The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-03-29

There are two facts in the coming canvass
for the Presidency which no politician who
has any care for the future of his party will
overlook -namely, the importance of Gen
eral Grant and Mr.. Conkling as the dom
inant republican candidates for the Presi-
dency. Mr.. Conkling controls New York;
for, whatever importance we may give to Mr..
Curtis and his mutiny, there is no doubt
that the vote of the Syracuse Convention
represents the will of the party throughout
the State. The republican party cannot es-
cape it, whatever its leaders may say or
think. Mr.. Curtis represents himself and a
few friends of Mr. Blaine The general drift
of public sentiment is that the Empire State
should name the President, and that demo-
cratic and republican candidates alike
should come from New York. We support
Mr.. Conkling as the republican nominee
from feeling of State pride, because we hold
his genius and his courage in high
esteem because we think he would do
honor to the State and the nation !;
because he is too proud and too
brave to lie; because he will never, whether
he loses or wins, stoop to conquer We sup
port him for the republican nomination
because we think citizen of the Empire
State would do much more for the country
than one from a narrower and less enlight-
ened section. We should like to see repub-
licans and democrats alike take citizens of
New York as candidates for the Presidency.
Rich as New York is in men who are COM
petent to preside over the destinies of this
nation, we never were so rich as now. In
our centennial list of candidates there are
five republicans and four democrats from
New York alone. Therefore if our demo-
cratic and republican friends will only
remember what they owe to New York, and
that we have claims which should not be
forgotten or overlooked, there is no reason
why the canvass should not be so directed
that whichever party wins the Empire State
will have imperial recognition.
AS it now stands Mr. Conkling controls
the republican organization of the State.
The President controls the republican
ganization in the country. With the State
of New York behind him if Mr. Conkling
cannot take the crown he can bestow it.
That solid, compact vote at Syracuse makes
him the master of the Convention, in con-
nection with the power of Grant over the
office-holding vote of the South and of States
like Pennsylvania From what we hear, the
venerable leader of Pennsylvania politics,
Senator Cameron, means to throw his infu-
ence in favor of the fittest man for the Presi-
dency, and that long service in the Senate
has convinced him that this man is Roscoe
Conkling. 1t would be characteristic of
Senator Cameron, in whom old age has
ripened judgment and tempered ambition,
and who has always believed in manliness in
politics, to throw his will in favor of the
manifest man now in the ranks of
the republican organization. Whatever
we may say during the campaign,
and however we may deplore and
condemn the doings of the administration,
we cannot fail to see that the two command
ing figures in the republican party are Gen
eral Grant and Mr.. Conkling. They are the
Napoleon and the Ney of the party. They
have never failed each other in any emer-
gency. Wherever Grant had point to
carry there was Conkling willing to aid him.
Even now the prominent argument against
Mr. Conkling at Syracuse was that he had
been too warmly the friend of Grant. That
is n quality that General Grant will not be
apt to forget If Grant can eliminate from
his mind the remnants of his ambitious
dreams for the Presidency there is no reason
why he should not give to Conkling some
thing of that enthusiastic support which he
has received from that Senator. and by de-
claring him the candidate of the administra-
ton nominate and elect him, as jefferson
did Madison and Jackson Van Buren,.
Some superficial thinkers say that the Presi-
dents support would injure Mr.. ConkliDg
and that the fact of his being the choice of
the President would destroy him before the
Convention. Nothing could be more absurd
than this reasoning General Grant, as is
seen in the New Hampshire election, is the
strongest man in the party now even in
spite of Belknap. We may regret this and
wish it were otherwise (; but we are dealing
with facts as they are, and not sentiment.
General Grant will hold the Convention at
Cincinnati in his hands. There may be
few stragglers like Mr.. Curtis, but the
chances are that before the Convention meets
most of them will be over with Dorsheimer
and Bigelow in the democratic organization
looking out for State Prison Inspectorships
and other humble places on the State demo-
cratic ticket The mass of the republicans
will be with Grant, and his help, so far from
injuring will strengthen any man he con-
cludes to support as candidate.
The main danger will be from the apathy
of Grant and the over-confdence of the
friends of Conkling. All this time, while re-
publicans are quarrelling here over this man
and the other, we see the star of Morton in
the West and of Blaine in the East. There
are no two men in the country who have