The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-02-07
Is Morton an Available Man.


ously pressed by his friends and his availa-
bility is fair subject for general discussion.
1t is not likely that our views will exercise
any great influence at Cincinnati, but our
Republican friends are, nevertheless, well
come to make the best use of them. Were
we moved by strictly party spirit, it would
please US to see the weakest of our oppo-
ton rising superior to all others, induces us
to hope that the country will have an oppor-
tunity to choose between the best men of
both parties in the coming presidential
election. In the Centennial year the
country has a right to demand that only
men worthy to be the successors of Wash
ington shall be offered for its suffrages.
Among the gentlemen on the other side,
whose names have been mentioned in this
sibly rally together the shat tered forces of
the Republican party: who re present its best
elements, its noblest efforts, its surest con-
victions and its purest principles: who, for
whatever is meritorious in its history, may
honestly claim fair share of credit: who,
with whatever is worthy of public spproba-
ton in its present attitude, may honestly
claim to be intimately identified: who, if
any of its promises of reform in the future
are trustworthy, may honestly claim to be
equal to their redemption. Some one of
these gentlemen might make the most that
the most sanguine of them could reasonably
hope to achieve, gallant fight, but Mr..
Morton is not OF the fortunate number.
We are not of those who anonymously un-
der value the character of an opponent or
imprudently underestimate the strength of
an adversary. But having eyes to see we
can not be blind to Senator Morton's short
comings as presidential aspirsnt. In no
sense, should his importunate scheming re-
suit in victory over a half score Of better
men who have been named for the position,
can he prove an available candidate.
He is great political wire puller and or
ganizsr, 1t is true, but something nobler
than this will be demanded by a people
whose memories are ringing with the pstri-
otto echoes of 70. He has considerable in
tellectual force, we grant, but that too, OF
itself, will prove wholly insufficient in a
day when personal and political integrity
are at a premium. An open hand, a gener-
Gus heart, warm, fraternal spirit, cour-
age above question and purity above re-
proach, these are foremost among the
essential qualifications which will be in
sisted upon at the polls next No
vember. The people want bread;
it will not do to offer them stone. They
want an honorable head; it will not do to
81 mt
peace; 1t will not do to offer them an empty
sppelation, such as "the great war gov
ernor" won by staying at home. They
want to bury the immediate and rejuvenate
the remote past; they want to obliterate
the snimosities of the second and to restore
the brotherly spirit which animated the first
rebellion, the revolution which we proudly
celebrate from Florida to Maine: Il will
not do to answer their cry for love by
hatred, their prayer for re union
of hearts by fiourishing in their
faces an emblem of petty, narrow-minded
discord, the bloody shirt; to offer them as
candidate for the highest centennial
honors they can bestow man whose
sole stock In political trade is an uaenviable
ability to feed sectional fires and spit out
party venom of the bitterest, most burning
and most love corroding kind. The people
are determined that this year shall be
memorable for that the heart OF the
whole country shall be made glad
in the possession of what the con-
siitution guarantees to each of the
states-a republican form of government
the desire for which an hundred years ago
placed the fathers of the republic for four
weary years side by side and shoulder to
shoulder. 1t would be a mockery of its
generous, patriotic spirit to ask it to support
man whose highest ambition is to hear
contumely upon the birthplace of Patrick
Henry and Washington, of Moul
trie, and Marion, and to crush
their children under the remorselesi
heels of military despotism controlled b,
scallawags, thieves, political adventurer
and tramps. The man who Endorses trie'