New-York tribune., 1880-02-28
SOME RESULrS or UTYCL

| J
foes was that Senator Cameron did not in
| crease the probability of General Grants nomi-
nation by securing an instructed delegation
/ from the Convention at Harrisburg. Precisely
/ the same opinion now begins to be expressed
| by supporters as well as by opponents of the
! third term movement in regard to the result
of the SNew-YOrk Convention. II is grayey
doubted 10y friends of that movement whether
the probability of General Grants nomination
! has been increased by the dOings at Utica
! True delegation instructed and almost
unanimously committed to vote for General
! Grant has been secured. 1t would do no good
! TO underrate the value of this solid body of
votes. They will count heayiy-lf the time
| ever comes to count them at all for the ex-
| President. But the probability that no such
| time will ever come appears to cool observers
to have been greatly increased by the mani
! festatiOns of public opinion at the Convention.
| Here. as in Pennsylvania, q complete success Of
| the friends of General Grant was expected. In
! these two States, if anywhere in the Union,
| they had right to count upon some popular
support and upon the ncalculable advantage
of a powerful machinery handled with mas
trrly skill. Yet the opposition in Pennsylva-
MIA was very large, and the opposition in New
York might have prevailed if led without any
mistakes.
The votes count true. But public opinion
| also counts, and in other States which have
vet to choose delegates nothing else counts at
all. Up to this point the support OF General
/ Grant has been based almost wholly upon the
claim that he was strong with the people
that they demanded his nomination with a
surprising unaDimity, and that he would poll
more votes, if nominated, than any other can
didate. But this claim has been completely
refuted by the results in Pennsylvania and
| New York. The friends Of the ex~President
had selected, with much skill, for their first
demonstrations, the two States in which there
was reason to believe that the popular sup
port was strongest. But in those very States,
the result proves, a large majority of the Re-
| publican voters prefer not to have General
Grant ren0minated, and delegations IN his
favor have been with difficulty secured 10y ex-
erting the utmost power of the most perfect
political machinery existing anywhere in this
| country After this, to claim that there Is any
overwhelming popular demand or desire for
the nomination of General Grant is absurd.
He is not the choice of the Republican voters,
for the perfect organization of politicians who
| favor him, even in the States where that or
ganization is strongest, barely saved him from
| defeat.
1t is not possible that the open demonstra-
'ton of this fact will be without effect else
where. In every other State, as here, the
friends OF General Grant are obliged to meet
the objection to third term by claiming that
he is peculiarly the choice Of the people in the
emergency and therefore the strongest pos
sible candidate. But in every other State,
from Maine to California. the fact is now
known by all intelligent en- that there
is in reality no such popular preference, and
that the ex-President would certainly lose
the votes of part of the Republicans, if
nominated. No factOus or unreasonable op-
position has been made by those who oppose
the third term. They did not resist as siren
uously as they might at Harrisburg, and
| they resOrted 10 not one of an hundred eX-
pedients at Utica. They have been content to
place on record their adverse Judgment, and
have temperately and regretfully stated their
| knowledge that General Grant cannot COM
mand the full vote OF the Republican party for
a third term. The power of their statement
| will be all the greater elsewhere for its calm
ness and freedom from personal antagonsm.
| They do but state fact necessarily known to
them through their daily intercourse with Re-
| publican voters, and ask that it be duly con
| sidered.
Unless General Grant should secure a clear
majority of the Convention before it assem-
bles, there is no probability that his name
will be presented. The policy of his friends,
of necessity, is to secure open and formal
commitment of delegations to his support.
They will know, and the whole country will
know, that they have failed entirely, unless
the requisite number of votes has been for
mally committed in advance. The effect OF
the conventions in Pennsylvania and New
York has been to diminish greatly the chance