Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-07-04

conciliate the faction they had overthrown,
and they offered that faction the choice of
Vice President. Senator Conkling named
Arthur. The nomination was recognized
at the time as the most incongruous con.
ceivable. 1t was flung as frebrand into
the camp of the victors, in fact. Arthur
was machine politician of decidedly
small intellectual calibre, henchman of
Conkling, a manipulation Of caucuges, and
a packer of conventions. He represented
the most Objectionable elements in that
Grant column which had just been over.
thrown. The Republican party protested
against the arrangement, but it was too late.
The one consolation offered was that the
office of Vice-Presideut possessed no sig
nifcance, and that the administration
would be Garfield. With this
the party was fain to content
itself, though it felt that the
managers at Chicago had made conspic-
uous blunder in putting Arthur on the
ticket And now, when all the evil fore
bodings as to his course have been more
than fulfilled by his disgraceful lobbying
at Albany, the contingency which the pol
iticians thought too remote to be worth
a second thought. stares the country in the
face. President Garfield lies, struck down
by the hand of an assassin, on what may
be his death-bed, and if he dies Arthur
will be President Of the United States.
What that change means is unfortunately
but too clear. 1t means the utter aban-
donment Of every pretense of reform, the
ousting of every man friendly to Garfield
programme, the reconstruction of the adj
ministration upon the basis Of Grantism,
the reinstatement in Office OF men who a
week ago were dreading the penitentiary !;
and quite possibly the instalment of
Conkling himself in the Cabinet, as Secre-
tary of State. These who imagine that
the ex-senator possesses too much delicacy
to accept such position under the circum-
stances, must have made very poor use of
their opportunities OF observing his public
career. If there is any ore fact fully es-
tablished by his actions during the past
three months, it is the fact that
he possesses no sense OF delicacy whatever.
If Arthur becomes President, and offers
him seat in the Cabinet, he will take it,
sooner or later But whether he does SO or
not, it cannot be doubted that ne would
virtually control any administration Of
viii III Arthur was the nominal head We
do not regard these questions as merely
speculative. It is not possible to assume
that Arthur's character would change if he
were President. We had far too much
nonsensical talk of that kind about Grant,
when he went into civil Office, and the ex.
perience of his two terms ought to have
convinced the country that mems charac-
tiers after forty are not susceptible OF
radical alterations. We know what Ar.
thur has been and is, and therefore we
know what he will be- There is no room
for hope in that direction. AS President
he would undoubtedly develop all the
incapacities and all the vices which were
SO fully pointed out as belonging to him
at the time OF his nomination. He was
the weakest part of the Republican ticket,
and if Garfield dies the country will have
nothing but that weakest part to fall back
upon. The moral of this is obvious, but
unfortunately it is row incapable of being
applied to any useful purpose.