, 1880-05-30

OBSERVATIONS. :
"GATu's' NOTES AND INTERVIEWS
CHICAGO, May 39.-The Republican party
never met under such discouraging circum-
stances in National Convention. To seat Mr..
Hayes they gave away their whole strength
in the South, which previously had given
them two great Electoral victories. Had
Gr:1nt not reappeared as n candidate, they
might have had at least harmonious
funeral. But his strength with the managing
politicians and with considerable optimistic
party and general following has brought to
the surface those numerous Commonwealth
and local dissenstons which are the fruit Of
long years Of power III nearly the same
hands.
l. CALM OUTLOOK
Against Grant, personally, the delegates
here have nothing to say, except that he will
lose the party vital States i'll the North,-
Ohio certainly, perhaps Wisconsin and New
York,-and recover nothing previously lost.
But the attendants and calnp-followers in
many cases bitterly denounce Grant, his per-
severance for office, the record Of his Ad-
ministratons, and the designs and characters
of his engineers. From the best of my OBJ
servat1on such attacks are more especially
made by ulinoisans, Chicagoans particular
~, who use the roughest vernacular in tie
country under excitement Ohio anti
Grant men plead. New Workers reason,
Indianians illustrate their objections, but
Illinois talks with clenched fist,
qualities nothing, and threatens combus-
ton. The high-strung, nervous, resolute
type of men living on these prairies.
their schoolmaster the City Of Chi
cago, do not measure words nor welcomes.
More Southern III kind than any other
Northern society, they do not observe that
the fact of the Convention meeting here
should disfranchise their lips or fists, and
some Of the Grant men complain that if
they were herd of cattle coming into Chi
cago they could not be bulldozed less gently.
The endeay0r to impress the name Of Cook
County upon foreigners has not been In vain,
and an irate Grant man from Pennsylvania
yesterday said he should remember it Us
"Chief Cook and Chief Bottle-Washer
County"
"Sir," exclaimed distinguished Chica-
goan, swinging his long arms in the faces Of
group Of gaping Newly orkers, '' they little
thought that when they spread the banquet
the ghost of Bdnquo would be there! They
sit down to the Convention, and there glides
in with her bloody head and trencheti gashes
the outraged ghost Of Chicago. Yes. sir,
Chicagol" This had reference to Cook
County being bulldozed by the State Conyen-
ton.
DEcADEycE.
Some people draw parallels between the
feeling here and that at Charleston in 1890,
when the Democratic party, divided between
n
Buchanan. ruptured and expired. But it
was then the quarrel of an issue,-two thou
sand millions Of slave property to be re-
tained only by certain rendering of the
Constitution. Here at Chicago it would
appear to be rupture about lead
ers. Not word is said about
the party platform, nor the need Of leading
issues, nor about the Vice-Presidency. It is
war of enemies or respecters Of persons.
The two issues are within the party, not
outside Of it. They are the unit rule and the
three terms Of Grant. The negro, who has
abided with the party a quarter of century
as i political principle, appears at the Con-
vention US a miserable and discarded guam
tity, absorbed into the organic law, a mendi-
can't no1l-resistant, perhaps already pre-
pared to sell his vote for money or servants
office, and to turn his back on Grant for
Sherman, or Lincoln, If he were living. Like
the Indian. hero as long as he was unre-
claimed, and a yagabond when elevated, the
black man cuts sorry figure ut the Conve11-
ton Of the great party which ennobled him.
Fred Douglass is almost the only black fig
ure here commanding any attention. Lib
erty has come, but not yet the manhood it
was to give.
As one old enough to look back twenty
years thinks Of this day and that, when the
Western star arose on Ltncoln's brow and
outshone the older orb of Seward, he Won
ders 1t the tremendous physical work of the
Republican party has not untitled it for the
counsels of repose and the era of nothing-to-
do: IT its dissensions are not like those Of
family when the active parents are dead and
the property is to be divided, and the eldest
son. in Grant, claiming by primoseniture and
entail, is tiercely resisted by Ills brethren.
REASONABLE RuMon
Friends of Washburne by no means aban-
don their expectation, in the apparent great
need Of the Republican party for man who
can be elected without recourse to desperate
extremity or improbable resources, that the
Blaine and Sherman men may come to him,
and a fair number of the Grant men, too. But |
Ar. Washburne's silence Is liable to some
In both directions. Having |
declared himself on paper for Grant, lie is
not in position to give advice to the con-
trary; and yet having been a candidate in |
Illinois, certain element in the Grant mus
ter will have it that he has been playing |
double game Amy how, the masses Of the
party still regard him as the most available |
Of all candidates. Some say that the mantle I
Of Grant, which might have descended on
and which Sherman also expects,
IS quite as probable to drop on Eds
lnulds. The dilema in Grants camp, If lie
should fall Of the nomination, is to
find somebody tractable enough for the old
party masters like Conkllng and Cameron.
Edmunds has certain ugliness in his mt
1re, as Sherman has In his temper, and their
experience with Hayes rankles in the minds
IT the mighty Grant Captains. Grant suits
heir form OF discipline. himself q discipIi-
larin1, but only Of his enemies.
It is said to be new thing in Chicago to
laye great numbers of very black negroes
making themselves at home in the marble
lining-llalls of the big hotels, but this is only
practical realization Of the changes since
he Chicago Convention of 1850. Very little
G haard here abo1,t the candidacy of Senator !