Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-11-13


he drinks to excess, he is a strong maj
here. The loss of half dozen ordinar,
members would not so demoralize th
Democracy as the loss of these two. Th,
fact is, that party lacks men of broad in
telligence. AT the North our best thinkers
our brainiest and most progressive men
ran ge themselves on the Republican side
Ii you listen Rnpartially from the gallerie;
TO the speeches delivered on both sides
You cannot help noting the pitifal de
ficiency of power in the opposition. As
an intellectual treat would rather see the
two parties more evenly balanced in respect
OF brains. In regard to
THE SOUTHERN MEMBERS,
They are not men Of broad culture. Tee
curse of sentimental superfciality is fas-
tened on them ALL Their insane devotion to
Staterigh.s permeates them and has dwarf
ed their development. They are fullof brute
courage, gallant, but yapii men to know
Compare Wade Hampton with John Sher-
man in the recent tete q tete between the
two. Which touched the bottom of his
resources soonest, and made hopeless,
ridiculous fiasco? Not the Northern man.
Wade Hampton, born AMID Northern
institutions and thoroughly educated ac-
cordiug TO our standards, would have made
| twice the man he is. Proctor Knott and j.
G. G. Blackburn, both OF Kentucky, are
| probably the ablest men here from the old
! slave States. The former has taste, wit
and practical accumen, the latter has youth
wonderful energy, and practical insight
into affairs. But they both so off at half
cock when they try to cope with our disci-
pinned minds from the North on any great
question. Mr.. Blackburn is called Vestige
| Wiper Blackburn now, from his boast dur
ing the extra session that his party would
''wipe from the statutes every vestige of
the war legislation" None of these
! have named are more than equal to our
second class men from Northern constit-
uencies-men who make the nation, not
the State, their object of devotion. The
| odds are fearfully against any party that
| lacks both a great cause and eminent talent
| in defending it, as matched against party
that has both. Witness the shallow, shift
ing way IN which they have worried
through this Presidential campaign In
the first place, at Cincinnati they were
STRANGELY BLIND
To the strength the Republicans would
WELD in having drawn their standard
bearer from the ranks of the laboring
people. Two years ago l heard General
Garfield say, sour society does not resem-
BILE the crust of the earth with its impassa-
bic barriers of rock but resembles rather
the waters of the mighty sea-deep, broad,
bouudless, and yet so free in all its parts
that the drop that mingles with the sand
at the bottom is free to rise through all the
mass of waters till it fss es in the light n
the crest of the highest wave" l thought
of this when his name came booming over
the wires from Chicago on that momentoas
Sth OF June. He was neither my first nor
my second choice for the nomination :: but
he has brains and experience enough to
make an illustrious administration. 1t
will not be so childlike and bland as the
administration of Mr.. Hayes has been.
Those who vote fer him thinking that it
will be continuance of the Hayes METH
DDS do not comprehend the radical differ.
ence between the two men. Garfield has
strong individuality and will be ambitious
to leave
DEFINITE MARK
Upon the history of his century. His Ad.
ministration will have great merits, and it
will have its faults. | believe he will do
his conscientious best-partly because he
will be ambitious of second term. His
state papers will certainly be admirable.
They will command the attention and re-
spect of the whole reading world. The
campaign so near its close has not been
one in which woman could enjoy partici-
pating. 1t has had no sentimental side.
1t has been a business mans campaign.
virile in its meaning and in its methods !;
but from philosophical standpoint, inter-
esting to watch, and the three dominant
figures have been Grant, Conkling and
Sherman. We all knew just how Carl
Schurz would stand from the moment he
was seen taking that long drive with Gea-
eral Garfield when the latter visited Wash
ington soon after the Chicago Convention.
And as to "Blaine of Maine," God bless
him, we knew how undimmed his ardor
was four years ago in the campaign
by his defeat at Cincinnati, with
victory so near his grasp, but he could not
foresee all he would have to contend with
in Maine. What Blaine was to the HAYES
campaign, Roscoe Conkling has been to
this, only with the difference in method
necessitated by the law of their natures :;
and Mr. Conkling's part has had the strong
dramatic interest which the unexpected
always lends to the heroic. Put it down
in your mental note books, friends Sena.
tor Conklings opening of the New York
campaign, followed by his tour through
Ohio and Indiana is the most memorable
Co. k,r of fha Yaapnnroh h1a ,nn1,t,nal
campaign of this generation. You and l
knew, and he probably did, that his name
was not popular in the Middle Western
States. The river steamboat inter-
ests felt that he had Disseminated
against them in the Committee on Com
merce, in favor of the ocean steamers, no.
tably by compelling as complete and ex-
pensive equipment against accident IN the
former case as the latter. Journeying
through Ohio during the Hayes campaign
your correspondent found herself arguing
an hour among a little knot OF Ohio river
steamboat owners, to convince them that
Roscoe Conkling and William A. Wheeler
really had not corrupt interest in Bah
cocks fire extinguisher.
THIS LOCAL DIsAFFECTIoN
Toward Mr.. Conkling had much to do with
l
the coolness with which his aspirations
were snubbed at Cincinnati, and with the
unyielding opposition that his plans and
methods met at Chicago. You will re-
| member that the keenest thrust given him
there was from Wheeling delegate,
Campbell, the son Of the great
founder of the Disciple sect, Alexan-
der Campbell. Then, too, there was
the episode of Narragansett Pier !;
and as even a Conkling is not
superior to the good will of his fellow men,
one can imagine the cool deliberation with
which he made up his mind that this must
not be an "off year with him-then
grandly sailed in. l confess myself an
unwilling votary of Roscoe Conkling. Ev-
cry particle of admiration 1 feel for his
genius have yielded grudgingly, inch
by inch; but how the man does
greaten on ones viewl There is
greatness of self.consciousness as
well as greatness of unconsciousness.
/ think Mr.. Conkling and Mr.. Sherman
| represent these two extremes. In speak
ing Secretary Sherman lacks self-conscious.
ness conspicuously. He is full OF his SUBJ
| iect and he fires his sentences off so
rapidly they almost telescope" into one
another. He is guileless in his Judgment
of men except where the realization of
1 u L.