Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-06-12
EDITORIAL NOTES.
GARFIELD AND ARTHUR.

Chicago they are very hard to please.
TIE nominations at Chicago do not in
deed justify the Democrats in expect
ing to win with the tainted candidate of
a divided party. But they do amply
justify the Democrats in expecting to
win with real representative of the
principles of the Democratic party, upon
which this nation was prosperously
governed through three quarters of its
existence. and upon which in substance
peace has been reestablished siuce the
close of the great civil war. The NOM
ination of Garfield is not only a COM
promise 1t is a weak and timid COM
promise. For several days it was been
evident that the contest for the nomina-
ton lay between Grant and some out
slider who had SO far developed no
strength whatever in the convention.
for the namination, since General Gar
field. besides having certain positive
strength in the party, has excited no
active enmities in the party, and. more
important still, since General Garfield
is a citizen of Ohio. generally Repub-
lican State which holds an election in
October. The cowardice of the COM
promise lay in this last fact. When the
Republicans consider it necessary to
nominate man, as they nominated
Hayes in 1876 and as they have now
nominated Garfield for the purpose of
making sure of the vote of Chic in the
local October election, they show in the
clearest way that they are far from feel
ing any confidence te to the result of
the general election in November. 1t
would have been idle for the Chicago
Convention to nominate any man who
could not hope to carry Ohio. In fish
ing for sprat, therefore, the Republic
cans have thrown away their whales.
The leadership of Cameron in Pennsy-
lvania and of Conkling in New York
has been not only challenged but over
thrown. In 1876 Conkling himself as
candidate at least commanded and held
sixty-eight of the seventy votes of New
York. In Chicago, after much more
desperate exertions, third of the New
York delegation has defied him through
out. More than third of the Pennsyl-
vania delegation which Cameron kept
almost unanimous for Hartranf's name,
this year bolted Cameron's instructions
and Cameron's control. If the man for
whom they had made their strenuous
and futile efforts for solid delegations
had finally been nominated, Conkling
and Cameron would have done their
best to reunite their forces and to re-
gain their own ascendency. But GER
tainly Mr.. Garfield is not the man to
excite the enthusiasm of either boss,
and Mr.. Conkling, in spite of his haste
tie move, in the interest of General Arth-
ur, that the nomination should be made
unanimous, may be expected to sulk in
his tent, as ,he did during the canvass of
1876, and as it is his habit to do when
campaigns are not conducted upon
lines of his laying.
Mr.. Garfield is a IS far from being the
man to conciliate the independent vote
in any State as he is from being the
man to bring out the straight Republic
can vote in Pennsylvania and New
York. Mr.. Garfield has not been hand
ling pitch for fifteen years without
being besmirched, Garfield's ssrecord"
is that Of an average Republican politi-
clan, who requires very good cause to
be shown why he should refuse what
comes in his way, and is inclined in
doubtful cases to give himself the bene-
fit of the doubt. His more properly po-
litical record is of the same average sort.
He is what the organs call ssan earnest
and unfiinching Republican" which
means that he always votes with his
party on party measures, and does not
allow his views upon any measures to
put him in opposition to his party. Mr..
Garfield being thus merely an average
Republican candidate man whose
strength in no way transcend the
party strength, as does General Grants
strength, for example, and who will for
for the reasons we have given fail to
command even the party strength in the
all-important States of New Yerk and
Pennsylvania--it is plains that only or
binary sense and ordinary prudence
will be required at Cincinnati to make
a Democratic victory sure. But the
Democrats will be even more helped by
the scarcely credible folly of the Repub-
licans in nominating General Arthur
for the Vice Presidency. General Arth-
ur is not only as much as Governor
Cornell the embodiment in the imagina-
ton Of the Republican scratchers of the
machine politics which chiefly excite
the aversion of Independent Republi-
cans, but General Arthur now does not
even represent the Republican machine.
He has had bitter quarrel, as is per-
fectly well known in his own State,
with those machinists who control the
State administration, and the charter
by which he proposed to deprive New
York of any share in its own govern
mems was defeated simply because he
was known to be in favor of it. 1t is
certain thathe will get no help in his
canvass from Governor Cornell. whom
he did more than any other person. ex-
cept Mr.. Samuel J. Tilden, to elect. His
domination simply proves how entirely
ignorant politicians may be of State pol
itfcs in other States than their own. He
was nominated, of course, to strengthen
the ticket in New York, and there is
scarcely another conspicuous Republi-
can In the State who could have so bad
ly weakened it at SO manv points.
The Chicago convention, we repeat,
has opened to the Democrats the road
TO the White House. and only wilful
blindness can prevent the Democrats
from taking it.
The advocates of Mr.. Tilden maintain
that it is dossible to nominate him. His
0npouanfa on1y maintain that III ia i'm