The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-09
How the Democrats are Playing Into
the Hands OF Grant.

| so often thrown away victory when II seemed
within their grasp bids fair to be continued.
In 1864 they nominated war democrat on q
peace platform, and forfeited all their chances
on the day the canvass opened. In 1868 the
Ohio repudiationists, unable to carry Pen
dleton through the Convention, forced the
nomination of Seymour to head off Chase
and put him on platform which he had re-
pudiated in advance, with IN associate on
the ticket whose then recent Brodhead letter
was a menace to tear mp the work of recon-
struction and remand the South to chaos.
In 1872 they perpetrated the indescribable
folly of putting at the head of their ticket the
foremost champion of protection in the
United States, in contradiction to their
free trade principles, and making the
bitterest reviler of their party its nomi-
nal chief We will not predict what
the next step will be in this career
Of DISQUALIFICATION, but their astounding
blunders in every Presidential election since
1856 would take off the edge of wonder if the
traditionary hard-money party of the coun-
try should again forfeit its prospects, as it
did in 1868 by the influence of Western
faction, led by the Ohio democrats. Old
Governor Allen, noisy bullion man in
former days, has gone over to the initiation
! lists, and even Senator Thurman speaks with
| bated breath. Among the democratic states
men of Ohio none stands up and denounces
! the platform, and if the party carries the
! Ohio election there will be no limit to the
! aggressive boldness of it's imitation wing,
which will aspire to control the National
! Convention next year. and will have in
| Auence enough to muzzle or make Thur
mans Of all the hard money candidates.
The imitation question, though the most
dangerous, is not the only line of cleavage in
the democratic party. The old antipathy to
the negroes has been outgrown by many of
the most enlightened Southern leaders, but
! liberal sentiments have not yet permeated
the masses. Whether the democracy shall
/ continue to be "A white mans party is not
settled question: and the better views which
are growing up among the more saSacious
leaders introduce an element of division
which did not exist so long as prejudice
against the negro had free scope and full
sway and the party were united on that
question. Here in New York. the citadel of
democratic strength, the party is split into
scandalous factions. The democratic Speaker
publicly assails the democratic Governor,
who has been at loggerheads with the demo-
Gratis of the Legislature and of the city on the
home rule question, and in the city itself
Tilden's friend Green and his counsellor,
Morrissey, are at war with Kelly, who Sc
cured his nomination. To add to the con-
fusion Mayor Wickham, whom the Gov
ernor has snubbed and Inundated, sides with
Kelly against the friends and confdants of
Tilden, and there is no end of strife and
backbiting among the inharmonious de-
mocracy
But the minor lines of cleavage are of small
account in comparison with the portentous
schism threatened by the boldness, vigor and
activity of the infationists, who are as reck-
less of consequences rs a bull in china
shop. They have, or at least think they
have, strong popular support in the West
and South, and this is what makes them
bold But a binder set of political idiots
never existed. Though protesting hostility
! to the third term they are doing thousand
! fold more than all Grants sycophants to-
| gether to render third term possible. They
are creating or doing their utmost to create
the public necessity to which the President
| said in his letter he might be induced to
I yield his assumed determination not to
! be again a candidate. Nothing would so
alarm the conservative business classes
as the prospect of a party of in
fationists getting control of the government
Even if the danger is chimerical General
Grant will not be the man to underrate it,
since it would afford him the best excuse he
/ is likely to have for retreating through the
/ loophole which he was careful to leave open
\ in his letter. 1t seems a continuance of his
marvellous run of luck when his political
opponents disturb and agitate the country
by reviving the issue on which he appears to
most advantage. His veto of the imitation
bill, the most important Of all his civil acts,
rescued the country from the selfsame
danger which is again threatened by the Ohio
/ democrats, and if the imitation battle is to be
/ fought over in a new field it will be claimed
by Grants friends that he is the fittest leader.
Nobody doubts that, on that issue, he can be
relied upon. He is committed to sound
views, not only by his settled convictions,
but by that part of his official record
which won him more confidence and
applause than all the other acts of his adj
ninstration. 1t is not in his character to
/ deyiate from that applaudcd veto when
4 pride, policy Unborn stubbornness, as well
as his sense of the public interest and ex-
pcrience Of public appreciation, bind him to
steadiness and consistency. On that great
issue the public feels it safe to trust him,
and of all possible blunders his opponents
could have committed none 50 egregous rs
to bring this issue again into politics If
the democrats had given him carte blanche to
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