New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-02-04
SENATOR B1Y4RUS CANDIDACY.


SEN4TOR BATARVS CANDIDACY.
The advocacy of Mr.. Bayard for President
is getting rather grotesquo. Men are moved
to laughter rather than to enthusiasm, when
they hear, as. they do every day in some
quarters. that Senator Bayard is the only man
who can fifty represent the better end OF the
Democratic party. The great question Is
whether any attempt whatever Is to be made
to represent that better end Of the party, for
there is little reason at present to believe that
Mr. Bayard and his friends have power to con-
troll the electoral vote Of Il single State except
Delaware. Yet it is pity, the public interest
considered, that candidate as worthy as
Senator Bayard cannot be proposed without
opposition by the Democratic party.
The truth il that Mr. Baydrd is altogether
too good a man for the Democratic party
TO nominate He believes in hard money; he
was never n vindictivc or malignant rebel;
and he does not believe in stealing. After
tins, he is man of much ability and courage.
Having a sort of pocket borough at his
command, he continues to call himself
Democrat, and yet he would be left
mt home beyond doubt. if he repre-
scented either of the large Democratic or
credit. Indeed, it is no mean compliment for
a Democratic Senator to say that he is too
good a man ever to become a candidate of his
party; for Mr. Thurman was not small man,
as Democrats go, and yet he stopped to the
most wretohed demagogism In order 10 obtain
q nomination.
Senator Bayard perceived, during the last
session of Congress. that his party associates
had lost their senses. He protested loudly
and they threatened to turn him out Of the
Finance Committee. His purity Of character
is not disputed, nor his ability, nor the hearth
ness of his sympathy for the South in its time
of rebellion and distress. But Mr.. Bayard was
attacked solely because he believed in a sound
currency, and tried TO defend the public honor
Democrats who belong TO the better end of the
party rallied TO him on that account bur It
became only too clear TO MI. Bayard that the
majority OF his party opposed and hated
bun. After a long vacation spent abroad,
he came back TO find Democracy crushed
under meIlted defeats. He saw that
the party had no chance of success unless it
could get rid of its soft-money and repudiet-
ing alliances. AT once, he proposed that the
party should adopt the financial course recon-
Sherman. He wished to place it in line with
all its traditions. He wished to prove that
the repudiatng spirit did not control the party.
He hoped that Republicans would be divided
by his plan, while the Democrats, seeing its
strategic advantages, would rally to Its sup
port. BY this time, he has learned that he
was mistaken. The Republicans have not
been divided. The Democrats have adhered
80 unitedly and so stubbornly to
the extreme soft-mOney policy That Mr.. Bay
ard finds himself almost ostracised by the
very party which ought to have hailed his
shrewd leadership with joy.
In due time. Mr.. Bayard will discover that
the Democratic party, as it Is now constituted,
is not in favor of hard money. nor Of pay
ment OF the public debt Its spirit il
essentially rebellIous and revolutionary 1t
wishes TO cripple the Government for the
future by destroying ITS credit and to pun
ish its supporters in the past by re-
pudiating their just claims. If there is
little said as to these objects, there is the
utmost intensity OF feeling and concentration
of action. 1t was said by Mr.. Bayard, in a
recent interview, that the resolution which he
had presented would go far, if It were passed,
to convince the Northern people that they
had no cause to distrust the South as to finan-
cal questions. Yet the resolution sticks i'm
the mire Democrats from the South, in large
number, have already avowed their intention
TO oppose it. The sound legal and political
arguments of Mr.. Bayard do not avail; his
associates from the Solid South do not care
TO have the Northern distrust removed, at the
cost of steps which would deprive them of
the confidence of regulators at the South.
Senator Bayard is too good a man to be
chosen as the Democratic candidate. His con-
yichOns are not altogether on the wrong side.
He believes in maintaining the public faith,
and his political associates give proof by their
acts, as they did last year. that they mean to
stab the credit of the Union if they can. In
process Of time convention will be held |
and Mr.. Bayard will be quietly discarded. |
Then his own behavior will justify the rcfu-
sal of Republicans to give him unreserved
support and confidence He will support the
Democratic candidate, though trickster or
dangerous demagogue, aud Republicans viii
meanwhile nominate and elect an earnest and
faithful defendSr Of hard-money principles
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NOT 4 "WHfTE MANS" COURT
That brief episode ia the Supreme Court,
when Joel Parker, late Governor Of New-Jer-
sey and perpetual Democratic candidate for