Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-05-24
He Proposes to Become a Political
Pirate.

Inc O0arQ tnen adjourned.
-%.-o-~4
He Proposes to Become a Political
Pirate.
Chicago Tribune.
Mr.. Conkling has committed political
suicide. He is politically damned in the
opinion of ninety nine out of every hun
dred honorable men. On his act of resig-
nation the people have already rendered
verdict of condemnation. They say
Guilty guilty of attempted usurpation; !;
guilty of willful and outrageous misrep
resentation of the President; guilty of
a conspiracy to rule or ruin the Re-
publican party; guilty of treacheryl'
There is no political resurrection for
the man thus fallen. In his brain passion
has usurped the place of reason; he has
mistaken his impetuous will for the
Constitution and his personal desires for
the laws. By this fatal error, the pro-
duct of overweening vanity on his part,
and of matchless servility on the Fart
of his sycophantic followers, Mr.. Conk-
ling has openly defed his party aud in.
suited his country. The motive of his
resignation is no longer a secret. E.
boldly announces that the act was d
trick to secure the vantage-ground Of
re election in order to assail the
President - the chosen leader OF
the Republican party. He claims to cor
troll the Legislature of the State of New
York. He exhibits to his friends a list
of members who he declares will vote to
recommission him as the bitter and un-
compromising enemy of the Republican
administration of the government, vote
to recommission him as an "inde-
pendent anti-administration Senatorl"
He declares openly that he has
appealed to the Republican Legisla.
ture for a re election, which will ''author-
ize him to fight the administration
to the end of its term, and to strike it a
blow whenever he can get chance" He
declares his intention to be ''to make
war upon the administration from the
date of his reelection" He counts on
the Democratic majority in the Senate,
created by his act, for continuance Of
that body in session until his assumed
reelection to give him an opportunity
ito open his aggressive war against the
President" He openly denounces the
President as guilty of treachery" to.
ward Republicans, and he declares that
the next Republican Convention will
nominate Grant or some other man like
him.
We venture the prediction that Mr..
Conkling cannot go back to the United
States Senate on these terms We ven
ture to hope that the Republican Legis-
lature of New York is not SO bankrupt
OF self respect, not SO utterly bereft of
patriotism, not so blind to the just
claims of party allegiance, as to place in
the hands of an enraged and recreant
ex Senator club with which to maui
to death the Republican party, in whose
name he seeks the power to assassl-
nate it. The almost universal as
sumption on the part of those
who denOunce ex-senator Conkling's
act that he has the power to secure re-
election, provokes astonishment, because
it assumes the utter degradation of the
Republican Legislature of great State.
Those who indulge this assumption can.
not have properly considered Mr.. Conk-
ling's avowed attitude of hostility to the
Republican party.
Ex,Senator Conkling does not seek re-
election as a Republican. He asks the
Legislature of New York to commission
him "as an independent anti-adminis-
tion Senator" The term is a misnomer.
The phrase administration" de-
stroys the force of the word "indepen-
dent" Mr.. Conkling, if reelected, is to
be returned not as an Independent,
but as the uncompromising foe. of the
Republican administration, with
authority" in his own language, ITO
strike it blow wherever he can get
chance" To presume that the Re
publican Legislature of New York will
so stultify itself as to re elect Mr. Conk-
ling after the loud avowal of his
purpose to ruin the Republican admins
tration of the affairs of the country, is to
assume that it is ambitious to achieve
infamy. Such presumption is violent
in the extreme, and not to be INDUCED
against any large body of representative
men. Besides admitting that Mr.. Conk.
ling may be as arrogant in the issuance
of orders as ever, it must be borne in
mind that he has no Federal patronage
to offer; nor is 1t likely that he will have
any during President Garfield's term, in
any event, whether he succeeds or fails.
A new election of Mr. Conkling by a
Legislature which has unanimously ap-
proved the act of the President in nomi.
mating Mr. Robertson can have no moral
force whatever either with the Senate
of the United States or the Presi-
dent. Such a thimble-rigging trick
only adds to the insult Mr..
Conkling has attempted to put upon the
President. 1t follows that Mr.. Conkling
has nothing to give in the way of patron,
age, and nothing to promise for four
years to come to induce Republican
members of the Legislature to commits
sion him as pirate who threatens to fiy
the black flag and murder the crews and
sink the ships Of a Republican admins.
tration.
1t is in vain that the careful observer
looks for any evidence of principle as
having been the motive of Dir. Conk-
ling's resignation. No question of
party policy moved him; no obligations
OF honor as statesman provoked the
step. In the long letter of the retiring
Senator to the Governor of New York
there is not hint Of anything above an
ungratifed desire for spoils and
a malignant hate of personal in.
dependence in politics in the EN-
pire State. MIR. Conkling has long
been Impressed with the conviction that
the State OF New York is the country, and
that he is the State of New York. 1t is
maxim among business men that when
an employe deems himself indispensable
to his employer it is time to dispense
with his services. This maxim applies
with equal force to politicians and po-
litical parties 1t is not always easy for
leaders to find party strong enough to
enforce their views. but parties are never
in want of timber for leadership. Mr..
Conkling is an illustration of this fact.
In his late contest with the President he
lacked the necessary party strength in
his following to enforce his views. Fail
ing to conquer within the Republican
party ranks. he throws up his commits
sion as Republican leader, and appeals
to the Republican Legislature of New
York to recommission him as pirate
with authority to blow up or sink the
Republican party gunboats. 1t is a novel
proceeding in politics. There is no par
allel to it 10 the political history of this
country. We shall see how 1t prospers.
GENUINE ICE COLD