New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-29
The Cincinnati Convention.
From the New York Nation.

mass convention is " lIlccb DIT SluClu-
natl on the first Wednesday in May for the
purpose of considering. adopting. and if
thought advisable, of nominating candidates
for the Presidency and Vice Presidency, on
the platform recently put forth by the Mis-
souri, Liberal Republicans. Whatever
doubts may have been at one time enter
tanned as to the numbers and character of
the convention may be said to be nearly set
at rest. 1t will probably be very large, and
will probably be, in the best sense of the
term. very respectable. One of the curious
results of the personal turn given to the
pending Republican canvass has been that
every Republican success swells the ranks
of the boilers. In other words, the regular
Republican cause having been proclaimed
by the managers to be the cause of General
Grant, the more triumphs it meets with, the
more General Grants enemies multiply and
declare themselves. The object of the
Philadelphia convention being now all but
set down in black and white as mis- renom
inaton, and not deliberation on the choice
of his successor, the natural consequence is
that not only those who are opposed to
him. but those who are opposed to the
practice of adopting in convention, without
debate, nominations prepared betOrehand
and in fact to all forms of dictation through
the use of party machinery. are going to
Cincinnati, and will net go to Philadelphia
His unskilful mode OF using his patronage
mas. OF COURSE, lndut nllll d HOSt VI tutluIcS
in the ranks of the politicians proper, who
will now probably prefer their aid to those
who desire his defeat on higher grounds.
Within the last few days, too, it must be
admitted the secession has received a pow
erful stimulus from the New Hampshire
election, which is proving Tor the admins
tration one Of those terrible victories which
are tar worse than any defeat. 1t poured
speakers into the State without stint
during the canvass, but it is no exaggera-
ton to say that they proved its worst enc
mics. for the more they persuaded, the
more they injured it. Had the Republicans
carried the State with great difficulty and
BIZ a bare ma jurity, or had the election gone
into the Legislature; or had the Democrats
held their own or made appreciable gains;
above all, had they achieved triumph,
they would doubtless have been sufficiently
encouraged to make separate nomination
tor the Presidency, and repudiate utterly
the passive policy; and any such attitude on
their part would have exercised cor
respondingly depressing influence on the
Liberal Republican movement, for a lib
eral Republican candidate and Demo
cratic one are hardly likely to be able to
keep the field together But their defeat
in New Hampshire has SO instructed the
Democrats that-particularlv if it should
he followed by a defeat in Connecticut
we shall probably now witness general
adhesion to the passive policy, or, in other
words, the complete breakup of the old
organization. This can not but give to the
Cincinnati convention an importance it did
not previously possess. From convention
of boilers, who. within their own party,
would certainly be minority, and perhaps
small one, it becomes convention whose
nominee will not improbably be elected
without difficulty. This prospect has nat
urally already made profound impression
on the great host of timid and uncertain
people, and people who like, in all games,
TO be on the winning side and the prepare.
tons have, within week. exhibited an
earnestness and activity which We're pre-
viously wanting. Should the aduinistra-
ton now succeed in ..redeeminn" Con
necticut as they have redeemed" New
Hampshire, it will be most probably at the
cost of their own damnation.
There Is, perhaps. nothing which now
does. and will continue to do, so much for
General Grant as the fear entertained, even
by those who doubt his capacity and pro
foundry distrust the men that surround him.
that movement against him would result
in a return of the Democrats to power. 1t
NAV be, they say, that the administration is
surrounded by corrupt men: that the Cam
ercus. Forneys, Mortons, Conklings Muir
pl,ys and Leets are not exactly the kind of
mn whom we should wish to see acting as
the Presidents agents or counseors, or it
HAY bt tldi lIltit II d 'fNt amount VI tob-
berry and corruption, even if the President
be not responsible for it. But after all,
nothing that he or anybody else within the
RANKS of the Republican party is at all
likely to do, surprising him and his friends
to he as bad as his worst enemies paint
them. can equal what we might fairly and
reasonably look for from a Democratic adj
ministratien or from any administration
which Tie Democratic party helped to elect,
and on which thc Democratic leaders might,
therefore, be expected to exercise more or
less influence. Consider what the history
of the party, within the last fifteen years,
has been. Consider, above all. two points
III its hIstorY-lts hostility to the negro and
its hostility TO the public credit. Might we
not reasonably fear that these. though for
the present covered up, would. if power
were placed in the hands of the parry or its
chiefs. break out once more with fresh
gigor, Consider. too, that. even supposing
the aims of the chiefs to be good, and their
disl ositinn to accept the results of the war
Under;irle, their constituents include ali
that is iuta1 ignorant, debaSed and corrupt
in our population, an tha' -vhatever their
own desires might IL, to this ignorant and
debased element they would be allowed to
pander. Are YOU, therefore, prepared to
acce 1T their aid at this risk!
We only know of one good answer that
can be made to these objections, but it is
we tn uk. "a very good one. They are based
y hcory which, though it finds constant
expression in the political slang of the day,
has really no place among the ideas or prac
tices OF American politics-we mean the
theory that the two great parties which are
always contending Ior power are two hos
tile armies or Camps irrcr"rciIah J divided,
and that each - s ne nt'rr not an Oppo-
nent to be persg led II IN over, but an
enemy 10 be iri."Hs""s uTsuet and de-