investigation which resulted in the
complete vindication Of the executive, the
enforcement of the civil service rules and the
competitive examination system beginning
on the LIST of January, the defeat of Mr..
Summers civil rights bill, the refusal of Con-
gress to continue to empower the President
to suspend the hdbeds corpus act, the passage
OF the amnesty bill, freeing all but about 300
Rebels from the disability to hold office i'm
posed by the 18th amendment, the relief of
shipbuilding by the allowance of drawback
ON imported material and the appoint-
ment OF shipping commissioners to protect |
the interests of sailors. By the admission of |
North Carolina Representative to the |
House, May %, every seat in Congress was
filled for the first time since 1860, A Japan
ese Embassy, headed by Iwakura, late chief
minister of foreign affairs in his own country,
made tour Of the United States and was
every whore rnppivad with rra,+ o++oo4;a- |