Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1880-07-21
THE THINKERS.
THE VOTERS VINO WILL DECIDE THE
NEXT ELECTION.
Newark Advertiser.

There is common saying that "the
fools are not all dead yet" and there is
equally good ground for supposing that
there a few wise men left to listen to
the voice of reason. It is that class who
will decide, Or ought to decide the next
election for president. 1t is as fair in
politics as in war to use stratagem, and
it may be said that both parties have,
when necessary, employed the same
means to attain the desired end-success.
Still there is possibility that party
may overreach itself, or it may use pro-
cesses that are hackneyed and have lost
| their effect. Forts are not taken in war
times always in the same way, and a
party may adopt campaign programme
heretofore successful, and yet meet with
an ignominious defeat. Such we suspect
will be the case in the pending contest
for the presidency. The democrats start
ed off at rapid pace they made a mag
nifcient beginning they trotted out
General Hancock as the jockey trots out
a favorite horse, and they used almost
the same terms in describing him. There
never was such hero since "Agamem-
non, king of men," Look at him, they
cried in breathless admiration turn him
round notice his PAGES isn't he a
beauty Auctioneers lose their voice
sometime, and it will be so with the
democracy. They commenced to shout
too soon. Before the election they will
be out of wind and as hoarse as Poe's
raven. The admiration spasm is even
now dying out, and long before Novem-
Der is reached the wise men will put
their heads together and begin to think.
An attempt to run in a candidate on
some special plea is older than the bal
lot. Coriolanus pleaded his services and
his wounds before the Romans in the
market place, but the argument was
stale one even then and the candidate
was not returned" A popular wave
cannot always be created. 1t comes
sometimes when least expected, as it
came to the democracy in 1860 and over
whelmed them though they fought with
the energy of despair. If as it some
times happens, shrewd generalship is
victorious, it will occur quite as often
that the people will just quietly sit down
and "think about it." While the en-
gineers of the democratic campaign are
busy with their vociterous praises of his
newly discovered "great available, the
wise, prudent, cautious men of the nation
will think it all over, and the more they
think the more certainly they will arrive
at the conclusion that while General Han
cock is handsome man, standing six feet
three inches in his stockings, that while
he did good service in the war, as did a
thousand other generals and brigadiers,
that something is wanting that he does
not possess. Personally agreeable and es
Unable, he is lacking in one very essential
particular-he keeps bad company. 1t
is not General Hancock that the nation
will fear in the presidential Office, but the
men and principles that will govern him.
There is the rub. The pill is very nicely
gilded; we are willing to take our demo
cratic brethern's word for it that exter-
nally it is pure gold, but there is no mis-
taking the fact that inside the pill is in
tensely bitter and disagreeable. The
wise man will think about it twice be-
fore he swallows it.
There was never time, indeed, when
deliberation was more necessary, wise
counsel, and prudent action. Let all per-
sonalities in this contest be dropped, let,
all be conceded in regard to General Han
cocks valor, good looks, and personal in
tegrity; burn even the "bloody shirts
and the issues of the war, and the mar
row of the question is as far as ever.
The country has grown into its present
position through almost the bloody sweat
of the entire nation. Never were the
processes of recuperation more slow and
painful Staggering under its load of
debt and the calamities Of war the cOun-
try more than once fell to the ground ex-
hausted. Then came period ofinflation,
the result of redundant currency with
out proper basis to rest upon, and that
balloon exploded. Things foreseen can
not always be prevented, and it was SO
here, but wisdom and patience finally
brought us to haven of comparative
safety. But are all these trayails Of souls
and body, these experiences and expert
ments to go for nothing? Must this en-
tire fabric of liberty and industry, this
absolutely new creation, be entrusted to
incompetent and inexperienced hands
because General Hancock was a fair sold
Ter sixteen years ago, and is good look
ing man now?
It is this process of thinking that our
democratic friends desire to avoid. They
do not court the light They know very
well, and every wise man of the north
should see it, that the great principle
they are fighting for is the possession of
the loaves and fishes. The disgraceful
exhibit made by them when they came
into possession Of numerical majority
in the house of representatives is a fair
sample of what may De looked for here
after. They at once elected doorkeeper
"a southern man, as matter of course
but he, elated by his elevation, believed
himself to be "bigger man than old
Grant and his associates were worthy
of him. 1t will be nice country and
government, indeed, when the scourings
aud scrapings of the south stand in the
high places and direct the affairs of the