The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-12

The first gun of the Presidential campaign in
this city win be fired this evening. We have
had great deal of sharp shooting and picket
fighting, and many flags Of truce and inquiry
passing between the hostile camps, but no
real, defined, earnest opening of the liberal
republican action. In some OF the outside
towns and districts there has been an occa-
sional gathering of disappointed ofiice-seekers,
and in Washington there have been numerous
speeches against the administration. AS yet
| there has been no clear, defined, positive line
Of attack no statement of reasons and
motives. We have had the elements of
party, but no party; anger, but not argument.
The time for this uncertainty and helplessness
is happily at an end. Mr. Trumbull, Mr..
Schurz, Mr.. Greeley, Mr.. Wilkes, Governor
Fenton and their followers will hold public
council this evening, and we shall know what
they mean to achieve in their war upon Grant.
1t will, we trust, be large meeting. The
curiosity seekers will be there; for the men
who lead this movement are curiosities
enough from the advertising they have
received But it will not be the meeting it
would have been had bright days remained
with Tammany Hall. Al this time we miss
the ready, practical genius Of William M.
Tweed What meeting he would have
given the eminent recalcitrants! The banners
that would have waved, the guns that would
have been fired, the fireworks that would
have corruscated, the music that would have
filed the evening air, the honest yeomanry
from the Coroners' Office and the public
works who would have poured forth
to shout approval to every spoken
word to cheer Mr.. Greeley's coat Mr.. Schurz's
spectacles, the pensive, ancient, maidenly
countenance of Mr.. TRANQUIL, tho Iron Duke
vlsage Of George Wilkes, Governor Fenton's
aurora borealis Of smile-all OF this we can
imagine, and more, had Mr.. Tweed been at
liberty to manage this republican demonstra-
ton. The lamented Tammany chief had
special gift for managing republican Demon
STATIONS, and the men who assemble tonight
were especially his friends. But demonstra-
tons cost money, and there is no complying
Garvey to add the amount to his bills, no gen.
erous Dick Connolly to sign the warrants.
The perennial springs of Tammany, in whose
waters the cattle of the republican party have
Tapped and dabbled and sported for years, are
dried up. Any ant-repubican meeting COM
posed of republicans must pay its own bills.
Therefore we expect an orderly, poverty
stricken, sad assemblage. We remember the
great pity that inspired Dante when the mas
ter led him to that hell to which were doomed
those who lad lived with the love of Fran
cesca de Rimini. Did the divine Italian ever
see that hell to which fate condemns the dis
appointed polticians-those who hungered for
Office and were not refreshed, those who en-
joyed its blessing only to be suddenly and rudely
dispossessed? 1t would fill him with sub
lime pity, we are sure, pity not altogether
uncolored by cynicsm, could he sit this even
ing between Carl Schurz and Mr.. Greeley on
the Cooper Institute platform and look out
upon the stand and anxious multitude who
will fill the hall. Out of office, out OF money,
ostracised by the relentless Tom Murphy, dis
possessed by the downfall Of Tweed, no
| Americas Club, no sinecure departments to
welcome and comfort them, no long list of
at the public expense; without employment,
and more than oil, without pay; with hollow
voices and lack-lustre eyes, without even the
courage to 90 West and buy land, we can
imagine few objects more dismal, and, 10 the
mind Of man so sensitive and hysterical as
Mr.. Trumbull, more absolutely distressing, than
the gathering that will probably welcome him
tonight. At the same time we are glad he
will come. The act required courage, but we
want these liberals TO speak, and, mastering
their emotions to tell US why the republicans
should not nominate General Grant for the
Presidency, and why the people should not
elect him.
We want living reasons for this belief. The
men who are to speak are grave and expe-
rienced and have been held In high honor by
the party they propose to defeat and betray.
That party has served them well. 1t has
given the owners of Mr.. Greeley's newspaper
great sums on money because OF that gentle
mans advocacy of tariff and Republican
principles" 1t gave Mr.. Schurz an Office as
soon as his lips had sealed his oath abjuring
allegiance to the monarch he has served with
such signal fidelity in the Senate. 1t con-
tnued him in the highest Offices it can bestow,
making him Minister, Major General, Senator,
while youth and an alien. Caressed, petled,
pardoned, Carl Schurz, as the fortunate
youth" of the republican party, cannot strike
his generous political mother in the face with
out ingratitude. Governor Fenton has been
treated with gracousness and signal honor by
the party. Intellectually an Indifferent and
undressing man, leader only when the
lower elements could be found to follow,
who has never given the party an idea nor
taken single risk in its service, who opposed
it in the day of its adversely to join it in the
day of triumph and power, Reuben E. Fem