The Portland daily press., 1872-05-08
TH E PR ESS.
MORNING, MAY 8, '7s.
s....,os - Comuaign RalIying Cries.


pof,ro the wire was cold from the lightning
that told of the Cincinnati nominations, sew
eral enterprising journals had already nailed
osthe Old White Coat to the masthead
Our excellent neighbor, the Argus, always
distinguished for its keen insight and ready
wit, promptly amended the Democratic slo-
gan of " by adding the inspiring words land
Hat" The exact language of its epigrammatlc
paragraph was this: "Any quantity OF hur-
rah and campaign stock in honest Horace
Greeley's white coat and hat" The day be-
fore James Brooks paper, the New York
Express, though declining to commit itself to
its ancient foe, expressed the opinion that
ssthe Old White Coat would take large
part of the rank and file of the party with
him. There was never better illustration
of the admirable instinct which leads the De-
mocracy to reject at sight all that is merely
superficial, accidental or adventurous, and to
dive straight at the characteristic or the dis
tinguishing quality of things,-in short, at
their very essence. Horace Greeley is pro-
tectionist, it is true. No man pigironer-if
we may parody a celebrated poet-can be
found in America. But what a driveling
Democratic idiot, or Republican imbecile, for
that matter, must he be who raises this OBJ
lection to man who wears a white coat
nay, an old white Cortland HAT! Lest a
doubt still remain, lest foolish qualm still
agtate the breast of any American freeman,
lest some obstinate or unintelligent prejudice
continue to vex some benighted soul, we sug-
gest in the interest of reform (revenue) that
it be proclaimed throughout the land that in
one pocket of the White Coat reposes the
red the mystic, the historic, the unutterable
(but fearfully soiled) BANDANA HAND
KERCHIEF! Vote against that sort of man ?
Never! Mr.. Wagg, ''the literary man Nth
a wooden Leg" hadn't half the advantages.
ia recreant dare to hesitate, let it be made
known that grave suspicious have been en-
tertained that the Old White Coat and hat
contain something more than "any quantity
of hurrah and campaign stock" But for the
the present we forbear to make the sugges-
ton, for fear the spontaneous enthusiasm die
of its own, too much. To all hearts not
regardless of social duty and fatally bent
on mischief the wearing of an old white
coat and hat,-not as the badge of hon
est poverty and sterling independence, but
of crazy eccentricity and absolute sloven-
illness, must appeal with tremendous force.
And here we stop to commend the sagacity
Of the Express, which we have before quoted,
when it says in all seriousness, that the
Greeley regalia twill more than offset Grants
military stock in trade, which is now rather
rusty" Oh, of course-of course. Why
elaborate point so obvious-so trite?
What! remember mans saving the Repub-
lie more than secen years? Recall events so
irretrievably oxygenated as the crushing of
the Rebellion by our present Chief Magis-
trate ?-when, too, the effulgence of the son
to Richmond" bandana casts lurid CLEAN
over the entire landscape? Talk of Vicks-
Falls and the old white coat ?-of Donelson,
when the bondsman of JEFF. Davis and the
wearer of the white hat is by? Recount the
deeds of the man who succeeded in crushing
the Rebellion, when the man who said, Ger
ring sisters, go in peace, "beams upon us in
ostentatious raggedness and vainglorious filth?
Really, the Express ought not to breathe
suspicion that anybody will be so short-sighted
and actually stupid as to depreciate the trans
cendent worth of our modern Diogenes, who
on Plato's robe with greater pride
of his own.
"Men and brethrenv' what shall we do?
We want, above all things, to make the
United States Of America perfect Republic.
We desire to ensure all men the enjoyment of
equal rights before the law We want to
finish the work begun by our soldiers of '61.
We never want to hear the Rebel yell again.
We want to preserve the national faith, to
reform the civil service, to secure the rights
of labor, to restore specie payments and to
make certain an honest administration of the
government. But here comes a man in
white coat and aohite hat, with a BANDANA
who has assumed the leader
ship of the Democracy, and who consequent
ly opposes all these things The combination
IS frightful, and it will require more than
human sagacity to meet it.