The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-09-10
The PennsyIvania Democrats Adopt
tho Ohio Platform.


Pennsylvania Democratic State Convention,
in its session at Erie, reported in oul
columns this morning. 1t is an alarming
proof that the imitation heresy is spreading,
and that it is likely to exert dominant con-
troll over one Of our great political parties.
We record with profound regret and sorrow
that in an Eastern State, great and
influential State the State which ranks next
to New York in importance, the democratic
party has been conquered by the imitation
lists, and repeats and indorses the Ohio plat
form. This democratic madness forebodes
an Had of woes. 1t foreshadows triumph
of the inhationists in the Democratic Ma
tional Convention next year, and will go far
toward reconciling the steady going business
classes to a denomination of President Grant,
whose courageous veto Of the Imitation
bill makes him the natural leader
of his party in a Presidential cam
paign turning upon this dangerous
issue Nobody has doubted that the infa-
tionists were strong in the West and South,
but it was supposed that both parties in the
Atlantic States would make strenuous re-
!
the Pennsylvania democrats is greater
shock to public feeling than the wild auda-
city of the party in Ohio If the New
York democracy, in their Convention
next week, denounce imitation and stand for
hard money, it will be voice crying in the
wilderness. If the democrats carry Ohio in
October no section of the party can there
after denounce initiation without subjecting
itself to humiliating defeat in the National
Convention next year.
Mr.. Marble, of the World, who drafted the
hard money platform of the New York de-
mocracy last year and is elected dele
gate to the Syracuse Convention next
than he ever before undertook in
getting the Committee on Resolutions
to assent to his views. A decided hard
money plank would extinguish the hopes of
his favorite Presidential candidate, Governor
Tilden. Mr.. Marble is the reverse of
trimmer, but unless the draft of platform
which he will carry in his pocket to Syracuse
trims on the initiation question he will be
overruled in the Committee. Governor
Tilden, in his annual Message, put
himself in a position to trim on this
question, and as he will control the
Convention it is pretty certain that
he will not tolerate q platform which
would extinguish his Presidential chances.
The New York platform will probably be
specimen of skilful lodging, since it is I'M
likely that Governor Tilden will permit a
Convention which he controls to make it
impossible for him to be the democratic can
didate for the Presidency. He is not un-
aware of the two-thirds rule, and if the demo-
Gratis carry Ohio nobody can doubt that
the emboldened and jubilant infationists
will control more than one-third of the
delegates. With Ohio against him, and
Pennsylvania against him, and the other
sympathetic infationist States against him,
Mr.. Tilden could not possibly be nominated,
| and we shall be as much surprised us graft
fled if the New York platform adopted next
week is pitched in the same high hard money
key as Mr.. Marbles handiwork of last year
Temporal mutdnt1r a nos nl,admur In Ills,
which may be Englished as meaning that
Governor Tilden will trim his sails to the ris-
ing wind He will not permit the Syracuse
Convention to extinguish his chances OF
Presidential nomination by taking high
ground for early specie resumption. The
draughtsman of the Syracuse platform will
be mere scribe, with as little liberty as any
other amanuensis. If Governor Tilden shall
have courage enough to permit his Conven-
ton to denounce imitation the country will
form more exalted estimate of his charac-
ter. Henry Clay, with all his eloquence,
never said anything more admirable than
Il would rather be right than be Presi-
dent" and if Governor Tilden permits con-
vention which will be pretty much in his
hands to take an aggressive hard money posi-
ton all right-minded men will do him honor
But his trimming annual Message does not
| justify this expectation, and the adoption of
the Ohio platform by the Pennsylvania
democrats will compel him to make diff
cult choice between duty and ambition
According to present appearances the in
fationists will capture the Democratic Ma
tional Convention, and Mr.. Tilden must
make an immediate choice between
principle and personal hopes. The New
York Convention meets next week, and its
platform will determine whether Governor
Tilden is a possible candidate for the Presi-
dency The indiscreet parade of his assured
control of the State Convention will make
him individually responsible for its action
If it repeats the vigorous hard money plat
form Of last year it will be taken as
an expression of his personal views, and will
kill him as a Presidential candidate. This
reasoning, of course, goes on the assumption
that the democratic infationists will carry
Ohio, for their defeat would give quite new
turn to our politics. But it would be dan
gerous for the New York Convention to as
sumo that its party will be defeated in Ohio,