The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-11-09
The City Democrats.

Presidential candidate, and that Is al.
There are people who, granting this, new
ortheless urge that Mr.. Tilden will still be
able to fling the State to the republicans
and that the bitterness of his disappoint-
ment will lead him to do SO.
We doubt it, His party has learned
lesson this fall lesson which 1t will not
forget between now and next year. The
leaders of both parties this year IN
sisted on nominating candidates strongly
disliked by a large part of the rank and
file, and it is an experiment which neither
is likely to repeater some years Mt least
On the republican side this experiment has
| left them with victory, to be sure, but one
SO incomplete as to create sense of pro-
found disappointment among republicans
all over the country On the democratic
side it has shown plainly that If Mr.. I'll
| den may perchance ruin he cannot rule his
party. To nominate him next year would
be to give New York and, as we believe,
almost every important Northern and many
Southern States to the republicans, or else
it would cause the nomination of third
! candidate.
Now, the prospects of the democrats for
next year are not at this moment so des-
perate that the party would consent to
what would be substantially foregone de-
| feat; and supposing the Tammany leaders
| to be men Of moderation, able to see that
| they have carried their point and that they
| ought to rest there, there is nothing now to
| prevent the democrats from presenting q
united front next year, with an acceptable
candidate. If Tammany's course this
| year was rebellion against the ascendancy
| of Mr.. Tilden in the party, then it has sue
| cessfully achieved it's object and may
crest and be thankful" Mr.. Til
! dens ascendancy is broken. If Tam
many, however, not content with q
success which pleases the greater part of
the democratic party throughout the coun-
try, shall now or hereafter 60 step further
and attempt to impose candidate of its
own on the party, then, to be sure, the fat
| will be in the fire, because in that case it
would 60 beyond its province and incur
the resentment and opposition of the party
at large. There are, so far. no signs Of any
such intention on the part OF the Tammany
Hall leaders, nor do we believe that there
is any such purpose.
The New York election has done an inn
portant service for both parties, but more
especially for the democrats The predica-
ment of the republican party before last
| Tuesday was that it was fast ceasing to be
republican, and becoming mere tail to the
Grant movement. The plainly declared
object of those republican leaders who
mustered the Saratoga Convention was to
carry New York for their ticket this
fall as a stepping stone to making New
York the basis Of the Grant move
ment next year. So little was this dis
guised that at the principal Cornell meet
ing in this city the portrait Of General
Grant was displayed alongside Of that OF
Mr.. Cornell, and all over the State there
was talk of the necessity of having ga
strong man at the head of the government
The HERALD warned the republican leaders
promptly that they would do we'll to dis
guise their purposes a little, be-
cause 50 open confession of
them would ALLEVIATE good many
OF their followers; and the result
has shown that we were correct. New York
appealed to in the name Of the Grant
movement gives what even the leaders of
that movement confess with alarm is an un-
certain reply. 1t is, in TACT. not uncertain
at all. The vote of the State shows that it
is not Grant State at all, that with a
united democratic party it is not even re-
publican State. The attempt to make the
great republican party o mere bob
to the Grant movement kite is an
open failure and the election has released
the republicans throughout the country
from the one danger against which the
HERALD has long and repeatedly warned
them-the danger of becoming mere one
man party-an appendage to a personal
movement.
But the democrats experience even greater
relief from the election. The democratic
party had become in effect mere Tilden
party. Mr.. Tilden was supposed to be
its inevitable candidate. Nobody but he, it
was constantly urged, could carry New
York, and without New York the Presiden-
tial election was as good as lost. Right or
wrong willing or unwilling, the party was
saddled with Mr.. Tilden. Well, he APP
| pears to have hlttered himself also that he
was the master OF the State. He did not
quite believe it. for he rejected the advice
of the Herald, TO be his own candi-
date for Governor, and thus put
his supposed power to the first,
best and most complete test. His
constitutional timidity led him to adopt a
weaker course--he forced Mr.. Robinson on
the Convention and on the party; and Mr..
Robinson 10 defeated. That ends Mr..
Tilden as Presidential candidate just as
much as though he had run in person.
The voters oil New York have declared that,
though they prefer democrat, they will
l.., NJ, al