Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-05-10
lanrastcr ttltelhQenrer.
WEpNEsDAY EVENING. lMAY 10. 1882
WOlfe'S Weakness.


Wolfe's Weakness.
The Republicansof Pennsylvania have
their ticket given to them to-day at Har-
risburg, and, thanks to the convenient
practice which surrenders the naming OF
it to the man who holds the United
States patronage in his hand, we know
in advance what it is to be. We are told
that since Senator Cameron has met the
delegates at Harrisburg he has surren-
dered part of his purpose and consents
that Mr.. Wolfe shall not 60 on the ticket;
because he finds that his followers will
have none of him. Cameron thought it
polite to nominate Wolfe, and no doubt
it would have been. 1t was so mani j.
festly to his advantage and to Wolfe's
disadvantage that it. has seemed quite
incredible that he could have induced
the latter to walk into the trap.
Concurrent reports, however, are all
TO the effect that Wolfe was willing
to take the lieutenant gOvernorship, and
was even anxious for the place. If SO,
he is a much smaller man than he has
been esteemed. He occupied strong
position in an independent movement
which he loses and becomes as nothing
by going into tile Cameron camp. lie
would have surrendered his leadership
for the honorable but comparatively in
conspicuous and unimpOrtant lieutenant
governorship. Surely he would have
sold out cheap but now that he does not
gain the bauble that he reached for, he
takes nothing by his desertion of the In
dependent cause. lie sits down between
two stools. His old followers refuse I"
follow him and his new friends decline
to receive him. If it be really true, as
all accounts say, that Wolfe has been
thus coquetting with Cameron, he can
not again command the confidence of
the independents. They have no use
for men of his mould. His whole stock
in trade has been the public admiration
for his intrepiiity and boldness, and the
faith in his honesty and inilexible ad-
herence to his convictions. A man who
starts out with a denunciation of ma
chine politics and makes that the foun.
datiOn of his opposition to regular Repub.
lican nominations, and who in one yeal
afterwards is seen seeking such nomina,
tiOn at the hands of the machine leaders,
certainly ceases at once to pose as All
apostle of Reform and the arch enemy
of political rings.
No wonder that Senator Cameron was
anxious to buy Wolfe with an innocent
Office. 1t would have been SO clear /,
demonstration to the people of the hol
lowness of the professions in favor OF
pure and democratic politics on the part
of the Independent Republicans who
have been shrieking SO wildly and sc
long against the Cameron machine. He
would have shown that they shrieked
only because they were out and wanted
to get in. Here" Cameron says SEE
this man Wolfe, the very boldest and
loudest and most uncomprOmising of the
howlers against the machine the MAI
whose pure political soul SO revolted
against ring rule that he raised his ban
ner of reform a year ago against the
regular Republican candidate, against
whom he made no objection but that
had named him. See this patriot now
accepting q nomination to office at my
hands and Geserting his friends TO be
my follower. See the material of which
you independents and you Reformers are
made. AS l have bought this, the
chiefest Of them, SO can buy anyone
else in the crowd.'
Doubtless in so saying he would do III
justice to many reform Republicans who
are honest, sincere and unpurchasablc
but who can tell surely who such mel
are when this man Wolfe, so fully
trusted, has SO easily been seduced ? Tht
tendency of Wolfe's desertion will he tC
make the people suspicious of thu
prophets of reform, to cause them t.
distrust their professions, and generally
to disgust them with the cause. In thi.
NlcW III Wdo NlOc Ill SdAlcIOu W Wall
Wolfe on the ticket and stupid in hi!
followers to object to the dose 4; especial!
when they could SO easily have slain hin
by failing to vote for him, after nomi
mating him as most likely was the pur
pose of Cameron i'm putting him on th'
ticket.
1t is hard to believe that Wolfe ha
been so silly us to get himself into TIN
position assigned him by public report
and difficult to see how he is going tt
restore his ruffled feathers us reform
leader after having had his coat cut 81
sadly in the Cameron camp. 1t looks a!
though he would have to 60 out of pOliti
cal business altogether and this mucl
of value has come to Cameron in hi
dicker, that he has disarmed most pesti
lent fellow.
The Logic OF the Law.
Mr.. Reed argued before the supreme
court that Guiteau could not be held fo
the murder of Garfield because his vic
tim had not died in the county i'm wbicl