New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-05-16
From the Baltimore Americana
Arguments Against Greeley,


Arguments Against Greeley.
The reasons why Mr.. Greeley should NO
be elected to the Presidency are pouring il
thick and fast. Probably there never befor,
was an occasion when the mere fact of &
mans candidacy elected so many insuperable
objections to him. The response to the &C
ton OF the Cincinnati Convention is being
heard from every section of the country, anC
the verdict seems to be that the ticket has
fallen dead from the hands of its constructors
The first impulse everywhere was to treat the
nomination as joke, and there is vast
amount of wit, humor, and sarcasm levelled
at it in the columns of the regular Republican
newspapers. The party had been looking
anxiously for the result at Cincinnati with
some fear that the next President might be
named there, and the farcical termination Of
the proceedings justified feeling of relief, as
men realized to what small proportions the
whole movement had dwindled down when il
offered the nation such platform and such a
candidate. But while the Republicans laugh
at the affair, there is certain class who are
righteously angry, and they are the men and
the journals who inaugurated the movement
and were really endeavoring to make it an
honest effort in the direction of reforms which
they believed to be needed. They were the
J
is not strange that when it was literally stolen
from them by the professional politicians, and
the Blairs and McClures set up to rule over
it, they should feel sore and refuse to support
the ticket. The protest of the Ohio delega-
ton bodies no good to the nomination in
that State and indeed throughout the West,
the original Liberals can have no heart in
working for the success of party which has
been so perverted from what they intended
it to be. The New York Post fairly repre-
sents this class, and we find in it almost the
first serious argument against Mr.. Greeley's
election. Summing up its reasons, the Post
says:
" He lacks the courage, the firmness, and
the consistency which are required in a Chief
Magistrate of the nation. He showed this
in a remarkable manner when, at the out
break of the civil war, he desired to let the
South have its way, and dissolve the Union
OF the States. He was frightened, and feared
to face the consequences of rejecting the de-
mands of the Southern politicians. The war,
however, went on, and soon, though claiming
to be UniOnist, he became frightened again.
He wanted to make terms with the rebel gov
eminent at Richmond; he wanted to nego-
tate with George Saunders and other agents
OF the rebel government who had sought re-
fuge in Canada. He was for stopping the war
and letting the South depart with the chance
of preserving slavery. His whole career
during the war was irresolute and cowardly,
and his counsels impolitic and unwise to the
last degree.
" Mr.. Greeley's political associations and
intimacies are so bad that we can expect
nothing from him, in case, to his own misfor-
tune and ours, he should be elected, but a
corrupt administration of affairs. Every
body is aware of his close intimacy with Mr..
Fenton, of the Senate. If there is a corrupt
and dishonest politician in the land, there is
no man who has better claim to be so con-
sidered than Reuben e. Fenton. His char
acter is well known to Mr.. Greeley; yet is he
Mr.. Greeley's bosom friend and counsellor in
politics. Without single idea of what pub
lie virtue or principle means, he is a most
shrewd and skillful political manager. 1t was
probably through his intrigues more than
through any other influence that Mr.. Greeley
succeeded in obtaining his nomination. The
same facility for entering into close associa-
ton with dishonest men has marked the whole
of Mr.. Greeley's career. He began his politi-
cal life as a disciple of Thurlow Weed, and
only rebelled against his master when he
found that he was not to have any of the
offices for which political parties were quar-
reling. In letter which found its way into
print, he expressly declined to hunt any
longer in company with that virtuous indi-
vidual, Weed, because there was no proper
division of the game. He now hunts in COM
pany with Fenton, who is more generous"
Mr.. Greeley has no settled political prin-
cples, with one exception. 1t is a serious
objection to any candidate for an office of
high political trust that he has no WELL
defined standard of right in his own mind by
which to try any measure or any course of
proceeding that may be proposed. This is
one of Mr.. Greeley's great deficiencies. Any
aspect ola public measure which looks plausi-
BILE satisfies him, and he drifts backward and
forward upon the shifting currents of expe-
dency. 1t has been said of him as a politi-
clan, and we believe with some truth, that he
has been on every side of every public ques-
ton that has come up save one, and that
brings us to another objection to him as q
candidate.
'He is athOrough-going, bigoted protection
list, a champion of one of the most arbitrary
and grinding systems ofmOnopoly everk known
in any county. To this hateful system he
has remained faithful from the very begin
ming of his career as q journalist to aid in
fastening it upon the nation has been the
inveterate habit of his life; to devise the
means of shutting out his countrymen from
free access to the markets of the world has
been his constant study. 1t is idle to say
Cincinnati Convention as part of the plat
form contains a provision that this question
is to be left to the people "without Execu-
tive interference or dictation." He may
not dictate, but he will advise he may not
interfere, but his oath as Chief Magistrate
will oblige him to suggest those measures
which he deems important to the public well
fare, and what is there in his view more essen
tial that what he calls the protection of do
mestic industry? To this end we may expect
to see the public offices bestowed upon pro-
tectonists, and every one of those silent
influences by which party measures are car
ried in Congress, exerted in favor of the pro-
tective system. Mr.. Greeley is nothing if
not protectionist.
"The last objection to Mr.. Greeley which
we shall here mention is the grossness of his
manners. General Grant is sometimes COM
planned of as not filling the Executive Chair
with the decorum and dignity which properly
belong to the place; but his deficiency in this
respect is the deficiency of one not accus-
toned to polished society, giving little heed
to certain conventionalities which really be-
come the high sphere he moves in, and he
is never bearish or brutal, as Mr.. Greeley so
often is.'
"These are some of the objections which
will occur to thoughtful men when they hear
of Mr. (,reeley's nomination and allowing