The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-21

two more or less opposing forces-the one
progressive, willing to take mp new ques-
tons, the other conservative and DESTROYS
TO remain on the old ground. This is espe-
cially true of party which has long held
power. Thus the democratic camp before
1861 was divided between two factions,
which were known as hardshells and soft
shells, hunkers and barnburners. The
republican party, after that time, had Its
Seward and Greeley wings, and at present
and for some years it has had its ''stalwarts"
and "liberals."
1t has been Mr.. Blaine's singular good
fortune that he was long admired and trusted
by both these contending factions in his
party. For good many years he played
the difficult game of politics with degree
of skill and success which won him the
good will Of even his opponents. AS Speaker
he not only ruled his party in the House,
but on many important occasions he over
ruled its bad impulses. 1t was his care
full selection of committee to inves-
tigate Louisiana which first brought
to light in a manner to fix public at
tention the iniquities of carpet-bag
rule in the Southern States. 1t was he
who thwarted General Grants purpose to
overturn the settled and constitutional
who defeated the monstrous Force bill
which General Grant and the stalwarts
strove to pass. In all this he served not
only his country but his party; he pre-
served it from policies which would have
brought down upon it the resentment of
the people ; and that he was able to do oil
this, which made him the hope and leader
of the liberal wing of his party and yet
re.ain the confidence and support of the
stalwarts, shows that he was a transcen-
IDENTIFY able manager of meu.
But his courage seemed OF last to fail
him; having defeated the set purpose of
the ''stalwarts" to rule the Southern States
by force, he at the following session Of
Congress turned about and in the notori-
Gus JEFF Davis debate with Mr. Hill made
himself the spokesman Of the stalwarts, in
famed the mind of the North against the
South. disappointed the hopes of all who had
seen in him the man to unite the sections and
the cue for the republican canvass of 1876.
There is now no longer any doubt. we
should think, even in Mr.. Blaine's mind,
that ne thus committed capital blunder;
for while his course alienated the s'liberal"
support, it failed to secure him
that of the .'stalwarts," which he
was able only to share with several other
candidates in the Convention of 1876
Conkling, Morton and Hartranft. It was
inevitable that defeat in the Convention
should have followed his abandonment of
the pre-eminent and peculiar position of
leadership he had won ; but it is not al
ways that such blunder is so clearly ex-
1876 not only did not nominate Mr.. Blaine,
it did not nominate any Of the ''stalwart"
candidates, it chose o liberal )" for Mr..
Hayes political connections and friend
ships were oil with the liberal wing of his
party, and, so far as his capacity and the
embarrassment of his position have allowed
him to do so, he has made his administra-
ton the embodiment Of ''liberal" and not
Of ''stalwart" ideas.
Mr.. Blaine appears to believe that events
march backward, and that political party
can successfully do so too. His new bid to
recover the leadership of his party, which
he weakly sacrificed in the spring of 1876,
is resolution for another, the twentieth, in
vestigation of the South. And yet he ought
to remember that the sectional policy he
now again fathers has during two Prcsiden-
tial terms gradually reduced the great re-
publican majority of 1869 to the vanishing
point, and has returned the greater number
of its opponents to private life. He might
also remember that on this policy he will
not be next year, as he was not in 1876 the
leader of his party and scarcely indeed
among the first, for Grant, Conkling, Sher-
man, Edmunds and Cameron all come be-
fore him.
His Southern resolution and speech do
not, therefore, give him the controlling posi-
ton he has sown what others will reap if
the harvest ever ripens, which we do not
believe. And he has flung away a very
great opportunity to make himself the mas
ter of his party and lead it over fresh fields
10 new 'lctories' ne, oeyonu al tne otner
republican chiefs, is liked and trusted by
the Southern men. who gratefully remem-
Der that on several vitality important occa-
sions he stood between them and the fixed
purposes of General Grant and the ''stal-
warts" He, moreover, believes in policy
which is very popular in the South--the
policy of subsidies and internal improve
ments Had Mr.. Blaine, instead of his new
raid on the South, which has fallen dead on
the country, declared himself for justice,
but also for sectional harmony and
good feeling; had he made him
self the administration leader in the
Senate; had he boldly demanded the forma-
tion of new republican party in the South,
and called into it, as he better than any