New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-07-15
YOOPHEEs BOOMS FOR HANCOCK.


| The gifted and sonorous Voorhees, seems to
| us to have made discovery which may lead
to great things. When the campaign of 1850
closed and the votes for President were
counted, several notable results were revealed.
but one of great moment was not disclosed till
| some time later. When the opportunity ar
| rived Mr.. Voorhees, announced that the election
| had changed him in the twinkling of an eye
| from free trade Democrat to protection
| Democrat. His convictions were not affected /;
indeed, we believe he made no mention of
| convictions in connection with his declaration
of a change of position. He declared himself
| to be henceforth in favor of protection because
| he believed that the Democratic party could
never succeed so long as it favored free trade.
| What Voorhees, was after was success and he
| reasoned that no genuine Democrat would per-
| nit himself to hold views which stood in the
| way of that 1t seemed to us at the time that
voorhees, had formed an entirely accurate esti-
| mate of Democratic character. In his zeal to
save his party he made the great mistake of
claiming that the Democratic party had always
opposed free trade, and attempted the impOs-
sible task CT reversing all the Democratic
platforms for half u century as suddenly as he
had reversed himself. He soon discovered the
folly of that course, and has recently been
devoting himself to an effort TO convince CUher
Democrats of their duty to follow his example.
He broke out in this direction in the Senate
on Thursday, and made the discovery to which
we have alluded. He was speaking of the
Democratic position on the tariff in the last
Presidential campaign and said &" Had the letter
"writteu by General Hancock in explanation
"of his views upon the tariff, in which he de-
cla1ed free trade to be folly, been written
three weeks earlier and circulated throughout
" Indiana Hancock would have been elected
President, and American history would have
been far differently recorded The discovery
lies in the revelation that wider circulation OF
IIancock's tariff views was all that was needed
to make his election sure. 10 Democratic
leader realized that i'll 1850. From the time
Hancock made his celebrated announcement
that tariff is Il local issue and one with which
the Government seldom cares to Interfere"
down to the close OF the campaign, unless our
memory is very defective all the efforts made
to circulate his remarkable views were con-
fined to Republicans. The Democrats were
as shy of taking hold of them as they would he
of embracing a lighted bomb. When the
campaign was over it was no uncommon thing
to hear a Democrat remark that if Hancock
ahad kept his mouth shut on the tariff we
"would have elected him." Some of them put
it a good deal more forcibly than that, and i'm
pregnated their observations with sulphurous
odor not at all calculated to be pleasing to the
unsuccessful candidate. Now comes Voorhees,
with the revelation that they were all wrong,
and that the victory was lost because the
Democratic leaders did not know good thing
when they saw it. We suspect he is right-or
near enough right to answer Republican pur
poses.
JAS we understand his remarks, he looks upon
General Hancock as the ideal candidate to
lead the reversed tartf-ior-revenue-on De-
mocracy in 1854. That has been our view for
some time, and We have made no concealment