Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1880-10-22
The First Duty Of the Democracy.

There is one sequitur of the disastrous
Democratic defeat in Indiana and Ohio
which should suggest itself at once and
with great emphasis to the leaders of
that party, which is to permit General
Hancock to gracefully Withdraw at
once from their ticket. To continue
him upon the track when he is hopelessly
distanced is species of gratuitous and
refined cruelty. If he were an old
party hack, accustomed to run in all
kinds of races, and used to being
beaten, the case would be different.
The old scrubs who have been beaten
over and over again in the last twenty
years are hardened to it. Their records
are so scored with defeats that one
more will not injure them, aud cannot
affect them in the future. They have
no pride to be wounded, nor sensibilities
to be shocked. General Hancock is
man who has had the itch, but not the
opportunity, for office for several years.
To ruin him now, when there is no
possibility of success, must eventuate,
1fot only in defeat, but in retiring him
forever, a hopeless political wreck,
past all chance of ever putting in an APP
pearance again as candidate for Of
flee. This would be the height of
cruelty.
The Democrats can avoid this now by
letting him withdraw, and leaving him
to nurse his personal magniicence and
elegance on Governors Island, the
spoiled darling of the softer sex and
the superb chevalier of Democratic
gullibility.
Now is Cipher Tilden's opportunity.
The substitution of ''Old Usufruct"
would bring new issue into the cam
paign, or rather revive an old one. The
Democracy and the Sun can once more
raise the cry of "fraud," and thus di=
versify the campaign. Tilden and
English would be. wonderful team.
Old Cipher Alley at the head and Shy
lock at the tail of the ticket is accord
ing to the eternal fitness of things.
Sammy would unquestionably open his
bar'l again, now hooped up tight. Such
a substitution would put new working
capital into the campaign.
But if the Democracy are not salts
fed with that "change," and want to
do a graceful thing and something pc
culiariy taking, let them put Bayard,
from the little whipping-post State of
| Delaware, at the head of the ticket.
If they want to make an excitement on
the track, let them put on Hendricks,
who will straddle any two horses they
can furnish. If they want to do the
| high patriotic act, let them take Carter
Harrison, and have it understood that
he shall let loose the American Eagle,
and make it lively again for that un-
! terrified bird. There are plenty OF pa
triots in the Democratic party who can
| be put up and knocked down without
any injury to them. But this is not so
with Hancock.
! If the Democratic party has any
decency, any sympathy, any tender
ness, any pity, any fellow-feeling left
in it, it will allow him to pull OFF and
! save him from the avalanche which is
rushing towards him with such fearful
momentum. They should not allow
him to go down to history like Me-
Clellan. battered. smashed, wrecked
and ruined by this storm that is coming
up in the Northern sky. He has been
pretty badly handled already for his
Order No. 40, for his attempt to re-
store the levee thieves of Louisiana, for
his slang about "nigger domination, "
for his reactiOnary procliVities, and for
his lack OF promptness in military ae-
| tion at critical moments in the War;
but he still stands well with the people
as an able and gallant corps command
er, when acting under command of
abler officers, like General Grant. and
not left to his own indiscretion. He is
still, for a Democrat, considered to be
decent and respectable man. and his
political friends should allow him to re-
| tain that reputation. They have no
right TO keep him in a false position
when there is no hope that he can make
anything by it. They have no right to
keep him in the companionship OF those
against whom he fought. If they will
not take him of voluntarily, he should
ask them to take him of and insist upon
| IL Chica0o Tribune.