The New York herald., 1876-08-19
Tho Canvass for the Presidency-Cur-
rents and Conference.-The.

ton into which parties have fallen, and the
painful fact that elections are struggle for
power, and not for principle, are seen in the
the candidates, rather than to be content,
rs was the case in former years, with the
declarations of the conventions. Hayes and
Tilden are now in the attitude OF
expert swordsmen parrying thrust
and watching for the mistakes OF the
opponent. In a campaign as close as this
any mistake, however trivial, may decide the
canvass There will be none of those Gland
slides or ''tidal waves of which we heard
so much recently. The hope that the name
of Tilden would ring through the land like
clarion, that the cry of reform would sweep
it like prairie fire, has not been realized.
The republicans have marched into line
with solid columns and assuring footsteps.
They have made no mistakes since their
campaign opened They nominated their
most available candidate. They have healed
up their differences. All. or nearly all,
of the independents who swerved off in the
Greeley mutiny have returned Cox IN
Ohio, Carl Schurz, Governor Fenton-all are
in line with the old party. Adams in Massa-
chusetts and Governor Curtin in Pennsyl-
wanna have gone over to Tilden. Mr. Adams
has been practically democrat since he
returned from England, and his relations
with Tilden in 1S4S, when he was a tree-soil
candidate for the Vice Presidency, made his
support of the New York statesman natural
There is no room for Curtin in any party
controlled by the Camerons, and the Cover
nor's secession becomes necessity. So far
as discipline, tactics, harmony, can affect
canvass, the republicans, we have said,
have made no mistakes. The leaders are
forming their lines with the assurance Of
victory.
And yet there is no feeling so strong in
the minds of the people, without distinction
of party, as the desire for change. Even
good republicans feel that four years of
democratic rule would purify their organ
ization This party with SO proud and hon
ored n history, whose achievements underlie
the grandeur and the happiness Of the
Republic; this party to whom we owe
the Union, and the fact that within
that Union no slave clanks his chains
to make its boasted freedom mockery,
has become SO corrupt that any idea
OF reform within itself seems hopeless.
1t took rise in the aspiration for freedom;
it has fallen into mere intrigue for power.
All It's courage and conscience have van
ished. The party which compelled Lincoln
to emancipate the slaves, which drove john
son to the verge of impeachment, has cow
cred for eight years at the feet of Grant.
The party which followed the strenu-
Gus and faithful leadership of Sum-
ner Chase, Greeley and Phillips now
accepts Belknap and q Robson, Spencer
and Blaine. The party of principle and
faith has become the party of expedients
and spoils The canker of long continued
power, the abuses that arise from an un-
checked military domination, the subordi-
nation of the whole civil system to the be-
hests of party, the unchallenged SUI
premacy of the President over gentlemen
in the highest stations, the compact for
patronage between the President and the
Senate which has degraded our high legisla-
tive assembly into n mere convenience of
publican party that for its own sake, as well
as for the sake of the country, it should be
defeated. SO far, therefore, as the HERALD
has any interest in this campaign it is that
the success Of the democracy will be to the
best interests of the country.
When we study the democratic canvass we
find it n series of blunders. The republi-
Al IL ~. Il
of corruption and misused power, with the
honest sentiment of the country against
them, are fighting to win. The democrats,
with their many opportunities, with their
professions and hopes of reform, with the
honest sentiment of the country in their
favor, are fighting to lose. Not long since
it was said that the only man who was doing
Tilden any service was Grant, and the only
ones who seemed anxious to elect Hayes
were Tilden and Hendricks. Grant how
ever, has been diverted from his perverse
ways, and, rs he shows in his order to Sher-
man, means to support Hayes with all the
power of his administration. We wish we
could feel that the democrats were under
the same discipline. In the South all is
going badly-Alabama majorities, Hamburg
massacres, and the virtual condoning of
these massacres by public opinion, all make
an uneasy impression on the North The
action of the Democratic Convention in
South Carolina is another blunder The
irreconcilable element of the party throws
away the State in order to nominate Wade
Hampton. 1t declares war upon every col
ored man, every Northern. every Southern
man, like Mosby and Longstreet, who does
not agree with them, and involSes canvass
of bitterness and hatred The fact that not