The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-06-28
The Cincinnati Nominations.

ers all the sins Of the Grant Admin
istration while he tramples with one
| foot upon Administrative Reform in
the person Of Bristow. and with the
other upon the bleeding African
and the ''imperiIled life of the ma
ton" in the person of Blaine; such
is the result of the fierce internecine
faction fight waged by the Republi-
can chiefs and their followers at Gin
cinnati. The nomination of Gov.
| Hayes, of Ohio, is a collapse and
not a compromise. Had it been
| brought about by harmonious con-
vention seeking for a standard-bear-
er to lead its party into a great Pres
idential conflict on a question of
principles, it might have been fairly
enough regarded as a clever politi-
cal stroke. For Governor Hayes.
personally, is a man of respectable
abilities, of excellent private charac-
ter, and in a steady-going undemon-
| strative way has been a consistent,
if not an influential member of the
Republican party for many years.
It would be absurd to compare him
in point of intellect with President
! Lincoln; but If the Republican par
ty to-day where it stood in 1860, a
sufficiently striking analogy might
be established between the Chicago
nomination of that year and the
nomination now made at Cincinnati,
to warrant great expectations on the
part of his supporters from this curl
GUS stroke of lightning Unfortu-
nately for Gov. Hayes and the Re-
publican party, however. and most
fortunately for the country, the Re
publican party in 1876 has drifted
leagues away from the position oc-
cupied by the Republican party in
1850. It was then on the aggress-
i've, with all the passions kindled by
a great political and social issue
glowing in the hearts of its members.
1t is now on the defensive, burdened
with the failures and the corruptions
of long lease of power atrociously
misused, and fermenting with decay.
No real life is left in it save the sec
tional animosities which have be-
come, very aptly, symbolized to the
popular apprehension by the stan
dard of the "bloody shirt That
standard, raised originally, by Sen
ator Morton and adroitly snatched
from the unwary hand at the outset
of the present Congressional session
by Mr.. Blaine, has been struck down
in the headlong and furious fight be-
tween the partisans Of these leaders
at Cincinnati, and now lies trampled
and torn under the feet Of the rela-
lively obscure man upon whom in
their exhaustion the warning dele
gates at last combined in numbers
sufficient, though but barely suffi-
cient, to secure his nomination.
While the one really vivid sentiment
of the Republican party has been
dishonored and made ridiculous by
the defeat Of Blaine and of Morton,
its one respectable sham and pre-
tense has been torn to shreds by the
defeat of Bristow. Administrative
Reform has Jared even worse at the
hands of the Cincinnati Convention
than the ''bloody shirt" For while
Governor Hayes is too lukewarm,
and. as we are inclined to believe.
too conscientious a man to play with
success the blood thunder part
in which Blaine would have been so
brilliant and Morton so Indignantly
effective, he can at least lend him.
self without absolute and shameful
Inconsistency. to its performance in
his behalf by more fanatiCal or less
scrupulous political actors. But
Administrative Reform has not only
been negatively put out Of the can
vass by the defeat of Bristow. It
has been positively kicked to death
by the nomination of Mr.. Wheeler.
Mr.. Wheeler was Mr.. Blaine's ad-
jutant and aide-de-camp in carrying
through all the most Objectionable
Republican subsidy legislation on
our statute-books. Mr.. Blaine, of
whom it must be said that he usual
ly knows his men, selected Mr..
Wheeler as the Chairman of the
Committee on the Pacific Railroad
and the Vice-Presidential nomina-
ton at Cincinnati, therefore, saddles
the Republican party with all the
most assailable features of Mr..
Blaine's political record, while, in
conjunction with the Presidential
nomination, it deprives the Repub-
lican party OF the glow and go of
Mr. Blaine's carefully cultivated Sec
tional issue. To Mr.. Wheeler also
civil service reform is indebted for
| its death-biow. In truth the nomi-
nation of Mr.. Wheeler can do so lit
tie good and must do so much harm
tn his party in the national conflict,
that one is half tempted to believe
that it must have been foisted upon
the weary and distracted convention
by the New York enemies of another
conspicuous Republican leader. SEN
ator Conkling, who also now lies
bleeding and bedraggled in the house
of his friends. 1t is conceivable that
it should have been pressed by Mr..
Conkling's antagonists with an eye
to the local elections in this State.
It is hardly conceivable that even
they should have expected any good
to come of it to their. party in the
Presidential battle, even within the
limits of the Empire State. So far
as the Democracy are concerned.
these nominations most eloquently
emphasize the necessity Of prompt
and thorough union among the Dem
ocratic forces in all parts of the
country. The nomination Of Cover
nor Hayes, in the circumstances in
which it was made, opens to us,
with common discretion in the party
councils, a prospect of almost GER
tain victory in PennsYlvania, and