New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-07-27
NOT SO BID.

bad habit without hoping to reform it. A
young man may puff at his Concha without
caring whether it is right or wrong. lie may
say it is wrong, and that he intends to quit
some time. He may pick up the cudgels OF
controversy, like Prof. Fiske, and say boldly
that it pays. But when one says frankly, "
"know it is a pernicious vice, but / don't
"suppose l shall ever stop smoking" it is
certain that he is no longer young 1t makes
no difference whether he is twenty-five or
seventy-five. He lacks the moral and physical
force to reform himself; he lacks the hope
and purpose of youth.
We are too young nation to think of de-
cadence. but there are sometimes moments OF
moral languor in our best public opinion which
bear dangerous resemblance to the infrmity
of age. The habit of resting contented with
imperfect attainment of being satisfied with
things that we recognize as vicious, Is the worst
habit that o man or q community can form.
But who can deny that in our recent politics
there is something too much of this In the
late address of the Republican party, the tone
that runs through it all is that it is rather
small business to ask strict honesty and in
tegrity from leading public men who have
saved the Union and abolished Slavery. When
a candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania
was charged with completely with Indicators,
it was thought enough to talk of his beha-
vior at Antietam. When Gen. Butler
was criticised for an act so marked
with knavish cunning as his advocacy and
engineering of the Salary Grab, an act whose
demoralizing influence embraced Congress,
the President, and both political parties in
common faint of sOrdid and vulgar dishonesty,
his adherents talked only about New-Orleans
or chuckled over the ingenuity with which
cold Ben, who did MT want the money, got
"the advantage of the sanctimOnious Congress
"men who did" And by one of those sud-
den turns so common among people OF faint
moral convictions, we sec that some OF the
Democratic papers in the West, which once
teemed with libelouS ISLANDERS against But
ler's personal and pecuniary honesty, which
we have never credited, now overflow with
eulogies of this champion of initiation; as If
they were willing a man should be thief, if
he would only help them in scheme to rob
others.
No more striking instance of this tendency
to be satisfied with low standards has been
seen than the comments made by hard-money
people upon the rascally reputation and in
hation platform of the Indiana Democracy.
We do not so particularly refer to the par
tisan journals which, finding themselves at
variance with their party on this vital question,
see that their only chance of life is In the des-
Derae task of proving that their party Is with
them. But among decent people, who care
very little for party, and care great deal for
honesty and good government, there is too
evident inclination to say that the platform
might have been worse. Among these persons
is an occasional correspondent of THE TRIBUNE
at indianapolis, whose letter we published a
day or two ago. SO bad was the atmosphere
about the Convention, so groveling was
the tone OF it, dishonor and knavery
seemed so interviewer with all its works and
utterances, that when it adjourned there was
a general feeling of gratiied surprise that it
had done nothing more reprehensible than
adopt Pendleton's reputation scheme. 1t de-
clared Itself in favor of unlimited greenbacks,
for its resolution about suiting the currency
to the wants of the country means nothing
else; it in so many words demanded the pay
ment of the National Debt in this unlimited
and irredeemable paper; and then, merely
because it passed platonc resolution in favor
of return to specie payments when we get
ready, or, as the children say, "next day after
"never,n a good many wellmeaning people,
who see the folly of initiation and the crime
of reputation, draw a long breath, as if
great danger had been averted. 1t is hard to
imagine what they expected. Short of repeal
ing the Ten Commandments, abolishng soci-
etv, and setting the Wabash on fire, it is
difficult to see what criminal nonsens, they
could have been guilty Of, beyond the plat
form they adopted.
The Convention was formed mainly of Igno-
rant men who knew very little of finance or
politics. They wanted to win the next election,
and they had heard that the farmers wanted
more money, and knowing that greenbacks were
good enough for them they thought they were
good enough for the bondhOlders; and yet
they had also heard that great many people
were in favor of specie as circulating me-
dunn, and they recognized the fact that specie
was also good thing; so they put them both
into the platform, or rather Mr.. Voorhees, did,
and they thought it as smart a thing as no had
ever done. The ignorance which is capable of
producing such confession of faith is bad
enough; though it is not hopeless, for educa-
ton can cure it. But what shall we say of
the indifference Of men who know better, who
look at this impossible mixture of folly and
knavery, and say it is not as bad as they
expectedf