The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-15

the political situation and advise their fell
| low citizens, will be more respectable than
efficient. 1t assemblies in compliance with
invitations sent by Mr.. Schurz Mr.. Bryant,
President Woolsey and Ex-Governor Bull
lock, and it is given out that more than
one hundred of the individuals receiving
invitations have signified their acceptance.
1t will consist mostly of thoughtful, studi-
Gus gentlemen who have never had or have
lost connection with active politics, and
whose counsels their countrymen have not
been accustomed to follow or have ceased to
follow. They are exotics in the politics of
to-day, and, like other exotics, they will not
thrive in the ordinary outdoor atmosphere
where ''the winds Of heaven may visit
them too roughly" Closet politicians,
like dollhouse plants lack the hardness and
strength of fibre which can stand against
those accidents Of the weather whose bracing
roughness fortifies such growths as are in
digenous to the soil. American politics have
never been much influenced by secluded
men of culture, nor by small knots of indi-
viduals acting outside of the regular party
organizations, unless, like the old abolition
lists, they were inspired by n fiery burning
zeal for some great idea, which challenged
and aroused an opposition fierce rs their
advocacy. We cannot that this new
movement has within it any principle of
life
The meeting at the Fifth Avenue Hotel
differs from an ordinary political convention
in the fact that its members do not represent
any constituencies None of them is author
lied to speak for anybody but himself. The
conference will neither have the spirit and
power of a mass meeting, which is itself a
constituency acting in its primary capacity
and giving ocular demonstration of it's num-
bers, nor will it have the influence which
belongs to convention of delegates, each of
whom represents constituency whose SEN
timents he is empowered to declare 1t
would not be quite correct to say that the
members of the Fifth Avenue Conference are
self-elected, for they have been chosen
by the three or four gentlemen who
addressed the invitations This little
knot of originators is the real con-
stituency of the members, which reverses
is less numerous than the peoplewho choose
it, and stands, like a pyramid, on broad
base of popular numbers. This conference
resembles an inverted pyramid poised on its
apex One hundred and odd individuals
were chosen to represent the four gentlemen
who selected the persons to be invited, and
three of these four were selected by Mr..
.,
the movement which reduces the
apex on which the inverted pyramid
stands to a very sharp point. Ordinarily
political convention is created by the cleo
ton of delegates, who, in turn, elect other
delegates, the structure tapering as it rises
from the broad popular constituencies to the
small number who actually transact the
business in their representative capacity.
But this meeting rests on Mr.. Schurz as its
ultimate constituency, and, SO far as it has
a representative character, it represents only
him. Like wider constituencies he has
chosen delegates known to be in harmony
with his views. The meeting is simply the
unit, Mr.. schurz, with ciphers enough an
nexed to make him count one hundred.
list of the gentlemen to whom invita-
tions were sent has not been published, but
when they assemble it will probably BIO
found that they consist of two classes
namely of political soreheads, like Mr..
Schurz himself who have been remanded to
private life by unappreciativc constituencies
or severance Of party ties, and, secondly, of
respectable, worthy gentlemen who have
never been in politics and are destitute Of
the skill and experience requisite for acting
strongly on the popular mind in an absorb
ing political canvass. Mr. Schurz himself
has great gifts, but they are not gifts for
leadership While he was member of the
republican party in good standing he held
an eminent and enviable position among the
advocates of measures adopted by the
controlling minds of the party. When
he first broke with the administra-
ton he proved serviceable lieutenant
of Senator Sumner in his successful assault
on the St Domingo job. But in every
attempt of Mr.. Schurz to shape policy, in
stead of accepting and advocating one marked
out by others, he has come to grief He was
one of the foremost originators of the Gin
cinnati Convention in 1872, and his leader
ship was recognized by electing him as
its president; but the unexpected result
of its deliberations filled him with
chagrin and Indignation. He could
not, even with the aid of its large
German vote, mould the politics of Missouri
into such form as would give him even a
chance for reelection to the Senate, Of
which he was 80 bright an ornament. He
was born 10 be a brilliant lieutenant, but
not leader. When last fall, he consented
to fall back into his old role of an advocate,
and, after the issue of the canvass had been
made mp, returned from Europe to speak on
the republican side in Ohio, he gave a splen-