The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-04-13

Ai"inPshHe 10 New York, the democratic
party in the ring against General Grant throws
up the sponge and gives him the fight? A
all events, the fortunes of the democracy ar,
now blended with those of the reform republic
cans in the outcome Of their Cincinnati Con
ventlon, which brings us again face to face
with the main question, what is the prospect
Mr.. Schurz and Mr. 1rumbull think il very
charming; but their magnifying spectacles
deceive them. There was, once upon time,
funny carpenter, we are told, who undertook
practical joke upon his COW by putting oven
her eyes pair OF green goggles and then in
leading her up to pile of dry pine shavings
TO see II she would not, from the green color
given to them, fall upon them as upon a heap
of delicious grass. But the COW had The sense
OF smelling as well as sight, and was not to be
deceived by her green goggles, and 80 she
turned away from those shavngs in rage.
So, we apprehend, will the ''fierce democ-
racie' turn away from the dry shavings Of the
Cincinnati Convention.
This grand idea Of bringing in the great
democratic party in the rear of the anti-Grant
republicans and as tail to their little kite is
grim joke. 1t is like moving the mountain
over to the prophet, or like putting the cart
before the horse yea, it surpasses in its
amazing absurdity the military plans of Gen
era Boum and Corporal Fritz, for Boum was
a disciplinarian and Fritz was great success
This Cincinnati venture is out Of the common
order of things-out of the frying pan into the
fire. We have never had anything like it be-
fore, and shall probably never have anything
like it behind. 1t comprehends the unpar-
alleled fantasies of great political
party of three millions of men
dancing attendance upon company of
strange foxes who have lost their tails. But
let us see if in the many vicissitudes of our
political parties there is not some precedent
to give this Cincinnati wild goose chase
show of reason and hope of success.
Beginning with the old federal party, on the
issues of war, its misfortunes are strangely
repeated in those of the democratic party.
The old federal party never recovered from its
defeat by the old republicans under Jefferson !;
but it did not really begin to fall to pieces till
boldly arrayed in opposition to the war of
1912. Then it was SO badly beaten at all
points, from campaign to campaign, that in
1920 it was quietly dissolved and quietly dis
appeared, and our politicians became call
republicans and all federalsts. In fact we
had no political parties in 1920 of national
character, and Monroe was reelected without
opposition. All that Is needed now to give
us again the reelection of Monroe and his
"era of good feeling" in the reelection of
Grant is the quiet dissolution Of the exhausted
democratic party, for 10 are not the other
conditions of the two epochs all the same3 But
here this Cincinnati Convention is interposed
as stepping stone for the, democracy from
their ''new departure" into the republican
fold. 1t would be much better for them to
follow the good example of the old federalists,
when there was nothing more for them to do
as party, by quietly dsbanding and merging
their forces in the great body of the people.
For are we not now all democratic republicans
and all republican democrats?
We shall probably have, in the course of the
political cycle through which we are passing,
a Presidential scrub race like that of 1924,
but not yet. Barring this Cincinnati Conven-
ton, the situation Of the opposition forces
reelection Of Jackson in 1882. Then there
were three or four little parties arrayed in
opposition to the administration, and as they
could not agree they did not combine Now
there is one great opposition party and two or
three small ones, and the smallest of the lot is
put forward as Aarons rod to gobble up all
the others. The precedent of 1882 will not,
then, apply to the present democratic passive
policy. But perhaps the election of 1914 may
serve us. In that contest the small squad of
some fifteen thousand abolition wings in West
ern New York, in voting for Birney, defeated
Clay, and elected Polk our President. MAY
not Trumbull, Schurz & Co., as an outside
party, do the same good turn for the democ-
racy in 1872? No; for while Birney repre-
sented great principle which triumphed in
the abolition of slavery, Trumbull and Schurz
represent only their personal grievances,
which signify nothing. 1t was the abolition
idea, too, in the name of free SOIL" that
gave to Van Buren, the balance of power in
1913, whereby he defeated Cass, tho regular
democratic nominee, and elected Taylor.
TO these small beginnings we owe our
present republican party, our new constitu-
ton, the administration of General Grant and
all the present conditions of the opposition
elements-all that we have and all that we are
There is, indeed, nothing in all our past
political history to compare with this Cincin-
natl experiment, excepting the anti Lincoln
Republican Cleveland Convention of 1864
That Convention set up Fremont and Coch-
rane, two good fighting generals and earnest
reformers both; but as the democratic party,
then, had not finished its fight against the war
as failure, it was not ready to fuse on FIRE.
mont and Cochranc cons quently, with the
denomination of Lincoln, both these fighting
all