Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-07-07
From the Chicago Tribune.
The Two Conventions.
to go on

difference between the two might be COM
prehensively stated TO be the difference
between the republican and democratic
parties the one representing the lnteiIi-
gent, industrial, and commercial people OF
the country. and the other conglomerate
and homogeneous mass of people embrac-
inc pretty much all the adventurous and
nomadic classes. The contest at Cincin-
natl was as bitter as at st. Louis, and the
preliminary struggle in both cases was
long and determined. But the methods
adopted were very different The canvass
OF candidates at Cincinnati, though fierce
" partisan, was genilemanly, honest. and
decent. In St. Louis it was carried on in
bar-rooms, after the manner Of the lowest
Municipalities of large city. In Cincin-
natl there is reason to believe that not a
dollar was used corruptly in the interest
of any candidate. In ST. Louis the "bar'l
Of money" sent in the interest OF Mr.. Til
den has been placed where it was thought
it would do most good, and it would not
be easy to count the number of delegates
whose vote represented the payment OF
personal expenses. In Cincinnati the
struggle was intellectual, in ST. Louis ply
steal. With Senator John Morrissey, the
celebrated gambler and prize-fghter,
heading a cohott of New York rohghs on
Mr.. Tilden's side, and Tammany Sachem
John Kelly, who has succeeded Tweed as
Boss" heading another gang of roughs
opposed to Mr.. Tilden, the outside argu-
ments have been of the '.knock down"
character. and a strong arm has counted
for more than a powerful brain. The
main pressure brought to bear upon the
Convention has been by betting and offer
ing to bet, and by bribery. There has
been little OF cool calculation of chances
which marked the progress of the Cincin-
natl Convention. but an unsystematic and
pell-mell scramble in partisan blindness.
At Cincinnati there was method in the fol-
lowing of the leading candidate and
method among his opponents. but at St.
Louis there was no method among either
the Tilden faction or the anti-Tilden fac
ton; the result was left to chance. on
which the gamblers and roughs always
base their hopes.
The contrast may be be followed out in
the actual proceedings of the St. Louis
Convention. through the comparative
tameness and weakness of the men chosen
to the first places and of the speeches that
were made, as well as in the uncouth re-
ception given them. There was very
palpable lack of ability it was so marked,
indeed, that it may well be doubted
whether the democratic party, aside from
every question Of honesty and policy, has
the material competent to take charge OF
the executive, legislative, and judicial
machinery of great government like
ours. The selection of Mr.. Watterson as
Temporary Chairman was regarded with
surprise, not only on account of the con-
stitu,ional bashtuness which he has inner
tied from the journalistic profession, but
because of his utter and confessed igno-
rance of all parliamentary rule and prac-
lice. But, as there was nobody of inllu-
ence in the Convention who seemed to be
any better posted, Watterson managed it
pretty much as he pleased But the selec-
ton of Permanent Chairman in the per-
son of McClernand, of Illinois. was more
pronounced evidence of the poverty OF
talent in the Convention. He began by
stumbling, and stumbled all the way
along. He tried to make a committed
speech pass for spontaneous and extern
poraneous utterance. but forgot his words;
then he pulled out his manuscript from his
pocket and could scarcely read his own
writing. As the result proved, it was
really not worth reading. But the Con.
vention did not want to give it up so.
They still aspired to some of the oratori-
cal honors that distinguished the Cincin-
natl Convention, and Dan Voorhees, was
trotted out to Offset Bob Ingersoll. The
Tall Sycamore of the Wabash" strove
hard. He wiestled with the most COM
plicated sentences; he grappled with fig
ures of speech that would have startled
less audacious man he INDUCED in fab
ulous amount of martial comparisons for
a non-combatant and he was finally car
ried off in swooning and lachrymose
condition, without having reached as
high as Bob IngersolIs knees in all the
oratorical flights he made. What Dan
voorhees, tried in oratory, Sammy Cox
tried in humor. the result of which was
that any impression the former had made
was rapidly dissolved in smiles. But the
laugh was rather at Sammy than with him.
Cox's New York constituency consist,
mainly of Sachem John Kelly, and his
constituency had ordered him to st. Louis
to oppose Tilden. Under this condition
of things it was great piece Of folly to
ask the Convention who was to be their
standard bearer when he ought to have