Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-03-20

COHfHeFcidt.
The Presidential Contest General
Grant, the Opposition Elements and
the Approaching Outside Party Con-
TentiOns.
From day to day, as we approach
the active field work of the Presiden-
tial campaign, the shaping of the
political elements of the country,
administration and opposition, still
more sharply than on the day pre-.
eeding, foreshadOws the denomination
and the re- election Of General Grant.
Since the time of Monroe we have
had no candidate for second Presi-
Dental term whose prospects at this
early stage of the canvas have been
better than the prospects of General
Grant for a triumphant endorsement
by the people. In 1868, beyond his
great achievements as a soldier in the
cause of the Union, the country knew
nothing of this quiet, modest, uRpre-
tending man. In grateful recognition
of his incalculabie services as a soldier
he was advanced by the people of the
EONGIuLutuls ANOhg III Allc MOlh Vi
retreAehment and reform, and of re-
construction in the cause of equal
rights, harmony and peace, at home
and abroad, he has given US the proofs
of a practical stateslnanship which
has won for him and his administFa-
ton the general approval and con-
fidence of the country. To look at
him and to talk with him ninety-nine
men out of every hundred would
suppose him to be possessed of none
of the gifts of the first soldier or
statesman; aud yet his achievements
in the field and in the cabinet for
practical work stamp him as one of
the most remarkably gifted men of
the age. Best of all, he has estab-
lished a character for good, hard
common sense, honesty of purpose
and devotion to the public interests
which cannot be shaken with the
great body of the people.
Whence, then, this extraordinary
hue and cry against the military
despotism and manifold corruptions
of General Grants administration ?
Whence these remarkable disaffec-
tiOns of such men as the Summers,
the Fentons, the Greeleys, the Trum-
bulls, the Gratz Browns, and all these
anti-Grant republicans? 1t is only
the old story Of over-ambitiOus pOliti-
clans and disappointed Office beggars
seeking their small revenges. From
Washington, who was the best abused
man of his time, We nave Lad the
same groupings out, more or less,
under every administration to this
day. There was a formidable COM
pany of boilers from General Jackson
during his first term, and such an ar
ray of opposition elements in the out
set against his e-electiOn-natiOnal
republicans, anti Masons and South
ern nulliliers, Calhoun at the head Of
them-that thev threatened the an
Inhalation of "Old Hickory and the
democracy but the result was the
annihilatiOn of these discOIdant and
incOngruOus opposition forces. and a
defeat TO Calhoun from which he
never recovered. From Jackson down
to Lincoln we had no President equal
to the difficulties to be overcome in
order to command a reelection. Van
Buren was cut out in a convention of
his friends by the application of the
the Southern oligarehy, in conse-
quence of his opposition to the scheme
Of war with Mexico involved in the
Southern scheme of the annexation
of Texas. Harrison, Polk, Taylor,
Pierce and Buchanan were mere tenn
porary expedients and compromises
among the party managers; and the
great revolutionary storm which be-
gan to thicken and daiken the sky
over the amiable Polk burst with all
its fury upon the head Of poor old Bu
chanan, and tore to pieces aud swept
away the old democratic party.
The war of the rebellion and the
necessities of the Union cause made
the reelection of Lincoln a necessity
to the republican party. Aud yet
there was powerful array of boilers
against him as a candidate fOranother
term and particularly conspicuous
among these men was Chief Justice
Chase, as an active rival republican
candidate. The anti-LincOln repub-
Hcan movement, however, finally
took the shape of an independentuew
party in q national Convention at
Cleveland, which nominated tile
Independent Presidential ticket of
General ]. C.. Fremont and General
John Cochrane. But with the re-
nomination of Lincoln by the regular
republican convention Fremont and
COchrane withdrew from the fight,
Chase cspitulated, Greeley fell into
line, and worked like faithful omni-
bus horse to the end OF the campaign,
and the anti-Lincolnr republican party
mysteriously disappeared. Naturally
enough, however, after his second
election, Lincoln was as much an
noyed by the demands and complaints
aud impractieable erotehets of Greeley
as he had been before. At last,
however, in being humOred with the
special diplomatic mission of peace
maker on the part OF the United
States, with George Sanders and others
on the part of the so-called Con-
fedesate States. at Niagara Falls, Mr..
Greeley was paeihed, and became a
a great admirer of Lincoln, until It
leaked out that this extraordinary
diplomatic mission was only one OF
"Old Abe's" practical jokes
So "here we are again, Mr.. Merry |
man, and what horse will you ride
now?" It is the same old circus, with |
its side shows, though the programme !
kuf-