Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1880-09-09

serve Inc interests OF the country, and what
WIZ dement, OF lnlure the interests of his party.
he mas TO meet multitude of a, guments puT
at him by multitude of men from a bufdred
different motives, all seeming to him i'm
portant, because all are to him new: not a few
among the most prominent of those who urge
their opinions most strongly upon his mind,
trained and skilled by long practical echooling
III all the arts OF covering up the weak points
OF their cases and cOncealiGg the + motives bv
specious arguments, and of making private in
teres!s appear those OF the public.
WHAT WOULD FOLLOW HANCOCK.
The picture have drawn is one which every
man OF experience in political affairs will recog-
nlze as applicable TO every novice in politics
placed ID the presidential chair. even under or
binary and favorable circumstances. But what
is likely to happen TO such man elevated to
the presidency With such motley host upon
his back as the Democratic party is to-day?
That party. as now constituted, is indeed a
wonderful mixture of elements. There is the
Southern element, of which I shall certainly
not be inclined to deny that marked improve
ment has taken place in the temper and aspi-
ratlCns of many of its leading men. who have
cast the old ambitions OF the war period be-
hind them and are now with a patriotic spirit
eIdeayoring to serve the country. and to whom,
therefore, our esteem is due. It is also true
that they beglnto be supported by class of or
DERBY and well-meaning citizens: but it is not
less true that they find themselves hampered
and clogged by noisy factions in their constitu-
encies, who, whether they are a ms jority or
not, endeavor and regret to saw, in many in
stances successfully to impress Their temper
upon the character Of Southern politics still
smarting under the defe4 of the war, and the
! losses which those defeats had brought upon
them, some Of them, with sulen feeling tsat
those defeats were an insult as we'll as wrong
to them, for which, in some way, they must
OF the old condition Of things something they
do not know exactly what; and withal insisting
that something is due them as Southern men in
politics, as well as in society; deeming it due to
them that large appropriations should be made
for their particular benefit, for all imaginable
purposes, good, bad and Indifferent, merely to
pour money into that section of the country
with appetites sharpened by long exclusion
from power and the sweets Of Office, and greedy
to make the most of that if they can OBJ
tain it.
There is the Northern Democracy, also with
men OF statesmanlike instincts in il and excel
lent intentions, but behind them large num-
Der OF restless and ambitious politicians, who
for twenty years have been boxing the compass
to lind some principle or some policy to avail
themselves OF some passion, or some pre- udice
by which they might wiz an election and regain
the possession of power. Such an element,
however, will be found more or less repre-
oOAASSo
had the misfortune of exercising remal kable
power OF attraction for the adventurous, and
even the dangerous, elements of our popula-
ton and its attempts to regain power by all
sorts of devices, and the advocacy of all sorts
| OF principles and policies, has gathered under
It's banner SO many divergent tendencies and
| homogeneous elements, held together by the
only desire to regain the spoils OF government,
that when the party comes into power nobody
can tell which element Will be uppermost in
strength and determine the current of its
| policy.
CONFLICTING IDEAS.
| Thus we find there the hardest of hard money
men hand in hand with the widest of fation-
lists, the freest of free traders and the stiffest
If protectionists we find them in their plat
forms declaring for the restoration of specie
| payments to satisfy one part, and the repeal of
the resumption law in the same sentence to
satisfy the other art of the organization. We
ind men who would scorn the idea of faithless-
ness to our National obligations in the closest
alliance and cooperation with those who re-
pudiated their debts in their own States, and
who would not hesitate moment to repudiate
| the debts of the public. We find men sincerely
DESTROYS Of cultiyating among the Southern
people the heartiest sentiments of loyalty to
the Republic and respect for the rights of ALL
irrespective OF color, and by their side men who
think that their own rights are worth nothing
unless they are permitted to Cypress the rights
Of others. And it must not be forgotten that
! upon these different elements the official de-
| claratlons Of platforms have not the least
effect. While the party in its National con-
yentlons declares1or specie payments, that does
not hinder moment Democratic Congressman
from opposing resumption in Congress, or the
Democrats from Ohio nominating their inf1a-
ton leader, General Ewing, or the Democrats
In Indiana from non mating the fiat money
man, Landers, for the governorship of those
States; nor does it prevent the Democrats in
many Of the Western and Southern States
| from pursuing their greenback agitation as
| Justify as before.
While they declare for an observance of our
National obligations, that does not hinder the
| Democrats In many of the Southern States
! from going on with their work of local repudi-
alton, and declaring that local Reputation is SO
good thing that it ought to be made general.
But all these tactics,
! THESE INCoNGRUoUs ELEMENTS,
are held together by one great impulse-that is.
the appetite for public plumber, which the ex-
cluslon from power for twenty years has stimu-
lated to degree of keenness scarcely ever seen
before. Now consider that if General Han
COCK ever can be elected, 1t must be by very
hearty cooperation of all these elements-the
Greenback Democrats of Ohio, Maine and In
diana, and the West and South, with the hard
money men of New York, New JERSEY, and
|
and the free traders in another the war Dem
ocrats In the North, and the reactioDary ele-
ments elsewhere and to all these elements to-
gether General Hancock, If successful at all,
will owe his success and all these elements. If
the successful party is maintained in its strength
and continued in power, mast be satisfied in
order to hold them together.
HOW WILL HE DO IT?
That will be the situation and such the prob
lem which the soldier, to whom political science
and management SO far have been a sealed
book, will have to solve. What will he do to
keep the Greenbackers in the party without be-
tray1ng the principles of the hard money men
How will he satisfy the Southern element, that
claims to have been robbed by an anti-slayery
war, and is entitled to restitution in some
shape, and at the same time keep the manage
ment of the Government within the bounds of
economy and propitiate the Northern tax
payers? How will he content the Southern men
IN the distribution of offices, who will claim
they have furnished a ajorlty of the votes
and are, therefore, entitled to the lions share
And how will he keep the Northern Democrat
in good spirits and III working order by dis
trlbution of the patronage which will appease
the hunger of twenty years? These are some
of the problems which the unsophisticated sol
dier-presdent, whose whole sphere of metal
activity has, SO far, been confined to the hand
ling of troops ON the field of battle, and to the
narrow horizon of duty which army life i'll
times of peace will have to solve. And these
problems he will have o solve, not in the quiet
of the closet surrounded by few able cOun-
selors IN peaceful consultation, but quickly,
under the bewildering pre- ssure of not hun
dred but thousands of eager politicians, who
I'LL the ear with babel of sound and with a
pondemonium of CO.. ficting ambitions. This
is task that would tax man of phenomenal