Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-06-11

proves. with its heartiest enthusiasm The
Tribune applauds the work Of the Chicago
Convention. With whatever power 1t
possesses it will commend that work to
the people, and labor increasingly for
triumphant ratification at the polls.
Greater work in purifying and eman-
cipating politics it has never fallen to the
lot Of any Convention to achieve. State
Rings and State Bosses, having policy
to enforce against the will Of the party.
have received death-blow. That unre-
publican contrivance through which alone
they maintained themselves, the despotlc
i unit rule, is broken. The true organiza-
ton of National Conventions is henceforth
made compulsory. No man can hereafter
stand between the delegate and his con-
stituents. No body of men can make the
Misrepresentation OF his constituents the
price of the delegates credentials. What
the republicans of each Congressional Dis
| trict in the United States really want that
the National Convention will honestly
show. And nominations will once more
express the actual wishes of the party,
not the trades and compromises among a
half-dozen rival chiefs of State machines.
Above all, the unwritten law of the
Republic is maintained. Not for CEN
fury can another successful soldier ask Tor
third term. We mean no reflection up
on the great general whom, throughout
this whole contest we have always en-
deavored to treat with the admiring re-
spect due his noble service and exalted
career We mean no reflections upon the
thousands of republicans, good and true,
who longed to follow once more his lead
ership. But we do say that it is the set
tied judgment of the republican party
and of the American people that protract-
ed terms of service in our highest office
are not in harmony with the spirit of our
institutions. Not even the dazzling fame
of Appomattox could blind our people to
the lessons Of every experiment in free
government the world has seen. What
sufficed for Washington must suffice for
the greatest of his successors, at least for
this generation and the next. Since the
abolition of slavery and the resumption
of specie payments we have added no
greater safeguards for the perpetuity and
the purity of our Government of the peo-
pie, for the people, by the people.
First of all, to James g. Blaine and
John Sherman thanks for the happy issue.
They made the fight, and made it in the
face of alarming odds. Each has shown
from the outset II disposition to place the
success of the movement above any ques-
ton of merely personal advantage, and
each took large risks. To both the re-
publican party and the country owe a debt
of gratituc that should never be forgotten.
The failure of each to reach the highest
goal of American ambition will provoke
wide disappointment. And there will be
peculiar regret at this second check to the
great commoner of Maine, who is, beyond
y question. the most popular of living
American statesmen. 1t is the Old and
bitter experience. They sowed. another
reaps. Yet they have the satisfaction of
feeling. the one that he made the nomina-
ton, the other that his State secured it
while the party can take equal satisfac-
ton in remembering that Sherman is
saved to the Treasury, and that nominal
ton Of Mr.. Blaine has not excluded from
the stump the most successful of all cam
paign orators.
There is a higher satisfaction. After all.
under existing circumstances the conven-
ton has given us the best possible candi-
date. He alienates nobody. He arouses
no jealousles. He has everybody's conf
dence. He will be stronger in Ohio than
any other man who was named, and Ohio
votes in October He will come into New
York in November with the prestige Of
the Ohio victory. rs well as with local aid
and will carry the Empire State.
The man whom we shall thus elect is
Of almost ideal fitness for the place
James A. Garfield is magnificent pro.
duct of our institutions. Born poor, the
support of widowed mother. earning
with his own hands the means which car
ried him through one of the noted New
England colleges, he belongs to the very
best type of self-made men. A student
all his life. he is to-day. perhaps, the
most scholarly among our statesmen.
His career as soldier was without 9
flaw. and in his last great battle it wa:
we'll said of him that at the crisis. when LEFT
without orders. he rode toward the sound
of the enemy's cannon. As statesman
his record through the war and since is
n part Of the history of the country. The
Chicago Convention promptly recognized
him as its best counsellor and easily it,
first orator. He is even better fitted fol
the Presidency than for partisan leader
ship. since the judicial temper which ha.
sometimes hindered him in Congress i.
precisely what will best command tn,