Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-02-21

New York World.

4 The Outlook of 1850. ln9
New York World. w
+ Our esteemed contemporaries
] both Democratic and Republican
i who refused last summer to hee
the warnings given them by tn
i World of the third coming of Grant
are flying off now to the other ex
treme since the recent Republican
doings in Pennsylvania. Tt is pei
fectly certain that the "third term
agitation has no terrors whateve
for the "staIWarts" who make III
the aggressive force of the Republi
can machine. 1t would be strang
indeed if it had. What can. b
more absurd than to expect that ;
simple minded farmer or Inechani,
of the stalwart persuasion, who eve
since 1864 has learned to regard
General Grant as the savior ,anC
preserver of the Union, can be sud
denly and easily induced to lOob
upon the same General Grant as al
enemy of the Union and as hostile
to the political principles which
underlie the Constitution of the
which the people of the North have
Worshipped since 1864 was origi-
nally fashioned by cunning hands
out of ordinary materials, but the
people of the North have been
taught for sixteen years to worship
it, and it is silly to suppose that
they can be led in six months time
to set upon it and tear it down.
Certainly they cannot be led to do
this when they see that the
scratching" journals which now
invite them to this work of icono-
clasIn are the very same journals
which began and kept up and fer
mented the idolatry for years. The
mass of the Republican voters do
not care a straw for the hue and cry
about Grantism-and- "A third term.
They do care a great deal, however,
about that abominatfon which they
have been taught to dread as s'sol-
id South" Their distrust and dis
like of the South cannot be over
come before the election of 1880 by
anything that the Democrats can do
in the way of lowering the Demo-
cratic flag, any more than the same
feelings could be overcome in 1872
by the ridiculous and scandalous
nomination of Horace Greeley. If
Edwin NJ. Stanton and Judge Adj
vOcate- General Holt were alive and
were to be made the Democratic
candidates in 1880 for President and
Vice President, Republican voters
would turn away from them indig-
nantly as "tools" of the 'solid
South" The Republican voters in
this matter are no more unreason-
able than the West is about the
'moneyed power" Every Repub-
lican voter of the stalwart sort
knows, as everybody else knows,
that the real strength of the Demo-
cratic party in 1880 is in the t'soiid
South,> together with "the foreign
vote" (as it is calIedl of the great
cities of the East. IF the Demo-
cratic party intends to make front
which shall be respectable and
formidable in the sight of its enc
my, it must courageouSly accept
the conditions of the battle and
fearlessly act upon them. If the
Grant managers can persuade the
Democracy to show the white feather
in its nomination this year, as it
did in 1872, General Grant will have
won the battle before a shot is fired.
The stalwarts of the North most
assuredly will vote for Grant in
utter Indifference whether he is
standing for a third or for fifth
term. They have no more fear that
Grant will found an empire than
the Continentals of 1889 had that
Washington would accept a crown.
On the other hand, the thick-and-
thin Democrats of the North will
stand by any Democratic nominee
everywhere excepting in New York,
where it is perfectly certain that a
hundred thousand at least of them
will not stand by Mr.. Tilden. The
struggle is to be for the voters who
in November, 1880, may occupy
the free zone between both the par
tisan lines. The problem for the
Democratic party to-day is therefore
a very simple one. 1t Is to select q
who really represents the
Southern and Eastern forces of the
party. and who will at the same
time appeal most strongly as against
General Grant to the neutral voters
who exist in much larger numbers
in the Eastern States than any
where else. Who is that man?
Does any intelligent Democrat doubt
who he is? a.
The really independent voters of
the country must see clearly since
the Pennsylvania Convention that
the Grant Republicans of that State
on the financial question are really
at one with such Democratic Sepa-
tors as Beck, VOORHEES,, Morgan
and Coke. They are only skirm-
ishing for neutral position respect
ing the currency and silver coinage.
On Southern questions the Ken
lucky and West Virginia Demo-
cratic clique in Congress viii proba-
bly endeavOr to commit the Na-
tiOnal Democratic Convention to
doctrines as radically wrong and
fatal in the eyes of independent
voters as those which the same
clique espOuses about the finances.
The financial question and the
Southern question are the two polIt-
zeal questions just now uppermost
in the thoughts of no-parfy voters,
About the former, those voters are
as a rule doctrinaires with very
peremptory convictions. About the
latter. all they care for is to secure
a President whose character and
public record shall assure them that
a policy will be adopted by him
which will maintain every political
right of the negroes in the South, SO
far as the President can conStitu--
tionally deal with that subject.
The independent voters of the
are sick unto death, as it
seems to us, of the partisan intol-
erance of the hour respecting pOliti-
cal theories. Those voters can only
be brought into the field for a can
didate in 1880 who will not submit
to the slavery of party. Of theoret-
ical and, speculative methods of
dealing with the South these voters
are sick and tired. They are out of
patience with the vain pretenders
of the hour who are advertised as
of political infallibility and
political omniscience. The idolatry
of party symbols and catch-wOrds
does not touch these impartial and
voters, who are quite
willing, nevertheless, to see the
bow down in this idola-
try. Such voters have sense enough
To aDpreciate and despiSe the politi-