The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-03-29

tions and all the support which patronage can
command" Mr.. Bristow did not become the
nominee; he has gone back into private life and
It Is not necessary to discuss him only
with him on the page Of the Atlantic Monthly.
w nat wish to draw attention to- what I par
ticularly wish to point ont TO the gentleman 10
politics, and TO the scholar in politics aud to
an those VINO lament the power of an inferior
class of politicians aud the studous exclusion
Of character in the selection of caudidatps' is
the fact which Mr. Dorman B. Eaton iterates
and reiterates without the smallest suspicion Of
its bearing, that it was the partissns, the poll
ticans, the "spoilsmen", who sought their
candidate among their great men, their emil
nent men, the men who had served the country
longest and best, and of whose character and
htness the country was able to Judge. Ii was
the reformers who wanted an unknown man,
man who had been asubordinate-,f Mr.. Eaton
will have it so-in the Treasury Department.;
and they wanted him, not because he had
evinced singular ability and fidelity in manag-
ing the department., but because-Mr. Eaton
distinctly says it-he had prosecuted aud
brought to punishment set Of men who were
charged with fraud, upon his department.
1 am not saying that Mr.. Bristow was
unfit for the nomination, or that
he would not have made good prss-
ident; what l say Is that the Rsformers, by
their own showing, of their own choice, Sc
lected q man Of whom they avow that nothing
was known, and of whom they boast that he
"had no chance for the nomination, beyond the
fact that he had shown zeal and courage for
administrative reform" by prosecuting the
whiskey ring. The prosecution of a consider
able number of hitherto respectable American
citizens, many of whom were acquitted or dis
m sssed without even trial, was the basis on
which "true statesmen" would exultantly
select the President of the United States.
Looking again at Mr. Eaton's facts-and 1t is
never safe TO trust him an inch beyond tn
record-what does he mean by saying that hi 8
u sk..kn Oe all fta.,
He had, as he had a right to have, all the pal
tisan support he could get He had all th o
partisan support, and used all the partisan n
means, that the Reformers could muster.
His partisans were not one whit bshind the
very chiefest of the other psrtissns in the use
of means Mr.. Eaton has the inalienable
right of every American citizen to have can :
didate of his own, but he has no right to stand
up before the American people and pretend
that his candidate was pointed out by the
Spirit of Reform descending from Heaven like
dove and resting upon him.. He was pointed
cut by the pulling of wires-the same old wires
of the same old machine that has shot mp can
didates, whether pope or president, or emperor
or delegate, ever since candidacy existed Mr..
Eaton says the other candidates had sll th o
support which patronage can give. What
does the ruan mean? No one Of the other can :
didates, nor all the other candidates togethe r
had .'all the support which PATRONAGE can
give" They had only the support of such pat :
ronsge as Mr.. Eaton's candidate could no {
command. His candidate was at the head
the largest and strongest department OF the
Government--a department that has more
available patronage than all the other DEPART
meuts together-and all its patronage was un-
der his control. Just so far as it eau ever bs
used for the personal advantage OF any OF its
officers it could be used for his. Mr.: Dorman
B. Eaton is q courageous spirit" indeed when
he dares stand up and make so absolutely and
palpably groundless an assertion. m
Mr. Eaton's affirmation that "at the outset
of the campaign net politician in five hundred
doubted that one OF these great men would ps
the next President is equally childish. wish
the statement might have been correct. 1 wish
the custom of our country were such that not
one politician in five huadred should doubt
that, whatever policy or whatever party pre-
vailed, one of our great men, one Of our emf
nent men, oue of those who have served the
country longest and bsst, should be at the head.
Certainly that millennium had not dswned lat
the outset of the Campaign. Where Mr.
Eaton got his statistics it is difficult to see 1t
would be nearer the truth to say that there was
not one politician in five hundred who did not
| doubt. But 1t was not Mr.. Bristow they
| feared; it was the man that the Rsformers
| would trade Mr.. Bristow off for! Not one
! politician in five hundred but had more fear OF
| the unknown man that would be sprung upon
| him than of any one of the great men" who
| were the natural and honorable rivals OF his
| own candidate. So universal was this fear that
| "the Great Unknown" became prOverbial
| phrase for this masqueradiDg rival; aud through
| all this conjecture and grave discussion and
| Jest and badinage, Mr.. Dorman b. Eaton
walked oeaf and blind, and now rises up. with
all the majesty of the Intelligent contraband,"
to tell us that not one politician in five hua-
| dred doubted that one of our political great
| men would be the next President!
GAIL HAMILTON.