The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-08-08
Shirt of the New York Press.


The World lectures the Ohio Democracy,
and to it attributes the greater part of its pas
bluuders and consequent woes: it says 1t says
UP to last year, we II aintained our organiza-
tion well enough, but we perpetrated several
egregious blunders, and for some of the worst
of them the Ohio Democracy were response
BILE. We speak with the frank sincerity of
true friendship. The Democratic party was
defeated in 1868 by the misdirected zeal of
the Ohio Democrats. The greenback crotch
ct did not do us much direct damage. 1t was
supported by too many eminent Republicans
Morton, Butler, Sherman, among the num-
ber-to have done us any great harm as a par
ty, had it not been for its indirect consequent
ces. 1t prevented the party from throwing
off the heavy incubus which has loaded it
down and kept it pIostrate since the war-the
incubus of imputed opposition to the rights
OF the negroes. When that question ofnegro
equality had been irrepressibly settled, as all
men of sagacity or penetration saw that it
was before the Presidential canvass of 1868,
the Democratic party should have accepted
the situation. 1t should have buried that
dead issue as speedily as possible. The mis-
chief of the Ohio greenback craze of that year
was, that it prevented the taking of that nee
essary step, and put the party upon a long
course of discouraging defeats.
Governor Seymour was perhaps the most
clear-sighted of all our statesmen at that time.
He recognized the obstacle which stood be-
tween US and success, and he had formed a
settled and decisive plan for removing it. The
same object might have been accomplished
by different means, but the means proposed
by Governor Seymour would have been effec-
tuaL Instead of nominating ChiefJustice
Chase, as he desired, the party might have un-
equivocally accepted the situation in its plat
form and have abstained from putting on its
ticket any candidate who had pledged himself
to reactionary movement Governor Sey-
mours policy was defeated by the Ohio del
egation. Their commttal to Mr.. Pendleton
and the greenback heresy determined them
to defeat Mr.. Chase at all hazards. We all
know the result.
Non-acceptance o. negro equality, at that time
realized the fable of the Sibylline books, of
which the price constantly rose in proportion
as more and more of their leaves were gone.
Had we taken Chief-Justice Chase, we should
have made the purchase at comparatively
small cost 1t would have been a regular
party nomination; it would have been an un-
borrowed selection of a candidate and platform
1t would have differed in these respects from
the action Of the party last year. 1t would
have given us a candidate who was an origi-
nal Democrat, a candidate who had never
vilified the party, and who had differed from
it only on the one point in respect to which
the party wished to change its attitude.
Moreover, there would have been this great
advantage over the unfortunate campaign of
last year, that the Federal patronage was then
in hands hostile to General Grant and not un-
friendly to ChiefJustice Chase.
The Herald has a very timely article on
the Centennial Exhibition which concludes
as follows:
We must not forget, however, that the de-
signs and construction of the Exhibition
building, however perfect in themselves. will
not, OF themselves make the Exhibition a
great success; neither will the favorable re-
sponses of foreign monarchs and the ready
contributions of foreign countries. These
will do much 10 embellish and glorify it, but
for its real intrinsic success we must depend
upon ourselves. This Exhibition is in every
sense a national exhibition. 1t is at once the
grand celebration of the hundredth anniyersa-
nv of American independence and the great ex-
position of what has been accomplished by the
American people in the hundred years of their
national existence. The old State House bell
rings all the world. together to see what has
been done on this continent since its peals
called the scattered settlers to arnis against
Great Britain. In the meantime, new world
has been peopled and developed-a new world
that has been lavish in its gifts to the old;
new world that has accomplished more that is
good and more that is novel than it is OF itself
aware. Wonders have been drawn from the
bowels as well as the surface of the earth.
Mining and agriculture have gone hand in
hand. In mechanical contrivances, we stand
unrivalled. But what we have drawn from
nature and what we have contriyed to over
come in nature will not suffice. We do not
want our Centennial Exhibition to be an
American fI1fn Ens To ala
Art, science, literature, and especially what