The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-01-18
Our New York Letter.
nc amnesty Bil-The National Conven.
fion-PresidentiaIC ICandidaies-.Preside g
Grant and the Third Term.
NEW YORK, Jan. Is. 1876.

Jefferson Davis can hardly fail to meet with
responsive accord from people who give the
subject thoughtful consideration. He has al
ready been restored to all the privileges of citi-
zenship except that of holding office. If he
wants anything more, he has only to ask for it.
That he sullenly declines to do, probably be-
cause such petition might seem like an ad-
mission that his rebellion was wrong. He has
never uttered or written word which implied
repentance of, or regret for, the great crime
against humanity, of which he was guilty above
all other men. On the contrary he has chosen
to rest under the disability referred to, rather
than concede that the revolt against the govern
ment, OF which he was the leader, was unjusti-
fable and reasonable.
Now cannot for the life of me see any rea.
son why the portion of amnesty still withheld
from him, should be forced upon him unasked
and unsought. To insist upon Lis restoration
TO tull citizenship, whether he will or no, would
have very much the appearance of asking his
forgiveness. Such an excess of humility would
be craven in the extreme. Every manly in
stinct revoits against it. The Christian relig-
ion teaches no such doctrine of pardon as that.
The Prodigal Son was not welcomed back, till
he had poured forth his wall of contrition in
| the exclam alton 81 have sinnedp
As for Jefferson Davis personally he has
ceased to be of any account A disappointed
withered, peevish, fretful old man, the only
useful purpose he can be made to serve during
the remnant of his life, is to stand as an ex-
ample that the government he sought to de-
stroy can be magnanimous without exhibiting
pusillanimity. If he prefers to stay out in the
Il cnld WAITING for Ho1oraSa 60 ooox IL. A. 49,
| in, that is his affair, and there is no earthly
occasion for anybody to disturb him. The time
has not come-let US hope it never will-when
the national generosity is to degenerate into
actual potroonery. AS Gen. Grant said in one
of his epigrammatic speeches not long ago,
I'VE are not prepared yet to apologize for the
war"
One would scarcely suppose considering the
| great fuss made about amnesty. that there were
| trifie less than three hundred persons in all
this land resting under disabilities of any sort
that every one of these enjoyed the right to
| vote-the only disqualification still attaching
to them being the prohibition to act as law
| makers until they have purged themselves of
the offense of being law breakers. 1t does
seem absurd for Congress to be wasting so
Il
when we stop to consider that the whole batch
of these martyrs of partial dsfranchisement
can have pardons sent to them by return mail
if they can bend sufficiently from their naughty
arrogance to request them. If they are too
proud to do that L really cannot bring myself
to believe that any serious danger will grow
out of their self-imposed exclusion from state
or federal legislative halls
Another significant note of preparation for
the coming POLITICAL contest is the selection by
the National Republican Committee of a time
and place for the meeting of the Conveation.
The last gathering having been held in Phila-
delphia it was obviously proper that the West
should have the preference now, and Cincin-
natl was fairly entitled to it. Moreover
the fact that the Centennial exhibition
will be in full blast in Philadelphia on
the 18th of June though urged as a rea-
son for convening there, was held to be a
conclusive objection to the choice of that CITY,
1t isn't well to have two pageants in the same
place at the same time. And then again the
Quaker metropolis will in all probability be
crowded to its utmost capacity just then
Saratoga would have been the best Northern
site which could have been named, for the &C.
/
hotels are unsurpassed. Still there is no dis
putting the paramount claims of the "Queen
City," whether regarded from the geographic
cal or numerical stand point. Ohio will fur
nish the first reliable indication of the grand
result in the preliminary skirmish which
takes place on the day of the election in Octo-
Der. The issue of the Presidential canvass has
never been in doubt after the elections of the
preceding month were over.
There has rarely been a period when it was
more difficult to determine who the competing
candidate would be than at present. There
is no name Of such exceptonable prominence
that it can be predicted of it that it will lead
the ballot 1t is generally taken for granted
that the delegation of five New England states
will concentrate on your representative who is
the leader of the minority in the House, and
that Connecticut will cast a complimentary
vote for the Postmaster General. New York
will be unit for our great Senator unless he
interposes to prevent such a movement. No
body but himself can hinder it. 1t Is amusing
to notice the occasional paragraphs which ap-
pear in hostile prints treating of the matter as
il it were at least debatable. The parties who
indte those items of misinformation though
not of Republican faith are nevertheless not so
ignorant of State polite, as they pretend to be.
They know very we'll that unless Mr.. Conkling
positively refuses to allow his name to be pre-
sented, nothing can restrain his friends from
giving him the solid delegation from the EN-
pre state. He has very little strength with
the newspapers-is, indeed, seldom spoken of
truthfully by them-but the people who COM
pose the rank and file of the Republican party
have the attachment to him which is inspired
by profound admiration for his brilliant tai
ents, his infexible integrity and his incompar.
able services. If they were not imbued with
these sentiments of devotion to him, they would
ba ungrateful dolts, for a more gallant, unself
ish and effective leader never stood at the
'front.' Sometimes wish he was inclined to
be concliatory towards the press, but his scorn
of the coarseness, brutality and mendacity
which characterizes so much of our political
journalism is genuine and incorporating,
and he is altogether too sincere and manly to
conceal or disguise it. He labors under one
disadvantage. Public life detaches him, in a
measure, from profession in which he has
few peers and no superior. He has too many
clients and not enough wealth to admit of his
making a business of politics. The intervals
between senatorial duties are so completely
engrossed with his engagements in the practice
of law, that he has as little leisure as inclina-
tion to enter the lists as a Presidential aspir-
ant.
presume by this time, pretty much every
body who possesses average discernment has
discovered that the prattle about third term
was arrant nonsense 1t would be little ingu-
| lar if Gen. Grant, if his ambition even took
that direction, should have confded the ret
exclusively to his opponents And yet ey
have had an absolute monopoly of the jsct
subject from the day it was broached till uow'
1t is true that once in a while some frie d OF
his has been led by hearing so much about it, to
the conclusion that it would not be bad idea
to try an experiment, the objections to which
have been largely discounted by con-
tinued iteration of them. And it must be con-
fessed that there is no conceivable prospect
of our ever getting better President, or one
more thoroughly established in the confidence