New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-10-18
THTRV1N'.S FALL.

Exit Allen G.. Thurman, the most despcable
demagogue of them all. BY the side of him
General Ewing towers high in conscious sin
ceritv. weak and bmderrng though he be.
By the side of Thurman even Scion Chase
appears creditable person, for he had not
clear ideas or convictions to sacrifice. Mr..
Thurman had both he was capable OF being
n statesman, and deliberately preferred to be
q beaten and disgraced rival of smal-b0re
denagogues. He has earned his fate, and not
an unselish regret will be felt for his fall by
any creature between the two oceans.
IL was the good fortune of Allen G.. Thur
man. not many years ago. to be the best liv
ing representative of respectable, 0ld-fash-
toned, Bourbon Democracy. II he had eyes
in the back of his head and could nothing
but resolutions of '9S and ante-war precedents,
that was not wholly his fault. good many
men were born with that incapacity, and have
been sticking for twenty years, like dccayed
mile-post, in the same old hole. If Mr.. Thur
man leaned strongly toward that construction
of the Constitution which sought to make it
the right wing of Lees Army, he was at least
a decent COpperhead and a respectable Bour-
bon With the faults of the Od-iashioned
Democrats, he seemed to have their excel
lcnces He stuck 10 traditions was cOnserva-
tive even beyond the limit of wisdom and
appeared to be as honest as he was narrow,
and as sincere as he was obsolete. If Wild
eyed Communism or knavish Initiation APP
peared, Mr.. Thurman was always expected to
do good service III behalf of just dealing and
honest money Not long ago there were some
Republicans who were wont To say, &" If any
"DemOcrat must be elected President, let
'be Thurman, for he is honest, decent and
" in some things right"
Had Mr. Thurman gone over to the
soft-mOney camp when his uncle, the
ancient William Allen, was making a
sturdy fight for Ohio. men would have
mted him, but would not have wholly de-
spised him. 1t might have been said that
strong natural feelings of kinshp warped his
Judgment. But he bitterly opposed the Com
munsm of Allen. even TO such length that the
defea, of the uncle was by some attributed to
the refusal of the anephew to put forth his
hand and men were tempted to think the bet
ter of Mr.. Thurman for his sturdy adherence
TO the ard-money doctrines of Old-fashOned
Democracy. And then, after all excuse Tor
Welding TO the clamor of regulators had
passed, this same Mr.. Thurman tried to make
himself the chief and leader of the repudat-
ing and revolutionary gang in Congress.
His abandonment of the convictions of
lifetime, on the money question, was sudden
and complete. He resolved to dive into dema-
gogism, and went in all over. There was left
not "A trace of his conservatism, for no other man
living has stopped to IA more reckless Com
munism than Mr. Thurman in his attack upon
the banks and the bondholders He stripped
off deccncy, and resorted to arguments with
which General Ewing himself never tried 10
deceive his followers. He prostituted an in
teect which had easily disposed of all the
sophistres that worry ordinary infiationists,
and so stopped far below them, for they were
stupid only because they could not help it.
In all American history We do not know an
instance of more dlsgraceiul barter Of life
long convictions for the chance of office, and
it was Justly deemed the strongest possible
proof of the overwhelming power of false