The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-02-09
The Presidential Candida !.es..Morton
and Hendrfck3.

The Presidential Candida ,,es-.Morton
and Hendricks.
letter from Minnesota Republican in WASH
ingtOn, Jan. 81.
Grant will not be candidate. think
he does not desire = denomination. Had
his last message contained no recommen.
dations relative to the school question
and taxation Of church property, the
public generally would have concluded
that he was sincere in his "White'' letter
With our usual uncharitableness toward
public men, those recommendations have
been considered as bids for the Presi-
dency. If so, they had more reference
to 1880 or 1884 than to 1875. If Grant
wanted the nomination he would find
some means of letting it be known that
in his judgment the circumstances under
which acceptance thereof would be q
Duty had arisen. Until he speaks out,
no self'respecting man can we'll
press his claims, for in so doing he would
charge his White letter as being insinc.re
and hypocritical.
Grant is sagacious, and in the face of
the general and expressed opposition to
third term, will take no steps to thrust
himself upon his party. The ''circum-
stances under which his acceptance of
nomination will be duty, he will leave
to the Judgment of the convention. No
candidate will 60 into that convention
with clear majority of delegates, and
every delegate, no matter how bitter his
hostility to third term, will prefer
Grant to Democrat. If, under these
~
ing of caucuses, he be nominated as
party necessity, he will poll just as strong
vote as if he wee a new man. His
rivals will see to it that the convention
will not consider his nomination as neces.
sary to the salvation of the party. 1t is
wise to countlGrant out of the field.
The situation cannot be fully under
stood without bearing in mind that the
south will come before the Republican
convention with this language: IF you
lose the south you lose the nation, for the
certainty of that loss will so paralyze
your efforts that all the doubtful northern
States will 90 against you. The south,
then, is the key of the situation. In
working and voting for Republ,canism
many Of us must really take our lives in
our hands. The last election in Miss;s-
sippi has greatly intimidated the colored
people, hence the necessity OF giving US
the candidate in whom we have the fullest
confidence. The questions of tariff and
finance interest us but little, because We
are brought face to face with the more
solemn question of the free exercise of
suffrage, which is in every sense the pal.
ladium of all our rights. One of three
mill 70 10
government will protect the negro at the
ballot box, or the Democracy will carry
the South and the nation, or the colored
race will defend their political Ri GIFTS by
force Of arms. You, of the North, will
not consent to the second. We, of the
South, shrink from the last. though we
know full we'll that in such struggle
you would ultimately DO drawn to our
help. If you will give US a candidate,
who will, if elected, defend our rights, we
will take the field, despite the PERIL
You can see at . glance that Bristow
has not a ghost of chance of success.
He is almost entirely unknown to the
nation, except as chief prosecutor of the
whisky frauds-certainly meagre plat
orm for Presidential candidate. If he
were nominated three.fourths of the in
telligent men of the nation could not tell,
without scanning his record, how he
stood on the great questions of the last
decade. Certainly he has given no such
evidences ofloyalty to radicalism as did
Andrew johnson before his nomination.
The real Republicans Of the
South will unanimously reject
him, and ne Cannot offer
even remote possibility of carrying his
own State, as bride for the nomination.
He cannot carry the delegation of sin.
gle southern State, except by packing the
State convention with conservatives.
through his oficeholders.
Illinois has had the Presidency for l6
years; hence, Washburne has no grounds.
on which to build even hope.
Only in case Of some dead lock in the
convention will Hayes of Ohio loom. up
with any prominence. As Conkling will
find it exceedingly difficult to secure
full delegation in his favor from his own
State, he also is ruled out.
At present the real battle is between
Morton and Blaine. The former will
come into convention with almost the en-.
tire South-l38 votes. This is generally
conceded to him. That section looks to
him as its chief mouthpiece and defender.
10 answer his southern correspondents
requires three clerks. The South will be
for him tremendous lever, and if thew
cannot nominate him, his candidacy will
ensure the nomination of some one eeual-
ly radical. The southern Republicans,
especially the negroes, feel that it is with
them almost a matter Of life and death,
and they will accept no mere compromise
candidate.