The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-06-07
FOR GOVERNOR. /"

More or less articles appear every
week under the above caption. Lit IS q
good sign. These matters ought to be
canvassed up, aud it is we'll to begin to
talk about them early in the season.
Had this course been pursued two years
ago, it is more than likely the result of
the Republican convention would have
been different, and that the entire Re-
publican State ticket would have been
elected. The whole matter went by de-
fault that year, but it will not this.
1t was philosopher who said that we
must nominate the man who will be most
popular on election day-not on conyen
ton day. 1t is true, we must. 1t Is
not necessaryto tell that this most poQu-
lar man will not be Mr.. This or Mr.
That, but is better to say who he Is, and
give a reason or two for the opinion.
VIM. E. Smith is the man. He is the
man the people wanted six years ago,
and again two years ago. He would
have been nominatedsi six years ago, had it
not been that the men who make polltl-
cal dicker a profession, sold him out
for-Washburn, and two-thirds of all
the disaster that has since come upon
the patry of the State. We do not say
that Washburn brought these disasters
but the dicker brought them. They
have not come because Mr.. Smith was
not made the candidate, but because the
people wanted to have Mr.. Smith for a
candidate, and were snubbed by the
commercial politicians. Two years ago
four-ffths of the Republican voters of
the State stood at the backs of the Smith
delegates in the convention. They wan
ted him nominated, because they be-
lieve in him, and admire him. There
was the old feeling of II again, and it
might have been famed into an indig-
nant blaze, very easily. Instead of this
though, the Smith men went home, and
did at least their share of the work of
the campaign. They looked forward to
this year. They had been assured after
Mr.. Ludington was nominated that he
would not ask denomination. They
knew that their man had made half
thousand new and influential friends by
the course he pursued at the convention
and they heard the sentiment freely ex-
pressed that the ticket might have been
stronger had Smith been nominated.
They did not feel sorely disappointed,
however, because Mr.. Smith was not
fairly in the field as candidate at all,
and so was not, therefore, defeated.
This year he is in the field. He is
squarely before the people as candi-
date for governor, and his friends have
placed him there and expect that he viii
be nominated. They expect that the
expressed wish of the voters of the par
ty will be ratified by the State Conven-
ton. We shall see.
Aside from all personal consideration
and feeling, does it not occur to people
that there are qualities which the Exc
cutive of such state as ours should
possess, better and higher than those
which were popular-not to go to far
back-or forwards-say in 1873? A
man with a Gallo us palm may be a
statesman, but the callous does not
make him so. Farmer" Brown may
be better qualified man for Congress,
but if he is, there are other reasons for
it than that he is farmer. These catch
phrases are cheap. They are demagogic.
They are worn out. A Governor should
be something else besides honest, (of
course he should be that,) or even
''bluff." Scholarly attainments, of even
high degree, would not be out of place
in the executive Office at Madison.
Gentlemanly culture, and unmistakable
evidence of refinement would not be
thrown away if they were possessed by
the Governor of Wisconsin. There is
need of these qualities. They are quail
ties which should be recognized. It is
better for the rising generations that
these qualities are made something of,
and it is due to people who appreciate
them that they should be occasionally
recognized. There is a hummer ele-
ment in every society-in every party.
1t is well perhaps that this element
should hold away three fourths of the
time; but there is the other fourth of
the time which the other element can
use to good advantage. Let us insist
upon having not only a representative
man of Wisconsin for Governor for the
next four years, but that he be repre-
sentative of the very best class of our
people, Wdupaca Republican.
THE Beaver Dam Argus states that
Cyrel Vesper, of the town of Oak Grove,
has on various occasions found his
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