Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-07-28

stacles which stood in the way of friendly un-
derstanding between the different sections of the
country and different classes of people. Withal
the country IL on the whole in good condition, and
the people are prosperous again. Everybody sees
reason to look hopefully into the future provided
the conduct of our public affairs remains as good
as II has been Now the time for a change in the
personnel Of the administration has arrived, and
II the present conduct OF affairs is on the whole
good patriotic and sensible citizens will see to it
that the change now to come be such as to give
the greatest possible guarantee for the preserva-
ton OF all that Is good, and for an improvement
on it. We should, therefore, favor that candidate
for the presidency who, in this respect, can be best
depended upon.
WHICH PARTY Is BEST
We have to deal with two parties and their can
didates-the Republican party with James A.
Garfield at its head and the Democratic party,
with General Hancock. do not deem it neces-
sary to discuss the possibility Of the victory of
the Greenback party for the simple reason that
their chances of not perceptible to the
ordinary eye and that their organization may be
looked upon as mere tender to the Democracy.
Can the Democratic candidate and the party be-
hind him be best depended upon to preserve that
which Is good in the present condition of things
and develop it in the direction of improvement?
WHY NOT THE DEMOCRATIC?
To speak in all candor it appears to me that the
Democratic party labors under historic as well as
constitutional, difficulties Since the downfall
and disappearance of the slave power as COM
pact pOltlcal interest, from winch tne Democratic
party, more than twenty years ago, derived its
morals its logic, its political skill and statesman
ship that party has been foundering about out of
logical connection with the questions Of the day;
never knowing the time of day; always looking
for something to turn up, and, when something
did turn up, spelling 1t; lamely tagging in the
rear Of the events and requirements Of the day;
always behind; denouncing as impossible things
that were already accomplished facts; with
strange incapacity to understand the present and
measure the future, making itself the recipient
rayng point for all dangerous and obstructive
tendencies and elements, and thus committing
blunder after bunder which, at the moment Of
their birth, 1t uniformly glorifed in as great
strokes of policy, from the secession movement
in 1861 down to the
NOMINATION OF GENERAL HANCOCK
in 1890 And now, in 1880, the Democratic party
knows nothing better to do than to set aside all
its statesmen of known and settled opinions, po-
ltical experience and training, and to nominate
| for the presidency major-general of the regular
army professional soldier, who has never been
| anything else but that and who, from the very
nature and necessities of his profession, has al
ways stood aloof FROM the management Of pot-
zeal questions.
WHY HANCOCK Is UNFIT FOR PRESIDENT.
| General Hancock Is gentleman of irreproach-
able private character and IL identified with some
of the most splendid achievements of the war.
| But the question Is not whether we shall honor
deserving general, but whether deserving gen.
era would be the kind Of president the country
needs. cannot impress it too strongly upon your
minds that there can be no greater difference
than that between the handling of troops in a cam
paign and the handling of the political forces of
great people, and the political affairs of a great
government. 1t Is believed by many that it is an
easy task to perform the duties of president of the
United States-that the only thing he has to do
is to form programme of policy which he de-
sires to carry out, and to call good and expert
enced men into his cabinet to attend to the detail
/ q business
| from personal observation has convinced me that
this is great mistake. II all the president had
to do was to select seven men who agree with him
as to the principal objects to be accomplished and
then consult and agree with them about the means
to be used, it would indeed be comparatively
easy and comfortable thing. But the fact is that
che president of the United States is obliged to
spend far more time in listening to men outside
of his cabinet than to his consultations with cab
| met ministers themselves. The opposition he
may encounter from the opposing party in con-
gress and in the press, is, in most cases, the least
of the difficulties he has to contend with. The
greatest puzzles that are apt TO perplex and some
| times to overwhelm his mind come from his own
party, who have a claim upon his attention and
insist to have that claim respected Not only
upon the great measures of his administration,
but upon every detail, the advice of the members
of his party especially those in congress, is urged
upon him with all imaginable sorts of argument
and from all sorts of motive There is scarcely
an appointment he has to make, there is certainly
not reform he wants to execute, that he will not
have to carry through siege and storm of OPP
posing wishes and interests. Every object he
pursues will counter to the wishes not only
of his opponents, but of some Of his friends
every reform will tread upon the toes Of some
body whose interests lie in the abuse to be re-
formed, who has a friend to protect connected
with it; and all these pleas, representations,
remonstrances urgencies and pressures go to
the president, not through the members of his
cabinet, but behind their backs, and it is mat
ter OF long and varied experience that unless
the president himself has sufficient knowl-
edge of affairs, "A clear eye to see through argu-
ments and motives, and that temper and skill
which are necessary to resist without offending,
and to conciliate without giving up his objects,
he will inevitably be run over and lamentably
fail. No man who has not witnessed it has an
adequate conception Of the furious pressure the
president is subjected to, especially during the
first period of the administration and the first
period Is apt to determine the character of the
whole speak from experience when | say that
most OF the good things that have been done I'M
der this administration, whatever merit the cab
met ministers may deserve for them, are no less
due to the clear-headed and faithful support fire.
quenty called the 'amiabe obstinacy," with
which President Hayes stood behind them by
warding off the opposition. Now. put in that
most trying position General Hancock, or any
man trained exclusively in army life and not en-
dowed with that intutive genius have spoken
of (which even his most ardent friends do not
claim for General Hancock), what has there been
in the school OF his past life to fit him for it? 1t
may be said without exaggeration, that in hun
bred cases to one, by taking an old regular army
officer, who has never been anything else, and
putting him iuto the highest and most diiicnlt
political position, you may spoil an excellent gen.
eral in making poor president. What is likely
to happen to such man, elevated to the presi-
dency, with such a motley host upon his back as
the Democratic party is to-day?
THE PARTY BEHIND HIM.
That party is indeed a wonderful mixture Of ell
ements. There are in it some enlightened and
patriotic men, laborng under the disadvantage OF
seeing their aspirations and endeavors hemmed
in and bafled by followers and circumstances
which they cannot control. There is the southern
element the northern element, behind whose
statesmen are the great numbers OF restless and
} ambitious politicians and adventures, the hard
est of hard-money men hand in hand with the
widest infatonsts the freest Of freetraders and
the stffest of protectonists, and other ncongru-