The Portland daily press., 1876-03-14

ueBree Dreak the force or that solid Republican
sentiment of the Empire State, which insists
that ROSCOE CoNKLING is in point of ability,
Integrity. experience and capacity for affairs
without superior in the country, and Is emf
nently fit for the presidential Office, they pre-
vail upon their friends in the caucus to intro.
duce the following, which constitutes the pith
and marrow of the entire pronuuciamento:
That the purpose which has been openly
avOwed and threatened to be put in practical
operation, of sending to the national conven-
tion at Cincinnati a delegation from the state
OF New York made up at state convention
aud pledged or committed beforehand to the
support OF particular candidates, is q gross
violation of the first principles of republican
institutions, and an outrage upon the rights
ano wishes OF the great majority OF the party.
We insist that the representation of the state
or New York in that convention shall be COM
mitted to delegation wholly uppacked and
unpledged, who shall be uDtrammeed and free
TO choose from among all the candidates who
may be brought before the convention, aud un-
less this can be conceded TO us we refuse TO be
bound by its action.
If Messrs. Burnett and Wilson had been
adroit politicians they would not have allowed
this resolve to be so overdone. The talk about
"a gross violation of the first principles of re-
publican institutions aud "au outrage pou the
| rights and wishes of great majority Of the
party" is not only very offensive, but IL is very
nonSensieeL Tl,a rights and wishes of great
majority OF the party cannot be ignored, aud
that is the reason why the delegation will be
| unit II the gentlemen who passed this
| resolution are Republicans they have precisely
the same rights and immunties as other menu
bers OF the party, and it is very easy for them
to try conclusions in respect to the choice Of
the Organization in the matter of the presi-
dency. But the truth is, they are perfectly
well aware that as an army clings to its gen.
eral so party adheres to its trusted leader and
chief-that our Senator has the supreme conf
| dence, respect and devotion of the rank aud
| file, and they not only mean to present his
name to the Cincinnati convention. but to ad-
here to him heartily aud unitedly, until il is
| proved clearly that some other standard bearer
will hetter concentrate the forces of the Re-
publican phalaux. The only possible effect of
| this ill-timed and ill-natured murmur will be
to intensity the purpose of the state conven-
| ton to prevent any man from getting upon the
national delegation who is not thoroughly reli-
able in his advocacy of Senator Conkling.
| That is the will of the party and it must be
obeyed.
| don't imagine that one 10 five of the men
who voted for these resolutions had any eoncep-
ton of their origin or covert purpose. They
were accepted as general denunciation Of
official misconduct and hurried through with
| out criticism or analysis The ease with which
such things can be done In New York is pro-
verbal. hold in my hand at this moment
paper which cut from a daily print five years
ago. 1t is headed "Petition of Property
1 an1 L. - L..
I state to enact a law which vested the exclu-
| sive power of levying taxes and issuing bonds
in A Oakley Hall. William NJ. Tweed, Richard
B. Connolly and Peter B. Sweeney 1t contains
| 331 signatures, and among them are at least
hundred of the most eminent merchants, bank
ers, and men of high standing the city con-
tained. The signatures were all obtained
through the personal solicitation OF Nathaniel
| Sands. The signers were ODD natured and
didn't like to disoblige Mr.. Sands; they were
thoughtless and didn't take time to consider
that the power they were proposing to confer
on this extraordinary quartette was greater
than free people had been willing heretofore
to resign to any human beings. Whenever 1
see or hear of eccentric things done by distin-
guished citizens, 1 take their list and look 1t
| over and l conclude after that not to be sur
prsed at anything of that sort which may hap
pen.
1t may he as well. perhaps, gently to remind
friends of parties supposed to be ambitious of
Presidential honors, that their chances will net
be improved by attacks upon the admiuistra.
tion of Gen. Grant One thing may be set
down for certainty. No Republican ,Dho is an
enemy of the administration can be elected
/ Vhoto
vention may do it may be trusted not to present
a candidate who has ever whined and snivellsd
about the corruption and frauds of his party.
A man who has done his utmost to rectify er-
rors and eradicate abuses wherever found,
whose hands are clean, and whose record
pure, who has talked little about reform and
accomplished much in furtherance of it. will
command the suffrages of the convention, and
deserve the endorsement of the people. The
Republicans will not select leader. who has
hovere between their camp and the enemy's,
sometimes iocliniDg to the one and sometimes
to the other, leaving it always a matter Of
doubt what his true color was
Here is a cheerful extract from one of the
independent" organs that is worth copying !:
"The average Republican newspaper reads
| now like file of the Independent press in the
summer and spring of 1872"
This was not Intended as a rebuke to Repub-
lican journalism, but it would be difficult to
embody aseyerer censure in so small space.
Recall for a moment what the anti adminstra-
ton newspapers were doing five years ago
what perfect avalanche of shameless false
hoods of every species and variety they belcted
forth, until at last the recol came, and they
were buried beneath the toppliug pyramids of
mud they had reared to fling at the dominant
party. If any Republican prints are emulous
of the fate which befel the cabal that piloted
the Cincinnati movement of 1872, they have
only to justify the mputation cast upon them
in the foregoing extract. Newspapers are adj
mirable institutions so long as they are kept
free from slander and evil speaking, but when
they are run in the interests of cliques and in
dulge in indiscriminate, licentious aud menda-
cious calumniation, they soon lose their influ-
ence aud become the organs merely of the igno-
rant and vicious.
As a specimen of the kind Of literature
which is now in favor among the "independ-
ents'', 1 quote this ''choice extract from
newspaper that makes especial pretensions to
"tone". The writer is speaking of the Presi-
dent of the United States and describes him
| as:
San ignorant soldier, coarse in his tastes,
| and blunt in his perceptions, fond of money
and material enjoyment and of low company"
1t is charitable to suppose that the writer of
this brutal sentence was utterly ignorant of the
subject of it. Otherwise he would simply be sup
plementiug gross indecency with wilful false
hood. To impute ignorance to a man of Gen.
| Grants education is a piece of gratuitous
stupidity, but every other feature of the picture
is equally inaccurate Everybody who knows
the President is aware that he is thoroughly
self-respecting and circumspect in his behav-
ior-a gentleman by nature, without having
had occasion to study the rules of etiquette.
Nobody ever saw him practice or permit a
familiarity that had the slightest SAVIOR of rude
ness, aud his perceptions are altogether above
the comprehension of an editor whose spite
could betray him into such an outrage as T
have cited above.
Happily the American people manifested