The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-09
Tilden-Thurman-Ba the Demo-
cratic Triumvirs.

than any other man can if his patriotic
pride and indignation animate him against
the horde of corrupt and unworthy creatures
that wriggle through the whole body polite
and eat away its vitality to such degree
that he believes none other will extirpate
them with the necessary energy and earnest
ness if he believes that his resolution, his
will. his purpose. are especially what are
needed in the crisis if, in short, he wants
the Office for the service he can do in it, heis,
by this reason alone, fit for the place. But
if he wants it for any other reason whatever
he is unfit for it. Any motive that is merely
personal is pitiful piece of intellectual
furniture in the emergency that confronts
the nation. Any other motive than the
highest possible public purpose will not do
in these times If any man shall in these
days secure the Presidency only to be the
central source Of it's patronage he may BIO
sure that he will be pilloried in infamy to
the last day of our history as people.
There nre many men now before the
country who, if they desire this Office, may
consistently be believed to desire it only
among these are the democratic triumvirs,
Tilden, Thurman and Bayard, the represen-
tatives respectively of the great sections of
democratic strength. Every one of thcs,
men stands at higher level morally and in
tellectually than is common in our public
life. Ordinarily this would be a fatal de-
feet, an insuperable obstacle to their candi-
dacy, for the common politician resents
superiority. He breads the notion of the
presence in Office of any man Of such quality
that he will not be as plastic to his schemes
as clay in the hands Of the potter. Any intel
lect sufficient to see through his schemes, and
any morality or sense of duty robust enough
to put them out of doors, are oil that he has
to dread in this world and he battles day
and night against the candidacy Of men en-
bowed with such attributes. How common
this sentiment is with this ordinarily ON
nipotent class may be seen in the tone
with which some time ago they treated
the proposition to nominate Mr.. Adams.
They sneered at it as respectable" They
filled their local journals with sarcastic ref
erences to "blue blood" and tho editor of
the Springfield Republican was laughed at
from one end Of the country to the other
because he persistently declared his opinion
that gentleman of exceptional ability and
culture and of great experience in our poll
ties was n, thoroughly fit man to be Presi-
dent This sort of opinion originates with
the men who want dummy in Office, who
want to wind him up and set the hands at
what hour they please. Men Of this class in
the republican party surrounded and cap
tured the President now in Office at a very
early period, and the whole order through
out the land has been made hungry by the
instances Of their success that recent inves-
legations have exhibited. But the men Of
this sort in both parties have begun to see
very clearly that the present canvass is one
in which the people mean to take part, and
they reason that they must give up for a
time those tactics which they may indulge
with safety when the people are Indifferent.
They know that the party that dominates a
dummy will be beaten, and that, if success
full with a capable man, they may still hope
and strive, but if beaten with any other
they may go for four years where the wood
bine twineth. Therefore the candidacy of
men Of exceptional ability is not impossible
this year, and Mr.. Tilden, Mr. Thurman or
Mr.. Bayard may any one of them come out
of the st. Louis Convention half elected to
the Presidency
With men like these, men Of high charac-
ter and somewhat ripe experience, it may
safely be assumed that mere personal ambi-
ton does not count for great deal in the
aspirations with which they contemplate the
Presidency, for it is scarcely conceivable that
men of accurate perceptions would choose to
lie on the bed of Procrustes rather than on
any other, merely because it is labelled with
an honorable name. But men will venture
that bed, or even n worse fate, in devotion
to the public service; and we have not the
slightest doubt that any one of these gentle
men if elected would administer the Presi-
Dental Office in the spirit of such devotion.
Devotion, however, does not attach undue
importance to details; it rather, indeed, con-
templates them with some indifference, and
concentrates its attention upon essentials
and if three great democrats are rcsolute to
serve the country in perilous emergency
if they are equally determined to do their
utmost to purify the public service, to re-cs-
tablish the standard of our republican sys-
tenn, to save from insidious enemies a
form of government upon which depends
the liberties of forty millions of people if
this is their purpose, and they address them
selves to the labor only to secure the success
~ thiS GRAND purpoSe IL is after all only n
detail which of them shall be nominally
Observation-Disclosures any one of them, for in
stance, in signing his name to document
that confounds the plans Of scoundrcls shall
sign it as President or rs Secretary. 1t is
reported by Arrian that when the Queen of
tnd 10 tho tnIat Of Alc,n