New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-09-14
AUTUMNAL AMUSEMENTS IN M4SSACHU;


In the Bay State they are busy at their an
nual sport of nominating candidates for Gov
ernor. There is large assortment Of citizens
there who, next to the pleasure OF being elected,
which is mostly impossible, reckon the pleas
ure of being nominated, which is always very
possible indeed. There is also the joy of being
set up by several conventions and supported
simultaneously, this being the style of diver
sion chiefly relshed by the genial Mr.. Wen
dell Phillips, who accepts all the nominations
which he can get, and generally gets them
from the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh parties,
which are usually spoken of i'll the returns as
Scattering" We should have supposed him a
very good man for the PrOhibitiOnists-the only
trouble is that they do not suppose SO. They
say that they do not wish to be associated with
Woman SutfTagists and Labor RefOrmers and
Communists; and that Mr.. Phillips "lacks bal
"ance,n though he is "all well enough as q
"speaker." But what they say and what he
does is not of much consequence, at least so
far as ultimate results are concerned. The vote
of the Happy Family, which rallies to the sup
port of Mr. Phillips, is always out of. all pro-
portion to the precedent talk. The number of
those in Massachusetts, who hunger and thirst
to abolish everything is not large, and, unfor-
tunately, a few of them happen to be in favor
of abolishing Mr.. Phillps-which makes mat
tiers worse still.
From a distinguished citizen who does want
to be nominated, we turn to another distin-
guished citizen who (this Year, prefers not to
be nominated-Mr. Adams, who CAST Year, de-
serted party Of which he was one of the
fathery founders, and went over to another
of which he had been lifelong and uncom-
promising opponent. No Adams, during the
long historical career of the family ever before
sacrificed himself for friend, as Mr.. Charles
Francis Adams did for Mr.. Tilden and it
goes without saying that no Adams could be
expected to do that same thing twice. We
are not much surprised, therefore, to find Mr.
Charles Francis Adams requesting the Massa-
chusetts Democratic Convention to be so good
as not to nominate him again for Governor,
but to let Mr.. Castor carry the banner
this time. There was no reason why
Mr.. CASTOR should have been dropped last
year. We did not think then, and we do not
think now that he was fairly treated, although
he is too amiable gentleman to make any
fuss about a mere personal grievance. The
experiment of running Mr.. Adams prodted
neither the party nor the party's candidate for
the Presidency, and he probably sees by this
time that he was merely used to help the
Democrats of other States at the expense of
those Of Massachusetts. At any rate, at his
age and with his large personal fortune to
look after, his advancing years and his literary
work to finish, he cannot afford to head for
lorn hopes unless something is to be made by
doing so. This would be gratifying his grudges
and helping his friends at too great an ex-
pense of time, and perhaps of dignity. So he
sends word to the convention that he must
not be nominated. which, for Democrat Of
one years standing, does not seem to be .