The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1872-06-05


while men go about in questioning
way, striving to get at the drift OF
coming events, the opinions of such a
sagacious man as the Hon. Jeremiah S.
Black are valuable. This gentleman
can be listened to with profit, for if he
is not instructive at all times he is sure
to DC entertaining, having o fine sense
ofhumor and vast stores Of informa-
ton. We therefore fastened to draw
him out as to the political situation
when we met at a dinner table the
other night. Seated next the Gold
man eloquent" we said:
"Wel, judge, what do you think of
our nomination at Cincinnati ?n
"GreeIey?"
ayes, Greeley"
"You want my honest opinion 2"
"Certainly."
"Well, had you raked this world and
the two adjacent you could not have
found filter man to be candidate or
more unfit one to be a President.n
"Why unfit Is he not honest2v
"Granted."
"FarnestW
"Probahly."
cable ?n
"That depends upon what you ex-
pect him to do. You recolIect the story
of the farmer who yoked up his hogs to
plough. The farmer remarked subse-
queutly that hogs were good to eat.
but very trying when you attempt to
plow with them. Your candidate has
made successful journal and written
one or two clever books, but he has no
qualifications for the Presidency"
"You think he will be elected 81
at looks likely. As I said, he is the
fttest man to be candidate 1 know
of. once saw-before your time-one
of the ablest of statesmen and most ac-
complished of gentlemen turned out at
the end of term of the Presidency he
had made eminently successful, by
three gold spoons. There is no tell
ing what our beloved countrymen may
do when they once set about doing it,"
"Exactly. 1t is not so easy to think
of man who ought not to beat Grant.
I say ought. for certainly no man can
be found so little qualified for the
place, who has committed such grave
blunders, to use the mildest term, and
whose shortcomings are so we'll known
as Grants; and yet when you recollect
that the vast monopolies of the coun-
try that have of late years grown so
powerful, that the army of office-hold-
ecs and the carpet-bag government of
the South, where legalized hallot-stuf-
fng controls the Southern States, are
bound up in the support of this man,
the task of defeating him appears any
thing but easy. By the bye, who
wrote the address that heads the res
olutions of the Cincinnati Convention9"
"HoEace White, we believe"
III doubt that. 1t does rot sound
ike Horace White. There is q sim
plicity of style, terrible brevity of
charge, and directness of purpose un-
like Horace White, 1t reads as if
Schurz were its author"
ave believe not, judge. We believe
howeyer-at least such is our impress
sion-that Horace White wrote the res
olutions and some one else, probably
George Hoadley, prepared the address.
But to return. Do you believe the
Democracy will take up and indorse
the nomination ?"
"Can't tell. Judging from the feel
ing in my own district in Pennsylva-
MIA should say not | know of but
one Democrat willing to sustain Gree
ley, and by the bye, no Republican"
"And yet Greeley was nominated
through a Democratic influence. What
these men proposed was to get a can
didate that would draw after him the
largest Republican vote. The Liberal
Republicans wished to select Il states
man acceptable not only to the Demo-
cratic party but the people at large"
''The managers, then" said the Judge
with much earnestness, observe re-
buke. They belittled a grand cause
and ruined great opportunity. The
convention should have stated the case
and through its platform and nomina-
tiors appealed to the high tribunal of
public opinion"
Sand has it not done so?"
"No. The nomination kills the plat
form. Greeley is one of the authors of
the wrongs complained of. He cannot
be a reformer without first reforming
himself into somebody else. A candi-
dates record is the candidate"
"You do the old man injustice
through your prejudice, and yet in
spite of that prejudice you feel in your
bones that if Horace Greeley were
judge instead of advocate you would