New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-11-21
The Compensalions of Defeat.

1t must be serious disappointment 10
Governor Tilden to be led up to "within
one of it, to suppose for one whole day
that he had reached the summit of his ann
bition; to know that he has received ma.
jority of the popular vote and receive con-
CALCULATIONS as the President elect, and
then have the whole fair fabric of his hopes
tumble to pieces before him. We are
aware that he has been sanguine Of success
from the moment of his nomination; indeed
that from the time bis name began to be
prominently mentioned in connection with
the nomination, he has been serenely conf
dent of securing both the nomination and
election When others of his party weak
ened, his faith was unshaken; he was more
than hopeful from the beginning, MAINTAIN
ing under all circumstances that his cleo
ton was q certainty. Nor has his conf
dence wavered since the returns began to
come from South Carolina, Florida and
Louisiana, showing that he had lost
those three States, and with them the
presidency. He still holds that he
has been elected. and being person Of oh
stinate temper, it is very kelly he will con-
tinue of that mind until the last hope goes
out with the PRONUNCIATION of the official
count in the three disputed States. To come
60 near an election after the laborious cam
paign which he has personally superin-
tended, and all the excitement and anxiety
through which he must have passed, must
be an aggravatiOn as we'll as disappoipt-
ment. 1t is the old story of Tantalus. He
reached out tor the prize OF his ambition;
for twenty hours supposed he had it in
his grasp, and then it melted away in his
hand. He may console himself with the re-
Election that he is not the first or only
American statesman who has suffered just
such disappointment. though he is the first
to come 80 near the Presidency and lose it.
Others before him have counted as conf
IDENTIFY as he on filing the Presidential
Office and have died without the sight, and
other candidates have received q majority
of the popular vote and still been unsuc-
cessful.
He may lind still further consolation in
reflector upon the difficulties and embar-
easements he has escaped. When he con
siders the great multitude of reformers who
have been bowling from the stump and
writing blazing articles in newspapers, and
carrying torches and staggering under ban
lants in his behalf; when he thinks of the
long fact they have kept and the great
hunger there is on their, and then OF the
comparatively small number of offices he
would have at his disposal to meet the de-
mands of their ineatiate appetites, he can
not but be consoled. For Governor Tilden
has been long enough in politics to know
that the advent of new party to power
means more than anything else sweeping
change in all the government offices. In
front of every place at his disposal he
would have found his earnest reformers,
from tive n ty-tive to fifty deep. all eager to
serve the country and unwilling to be de-
MED the privilege. The Governor would
have found it impossible to crafty all of
the IN; impossible, we Suspect, to crafty
more than very insignificant minority with
out making trouble for himself and for the
country, and repudiating his own profess
sions with regard to reform in the civil
service. He may, If he will, find great
comfort in this view of the case. He is
spared the responsibility of choosing be-
tween answering the expectations of his
party and making general distribution of
the offices, or offending the party and, per-
haps, breaking it to pieces by fulfilling his
promises and carrying into practical opera
ton the ideas he has advanced concerning
political reform. Whichever horn of the
dilemma he might choose he would have
been in trouble. Without doubt he would
desire to make good administration. and
to put only able and honest men in office,
but it is equally certain that this is not by
any means what would be expected of HIM
by the men who voted for him. The en-
barrassment of choosing between party and
principle, and the innumeratle annoyances
and discomfOrts of being compelled to re-
ceive and listen to the q aims of several
hundred thousand bearers of torches and
transparencies, Governor Tilden escapes
by bis defeat. The disappointment is great,
OF course; buC as we have pointed out, it
has its compensations. We commend to the
Governor the philosophic contemplation of
the trouble he has SO narrowly escaped.
There Ia solid G. m fOrt in that aspect OF de-
feat.-New York Tribune.