The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-06-16


the adjournment of the Convention without
action on the Presidency. The session was
a drawn battle between the friends and the
enemies of Blaine, so far as the ulti-
mate result was concerned. Whatever
strength Mr.. Blaine may possess in the
Convention depends upon the use
his friends make of this enthusiasm.
Every hour of delay is a defeat to
his mounting hopes. The whole day was
spent in motions and countermotions to
stave off the inevitable. Whenever the Con-
vention came to vote there was success
for the friends of Blaine. At the same time
there was a failure to grasp the fruits of
victory, which is incompatible with intelli-
gent leadership. We regard the adjourn
ment Of the Convention as serious blow to
the hopes of the ex-Speaker, unless, as may
prove to be true, his enemies have it in
their power to postpone destiny without
avoiding it.
The great difficulty in the way Of defeat
ing Mr.. Blaine seems to be the impossibility
of concentrating the opposition on any can
didate. 1t is natural that the friends of
Morton, Conkling and Bristow should sup
port their chiefs with chivalrous devotion.
The Olympian prize of the Presidency is so
high stake that we can understand
how the friends of any of the
chiefs should stand by their leader
while there is hope. In wild convention,
which is, after all, a mob, there are SO many
chances of victory-the turn of delegation,
the speech of some eloquent or noisy dele
gate, q sudden com animation, death, illness,
some new revelation, anything in fact in the
chapter of accidents-that we can understand
how even the friends Of the winning
candidate, unless they have assurance
doubly sure, should fight to the end.
AS it now looks Mr.. Blaine has carried out this
policy of desperation. Wherever he has
found an opposing idea he has fought it.
Wherever he has found q vote to be won by
force he has taken it. The defeat of Spencer
in Alabama, of Douglass in the District Of
Columbia, the election of Mcpherson as the
President of the Convention are so many rude
triumphs. We cannot understand them except
upon the theory that victory is 30 desperate
with Mr.. Blaine that he can only win by re-
garding every element in the Convention
that is not in his favor as an enemy Of the
party. He has adopted the rule or ruin
policy. In all conventions there is a spirit
of concession, which is inspired by the
thought that after the Convention there
comes an election. There never was canvass
where concession was more necessary than in
the present Yet Mr.. Blaine and his friends
have treated every republican aspiration as
an enmity. How else can we account for
the election of Mcpherson to the presidency
of the Convention and the humiliation of
Secretary Cameron which that act implied
If the canvass Of Mr.. Blaine were winning
campaign--if there were no thought but the
good of the party and the election of the
ticket-we should have different policy.
The treatment of Mr.. Conkling has been as
rude as though he were democrat. In fact,
we think the name of Governor Tilden
would receive more courtesy in this Conven-
ton than has been accorded to the most
distinguished republican leader in the
Senate. Surprising the nomination of
Blaine, which seems probable from
all the accounts, how can his friends
expect that harmonious union of the
party without which any victory under
the best aspects is impossible2 How can he
expect from the friends of Conkling in New
York, Of Morton in Indiana, of Cameron in
Pennsylvania, any support except that of
cold duty? Is it necessary for the triumph
of Blaine that every anti-Blaine candidate
should be Inundated? And yet the whole
action of the Convention has been policy of
humiliation and revenge.
This may mean victory, and to over
anxious politicians it may seem like victory.
To us it is the harbinger of defeat-if not at
Cincinnati at the polls in November. If
any candidate should pursue the policy of
Cancellation it is Mr. Blaine He is now in
danger Of expulsion by the House for tam
pering with witness and suppressing evil
dence. We do not see how the House
can refuse to censure or expel him.
He has confessed that as Speaker of tho
House he sold decisions to railway jobbers and
had written to his customers reminding them
Of what he had done and asking certain ia
vors in return. He has trimmed on every
question of vital interest to the republican
party. He has confessed that in the hour Of
the nations agony and effort, when a
Logan and a Grant were offering their
lives to the Union, he had no higher
duty than to lobby around the War De-
partment seeking contracts for the Spencer
Arms Company. If any candidate needs
the indulgence of party and all the bene-
fits that may come from q policy of con-
ciliation it is Mr.. Blaine. And yet the cam
paign of his friends at Cincinnati has been
upon the theory that he is the only repub-
licaq entitled to respect We cannot
see how the friends of Mr.. Morton,
for instance, can support the nomination of