The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-10-10
AusgespieltI

Among the most apt of President Lin
employed when, after tho issuance of the
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation,
some weak friends undertook to convince
him of its impolicy. Alter listening to
their arguments, with his customary air of
languid patience, he drily replied:-''Well,
it seems to me that MI that powder was
fired off before the proclamation.
There could not be happier illus
tration Of the futiliiy Of repeating
spent arguments after the occasion is past
to which they were pertinent. We COM
mend this admirable simile to Senator
Conkling with our respectful compliments.
and caution him against the mistake of sup
posing that the same burnt powder will
serve Tor the tenth or twentieth discharge
of the same park of artillery.
We object to the everlasting repetition of
the same stale arguments. We cannot quite
decline to print the speeches of u states
man of the great mark OF Mr.. Conkling;
but when he merely thrashes over the
old straw we must frankly say to him that
there is conflict between our sense of
what is due TO his reputation and n sense
of what is due to our readers. We willingly
print a great deal from Mr.. Wendell Phil
lips because there is always something
fresh and ingenious in the treatment if not
in the ideas, and Mr.. Phillips makes fire.
quent excursions INTO new fields Of
thought. But Senator Conklings Brooklyn
speech is so close reproduction of what
lie and others have so often said before that
readers will be too apt to regard it as
''weary, fiat, stale and Improbable.
We object to the matter Of Mr.. Conkling's
speech simply because it tends TO keep
alive the sectional politics which he affects
to deprecate. All the arguments he en-
ploys are ausgespieh- played out" in fact
They were arguments which many years ago
were pertinent-now they are ausgespieH
Mr. Conkling and his party are wrong.
The way to extinguish tho sectional
issue is not by harping perpetually
on the old discord, but by starting new
subjects Of interest to every part Of the
country. We might have had secession in
1888 ii President jackson had not been en-
gagged in his great struggle with the
Bank of the United States, which kept the
public mind so occupied that the other
Southern States did not rally to the multi
fication flag borne aloft by South Carolina.
An old quarrel is soonest smothered BY
diverting attention from it, not by con-
tinuing to discuss it. General Grant
evinced sagacity when, soon after the close
Of the war, he favored march to Mexico
by federal and Confederate soldiers to drive
out Macmillan. There was different way
of disposing Of Macmillan but if war
to maintain the Monroe doctrine had been
justifable General Grant judged rightly as
to its pacifying effect in our internal poll
tics. That was the conception Of a soldier
at q time when General Grant was merely
soldier; but trained civilians like the re-
publican statesmen should be able to devise
some policy which would dwarf and eclipse
the sectional issue without resorting to
foreign war. The country needs now objects
of interest capable Of enlisting it's enthu-
siasm. 1t Is not creditable to Mr. Conkling,
not creditable to the other statesmen Of
party which has been SO long in power that
they are still spinning round and round in
the same old circle instead Of advancing TO
some new policy in tho line of national
progress. To borrow another of Mr.. Lin
coins pat comparisons, such statesmen are
"augers that won't bore" although in the
social sense of the word 1--WE beg Mr.. Conk-
ling's pardon) they do shore" us more
than we can express.