The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-19


All recent news relating to Southern feel
ing toward General Grant is of pretty
uniform tenor. People may like this news
or dislike it. but the press must discharge
its duty of representing Southern sem
timent to be such as on diligent inquiry it
finds it. We do not ourselves like the in
telligence we receive on this subject, but
that is no reason why we should withhold
or disguise or color or distort it.
We print this morning the observations
of tourist who has spent the last six
weeks in the South with excellent oppor-
tunities for intercourse with all classes of
the people. This writer corroborates the
general testimony to the existence of q
widely diffused feeling in favor of the
election of General Grant to the Presi-
dency. Whether this is a mere transient
phase of the Southern mind we cannot
undertake to say; that must depend on fur
ther developments. To borrow a figure
from Swift, if gazer at the sky should de-
scribe to you a cloud in the zenith resem-
bling a camel and another near the horizon
with the figure of an elephant, his observa-
tions might be verified il you look at once,
but if you wait half an hour you may, in
deed, behold clouds, but 'the geography
and topography of them" may have en-
tirely changed. Southern sentiment
is evidently in q commotion, like
clouds when the winds are moving. The
Grant images which they display may look
bright and golden in CLEANS Of passing sun
shine, only to change their shape and
deepen into blackness in the ftfulness Of
varying political weather But for the
present, at least, the state of Southern feel
ing toward General Grant is noteworthy
and truly remarkable.
It is perhaps not more surprising chat
portion of the Southern democrats should
turn wistful eyes upon General Grant than
it was to see them support Mr.. Greeley in
overlook in the career of General Grant
than there was in the long vilifcation of
the Southern people by Mr.. Greeley. To
be sure, they do not expect General Grant
to be the democratic candidate but if they
are forced to conclude that the election of
republican President is inevitable they
will naturally and reasonably have choice
among republican candidates. In their
present mood the Southern people
prefer Grant to any other citizen
whom the republican party might
think Of nominating. In their despair of
democratic President many Of them
would go so far as to vote for General
Grant in the hope Of laying him under OBJ
legations and insuring his protection.
They are DESTROYS of abandoning the bar
rem field of democratic politics and secur-
ing federal aid in developing the material
resources of their section. The prospect of
electing democratic President seems SO
very slender that it is no wonder the South
begins to look for other sources of relief
1t is too early to form an opinion as to
the effect Of this new turn of Southern SEN
timent on the recent great revival of ''stal-
wartism" in the republican party. Would
the stalwarts accept General Grant if he
should become the favorite candidate of the
South? Could they run him off the track
by keeping up the stalwart cry2 Should
the supporters of other republican candi-
dates attempt this they might succeed; but
since they regard the ''solid South" as a
great evil why should they be unwilling to
see the South divided?
While the ultimate acceptance Of Gen.
eral Grant by any considerable number of
Southern democrats is extremely doubtful
it admits of no doubt at all that he would
be supported with warm enthusiasm by
the Southern republicans, both white
and black. The consequence would
be solid South in the Republican
National Convention. The one hundred
and thirty-eight Southern delegates would
only need an addition of forty-seven
from the North to coutrol the Convention,
and New York would furnish thirty-fve of
the forty-seven if Senator Conkling should
continue as powerful as he has recently
shown himself in the State. 1t would not
be difficult to find the remaining twelve SO
long in advance of the Convention as to
make the result foregone certainty and
cause stampede from the other candidates
We need not soy that we deprecate such a
result as dangerous to our free institutions;
but if the Southern republican delegates
should be solid for Grant this danger will
have to be met and parried by the people
after the nomination is made.
A Remedy for Diphtheria.
In another column we print commune
cotiou from Mr. Shishkin the Russian Min