The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-08-24
paign-The Conservative Element and
the State Elections.

pafgn-The Conservative Element ana
the State Elections.
From the accounts furnished by our special
correspondents in this State and elsewhere, as
well as from other indications of the popular
feeling, it is evident that the enthusiasm for
Greeley and the opposition movement is dying
out, and is succeeded by ''sober second
thought" which holds men back from the
change proposed by those who have been en-
deavoring to rally the people of the United
States to the cry of Anything to beat Grant. ="
No doubt great deal of dissatisfaction has
been created by the policy of the administra-
ton, and had the bold raid of the Cincinnati
liberals and the grand coup of the Baltimore
conventionists been made only two months
before the election, they would almost GER
tainly have been effective and there would
have been general stampede to Greeley from
both the republican and democratic ranks.
The humiliation and defeat Of the government
in the controversy with England growing out
of the Treaty of Washington and the
Geneva Conference; the anti-republican char
acter of our policy towards Spain and Cuba;
| the weakness which has suffered our Mexican
| borders to be constant scene of lawlessness
and ruffianism without raising finger in de-
fence of American citizens in that exposed
locality; the general decentralization of the
civil service, and the ungenerous treatment of
the Southern States excited a feeling against
President Grants advisers which threatened
at one time to sweep the whole republican
party out of existence as effectually as the old
Tammany regime was disposed of last Novem-
Der. The blame was not laid at the door of
the President himself, who was known to be at
heart opposed to the radical policy; neverthe-
less, it was felt that an endorsement of Grant
would be an endorsement of the acts of his
Cabinet and of Congress- and the people were
not disposed to suffer their personal esteem
for the soldier who conquered the rebellion to
lead them into an apparent approval of the
policy of his advisers. But these features of
the campaign, once promising to be its real
issues, and standing out so distinctly on the
Presidential canvass, have lost their sharp
outlines, and, like dissolving views, have
grown fainter and fainter in the distance until
it seems probable that they may soon disap-
pear altogether. In their place the great COM
mercial and moneyed interests of the country
come looming up, magnifed, it may be, into
undue proportions, and promising to engross
the attention of those who are watching with
interest and curiosity the Presidential phan-
tasmagoria.
The people who are interested in the welfare
and prosperity of the nation are evidently
Il ,l.k
profit by u revolution in the administration at
the present time, and to take into serious con-
sideration the question whether they can afford
to change General Grant for Horace Greeley.
Conceding that the President has committed
grave blunders since the commencement of
has not been all that could be desired; that
our foreign policy has been marked by blum
ders worse than crimes; that our financial
policy has been theoretical and narrow
minded; that the treatment of the South has
been unconstitutional and oppressive; that
the effort to rekindle the aniinosities of the
war, to revive the hatreds of slavery and to
array the freedmen of the Sou tn against their
white neighbors for political purposes is alike
dangerous and cruel; that the attempt to
base great, enduring party on the hate and
wrath necessarily engendered by bloody civil
war is as though you should plant colony on
an iceberg that had somehow drifted
into tropical ocean, conceding all
this, there yet remain the facts
that our national debt has decreased
at q wonderful rate of speed that the country
is at peace and that the people generally are
prosperous These are hard points to get
over, and it is no wonder that the moneyed
men of the country are rejecting upon them
earnestly, especially when the Presidential
| candidate who proposes to succeed the present
administration does not possess the reputation
of q safe, cautious and practical fnancier.
While the sentimentality of politics is all very
well in its way the pocket is generally the
test of mans loyalty and patriotism, and if
the business men of the country can be salts
fed that change of administration at this
lime will disturb our finances, increase the
premium on gold depress our credit abroad,
unsettle values and temporarily check the
progress and prosperity of the country, they
will overlook all the errors of President Grant
and all the Objectionable policy of his advis-
ers, and will vote in the approaching election
as their own interest dictates. 1t is the
doubt that yet hangs over this feature of the
campaign-the absence of any strong declara-
ton on the part of those who are entitled to
speak for the great commercial and financial
circles on one side or the other, that occasions
the present uncertainty and seems to dampen
the spirits and check the ardor of those who
have hitherto been enthusiastic in the liberal
republican cause.
We do not undervalue the importance OF
political work in the campaign. We know