New-York tribune., 1872-11-07
4PTER TINE RATTTF
opinion.

hEiAR AHb DdIfLE.
SOElc foreigner, juster or with keener eyes
than the others, declared the predominant trait
of the Americans to be their good humor. lie
happened to be here during the turmoil of n
Presidential campaign and proiessed himself
stunned by the sudden silence the amiable
quiet with which, the day after the election,
the issue was received friend and foe who,
yesterday, grapped each other by the throat,
sitting down and hOb-nobbing to-day together.
Yesterday this phenomenon repeated itself, as
is usual every fourth year the ins finding
themselves still in could afford to hug them
selves in the prospect Of another terms profits
qualms as 10 how tie victory was gained Will
trouble them but little. The Liberal party
whose object was primarily to reform the
mismanagement of the Government will,
We believe and trust, go but the
more zealously to work because the case has
grown more inaccessible; and ins and out,
while cooling, will have time to dis
cover that personal vituperaiion is not argu-
ment that tho fact that one of the
leaders of party ls thief or the leader OF
another wears his trOwserS too short, hardly
touches the principles of one platform OF the
other. The dove of peace will brood over the
country again: men will go back to their nor
nal condition President Grant can give up the
marrying, sOlcitOus attention 10 business of tho
last six months: the wretched deputations of
Utes and Chcyenncs will have time to rest
and be dragged no longer to and fro to make
capital for their Great Father: the artists OF
the illustrated press can find leisure TO fashion
satire without the help of blasphemy, and the
editors to inquire whether Philip sydney would
have drawn his standard Of manhood from Il
tailOr's shop
1t was not as politicians, however, that men
were good -humored. No man is . politician
the day after the election. The day after a
battle the death of each of the dead chills
some home in the land but after this civil
fight the slain arise and walk off, comfortably
rejecting that they are something else than
voters-eaCh of them has n patient to look
after, job to finish, wife to marry. Just
here lies the secret of our good humOr in
these quadrcnnial commissions. Such polih-
cal revolution in England or France touches
every mans social and domestic life to the
very root but whether Greeley or Grant went
into the White House has little Immediately
to do with ours. Below that again is tho
absolute confidence which the American feels
in the innate soundness of his Government,
no matter how cankered by temporary corrup-
ton. It's recupcrstiye power he knows to be
inexhaustblc. Hence he bears defeat with
the admirable good temper and quiet with
which a man secure by birth and culture of
his social position finds himself pushed tenn
pora1ily to the wall by pretentious fraud.
Against the gigantic appliances possessed
by the ruling party, it was perhaps
Quixotc to hope for success but be-
hind the rulers are the people-a power
slow, steady, infallible in its ultimate percep-
ton of common sense justice and right. The
country has borne the rule Of time-servegs,
traitors, and druDkaIds it went through the
savage bloOd-letting OF the civil war, and rose
from it like giant strengthened by wrestling.
The evils that have been the topic of such
hot discussion may shame us in the worlds
eyes, but the wholesome renOvating strength
is below. When the blood in tho veins is
pure, the sOiled face matters little.