Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-03-13
THE PRESIDENTIAL CLAIM
ANTS.

ical machinery of the country, with
view to bind men down to their
interests at the election of this year.
Their names are Grant and Tilden,
and for some occult reason there
seems to be an understanding be-
tween the two; Grant wants Tilden
for an antagonist, and Tilden Grant.
We have said enough for the pres
ent of Grants candidacy and now
propose to discuss that of Mr.. Til
den. Indeed, until the nominations
of the two parties are made, Mr..
Tilden's candidacy and the ways in
which it has been conducted are
more our concern than Gen. Grants
affairs, for the Democratic nominal
ton is a business in which, however
small it may be, we have a part to
act, while the Grant boom is in
hands altogether beyond the reach
of our influence.
Asa general thing we have always
deprecated the expression of strong
preferences for a candidate, and still
more of strong repugnance to one
prior to nomination. In the case of
Tilden there have been methods in
the management of his candidacy
which make it impossible to pre-
serve silence ON the subject any
longer; methods so much at varl-
ance with all previously recognized
principles of party procedure, and
especially of Democratic procedure,
that il becomes necessary to- deter
mine whether the man who puts
them in practice is to be recognized
as a Democrat.
The only feature observable in all
Journals under Mr.. Tilden's infiu-
ence, in all which at present keep
his name predOminantly before
their readers, is their industrious
efforts to disparage all other possible
candidates and make their nOmina-
ton impossible. Mr.. Hendricks
and Mr.. Thurman have already
been the objects of virulent assaults
from these Journals. 1t may be said
that this is the action of his friends,
and that he has nothing to do with
it; but that is a very poor subter-
fuge. Mr.. Tilden does everything
through his friends, and keeps him
self imperviOusly yelled behind
their vicarious transactions. He has
always had convenient friends who
are ever ready to take on their
shoulders whatever transactions will
not bear avOwal as his own. When
no other will serve, he has his
nephew PeltOn. If a Presidential
ElectOr is to be bribed, PeltOn and
not Tilden does it; if railroad trans
actions are 10 be managed, not con-
venient to be afterwards avOwed,
they were Pelton's shares-Pelton
bought and Pelton sold them. But
among men engaged in politics, the
theory is rejected with contempt
that journals exclusively devoted to
the interests of one politician are
not inspired by his ideas as well as
controlled by hisinterests, especially
when certain positions are so unan-
imously assumed by them; and
this one position is common to all
the Tilden papers, that they attack
possible Democratic competitors of
Mr.. Tilden with a virulence COM
pared with which any assaults on
the Republican party are as mild as
milk and water.
We have spoken already of coarse
personal attacks on Messrs. Hen
bricks and Thurman. Since the
Ohio election so seriously damaged
Mr.. Thurman's interests, he has
been let alone by the Tilden organs,
and Mr.. Bayard is the object of their
attacks. The charge against him is
that he was opposed to the war and
spoke elOquently and urgently in
favor of peace measures, of cOncilia-
ton and compromise, which might
reunite North and South in their
old ties of sympathy without appeal
to the dread arbitrament of war.
This is of course intended to dam
age him in the North, and he needs
no defense on that charge here. He
does not shrink, however, from the
avOwal of his ante-bellum position
he reiterates that under the same
he would take the
same position and be the champion
of peace as long as peace was posi-
BILE. This is Bayard all over; he
says manfully what he thinks with
out subterfuge, without provision
for disavOwing it in future-he puts
down his foot and we know where
he stands. But in truth that is
where the whole Democratic party |
stood in 1861, and not only they, !
but the best and soundest men of
the Republican party, Mr.. Tilden |
on the one side and Horace |
Greedy on the other.
But now compare with thestraight-
forward manlineSs of Mr.. Bayard |
in this matter the timid, shutting
policy of the Tildenian method. In
February, 1861, a peace meeting was
held in Tweddle Hall, at Albany,
for the express purpose of protesting
against war as a mode of determin-
ing the differences between North
md South, at which Mr.. Seymour,
Mr.. Thayer and Mr.. Tilden all
made speeches. The Albany Argus
published the speeches of Messrs.
Seymour and Thayer, but that of
Mr.. Tilden does not appear. The
EDITOR Of the paper reports that he
ent the stenOgraphic notes of that
peech to the orator for revision,
md that they were never returned
O him. VOiId! the regular Tilden-
an method of covering his tracks.
BUT the reporters of the Argus had
.ept a copy Of their report, and