New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-26
NO COMPROMISE WITH d THIRD TERM

NO COMPROMISE WITH d THIRD TERN.
Because Senator Edmunds and ex-Ministe1
Washburne are for General Grant, his friends
make haste to conclude that a part, and they
hope the greater part, of the supporters of those
candidates will transfer their votes to General
Grant as a second choice. Even if the circum-
stances were such as ordinarily govern political
conventions, this expectation would be unwar-
ranted. Men who 90 into Convention with q
candidate whom they know to be preferred as
first choice by comparatively few, under
ordinary circumstances have counted the
| chances, and determined to stick to their ia
vorite until the supporters of the leading candi-
date abandon him. They make their choice,
and take their course solely because they be-
lieve that increased support will gather to
them if they hold fast, from the friends of
other candidates. They have every reason to
adhere patiently, and usually are more Obsti-
nate than the supporters of the candidate who
is expected to be nominated at the outset or not
at all.
But in this campaign the situation is peculiar.
The entire Convention is sharply divided, by q
new and grave issue, into supporters and Oppo-
nents of third term. These who think that
General Grant ought to be nominated, or can
be elected for third torn, stand cOmpactly on
one side, and their number is closely known
They are not majority of the Convention.
Unless by bulldozing, fraud, or coercion, they
cannot control it. Those who believe that
General Grant cannot be elected, or ought not
to be nominated for third term, are also COM
pactly united by that belief, although they
have preferences for several different candi-
dates. Ii is not anything to beat Grant with
them, but their action Is governed by strong
conviction that his nomination ought not to be
made that it would be fatal to the party or
dangerous to the country. With these men,
the preference for some other candidate is
secondary and subordinate motive. First of
all, they are anti-third term; afterward they
would prefer the nomination of Blaine, OF
Sherman, or Washburne, or Edmunds, either
because of personal appreciation or liking, or
because they judge that nomination would be
strongest for the party. In this peculiar posi-
ton, the opponents of the third term have
nothing to prevent their acting together
heartily and resOlutely until the third term issue
is put completely out of the way by decisive
defeat. SO long as they adhere to the candi-
date of their choice, every vote counts as surely
for the main object of all-thc defeat of the
third telm-,as if it were cast for any one else.
What reason have these men to surrender both
their convictions and their personal prefer
ences, 90 long as the main issue is still unde-
cidedf
Behind them are constituents. The third
term issue has dwarfed all others in the selec-
ton Of delegates. Men have been chosen with
little regard to their personal preferences, so
long as they were known to be sincere and
earnest in opposing the third term. The dele
gates who are reckoned as supporters of Mr.. |
Washburne and Mr.. Edmunds are of this pat |
tern, with scarcely known exception. They |
are not tools or blind followers of those leaders.
and have been chosen by constituents who
could in no way be influenced to support the |
third term. 1t is in the last degree improbable |
that the delegates who bave been sent by the |
intense anti"Grant element among the Germans
at the West, though they would gladly support
N