New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-13
RIFLE THAT FORKS BOTH WAYS.

"Heads | win, tails you lose" Is not thought
particularly honorable game. But the Grant
pcople in Illinois insist upon the unit rule and
the control of the whole delegation for the
State, while they demand that the delegates
from the city of Chicago shall be divided nc
colding to the preferences OF the respective dis
tricts They bolt in order to defeat Il possible
application in Chicago of the very unit rule
which they openly declare that they mean to
enforce in the State. But if it is proper for the
majority IN State Convention to send in
structed delegates, all of one sort, without any
respect to the wishes Of the several Congress
s1onal Districts, then it would have been at least
as proper for the majority i'll County COnven-
ton, without regard TO the wishes of the sew
eral wards, to send delegates all of one sort,
or to instruct them to vote as n unit. Against
the anticipated application of the unit rule in
the county the Grant men hOlted. Yet they
had openly threatened, and still threaten, to
apply the very same rule in tho choice of dele
gates from the State to the National Convention.
This inconsistency would merit only rldicule,
if it we're not publicly proposed to rcnd into
pieces the Republican party in great Repub-
lican State, in order to enable certain clique
to enforce the same cast-irOn rule against others
which they deem a cause for boiling, when It's
enforcement against themselves is merely
feared. The Republican Convention of Cook
County had not yet fully organized, when the
Grant delegates bOlted. 1t had taken no action
to indicate it's purpose as to the appointment OF
delegates from the county, and might either
have chosen a full set of delegates representing
the will of the majority i'll the county, as had
heen done in many other counties by the third
term people, or selected delegates representing
nroportioDately the different elements in the
| Convention. No one had any right to say that
| the Convention would take one course or the
other, and the boilers went out without any ex-
| cuse in the action of the Convention. Their
only pretext was that prominent man OF the
majority had threatened to urge in the County
Convention precisely the course which the
| Grant men had adopted already i'll other cOun-
ties. and which they had previously threatened,
and now threaten, to adopt in the State Con-
vention.
| If the State Convention decides that the
| Grant men were right in boiling, because it was
asserted that the unit rule would be enforced
| against them in the county, it will thereby de-
| eide that the anti Grant men have right to
| bolt from the State Convention, because it Is
| now publicly asserted that the same rule will
be enforced against them there. Thus the at
| tempt to maintain machine dictatorship, IN
| defiance of the will of voters, in a great Repub-
| Iican State, tends to divide and destroy the
marty. 1t behOOves the sincere and patriotic
Republicans of that State to crush out this at
| tempt at once Their candidates for local and
State Offices, their candidates for Congress, and
all others who wish to see the party saved from
AInip fn0n fN
overthrow the attempted dictatorship, to re-
| buke the boilers. and to see that the delegation
| from Illinois shall justly represent the will OF
the Republican voters. century ago our
fathers wanted "a Church without q Bishop
"and State without King" To-day theiI
sons want party without Boss
If the delegation from Illinois should be con-
tested, so that neither the Grant nor the anti
Grant men could act ip the preliminary pro-
| cec9ings, it is now certain that the third term
marty would be in q minority in the National
Convention. In that case, the first step Of the
majority would he to declare the unit rule in
valid. and to set free the delegates from Penn
sylvania, New York, and other States, who arr
opposed to the nomination of the ex-President
The next step would be to decide the contest
in Illinois against the third term boilers, ant
the next, to nominate candidate for President
who could be elected. Nothing can be gained
therefore, by the third term people If they
push their claims in the State Convention
Their boiling has closed all doors against them
It was a gross wrong to the sincere and loya
Republicans of other States for the third tern
faction to employ Democratic voters in larg
number to pack Republican primary meetings
That Democrats anxiously desire the nomina
ton of General Grant is plain enough, withOu
any voting But their desire does not impe
true Republicans 10 take sides with them. No
does the reckless and rule-or-ruin course of tn
ex-President's friends In Chicago prepare Re