The New York herald., 1875-11-02
Pure Air at Last.

Let us thank the Providence which con-
trolls the changes Of the season that we are
about to emerge from this unwholesome
atmosphere of the past few weeks and breathe
pure air again. What terrible canvass it has
been What SANDERS what acrimonies,
what defRmations of character! When we
look back upon the last five weeks it is with
a shudder almost, as we hear one politician
denouncing another one leader calling an
other thief and poltroon, and crowds of
earnest men exhausting the resources of Ian
guage in passionate invectiye. Is it not pos
sible for American politics to be conducted
by gentlemen2 Is it absolutely necessary
that because citizen accepts nomination
for high place that he must necessarily be
nailed upon gibbet? Must we always take
it for granted that the selection of a candi-
date for an Office is moral assassination
Here are men, many Of them, who yesterday
stood well with their fellow citizens, who
had lived, in the main, blameless lives, seek
ing to do well and to stand well with the
public To-day they are libelled on every
wall and denounced in every ward as un-
worthy citizens.
1t is like preaching an old sermon over
again to inculcate moderation and courtesy
in politics. What we see in America to-day
we have seen in England and other countries
for many years. There is nothing which
grieves the student more than when, passing
from administration to administration, he
finds that every election had its stock of de-
grading acrimonies Even the peerless
Washington was not free from election
slander. If we were to dig up from the
contemporary papers the long forgotten at
tacks upon the Father of His Country they
would be read with amazement; and SO down
the list-Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton John
Quincy Adams, Clay, Calhoun, jackson, Ben
ton, Van Buren,, Polk, Buchanan, Pierce,
Lincoln, Johnson-every name recalls to
the student of history chapter of vitupera-
ton which, in its day, was read, we fear,
forgotten, as the same things in our times
must be by generous public opinion.
We suppose it is part of our political sys-
tenn that we shall all get angry during the
canvass, and say things in our moods of wrath
which tomorrow we forget. AT the same
time we could wish it were otherwise. We
could wish that gentlemen, honest citizens,
might be invited to take part in politics and
not be driven back AS it is, to ask respecta-
BILE merchant or lawyer in good standing,
or citizen of pure fame to become candi-
date for office is like asking well dressed
man to step into a mud pool and wallow
in the mire. Though his life had been
as spotless as the driven snow, and as
free from pollution as the mountain brook,
his acceptance of the nomination would
make him black and grimy with all
manner of filth. We suppose, when
that good time comes of which everybody
sings and nobody is quite sure, which is
ever before US like the mirage, but ever
melts in the desert as we approach it-when
that political millennium of poets and authors
really arrives, there will be an end of these
campaigns Of slander and vituperation. For
the present, therefore, we can only mourn
that it should be so, and breathe freely to-day
in the thought that we have emerged from
the polluted atmosphere Of the past few
weeks, and find ourselves on this election
day breathing freer, with the thought that
for the present, at ast-there is an end Of
this moral miasma.