The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-09-05
The Old Ticket.s

In the purely speculative season of
politics, like the present, when the chief
object seems to be avoidance of discus
sion of real questions of policy, sur
misses about probable candidates are
natural. 1t is to this situation that we
owe the talk about the sold Demo
cratic ticket" There are papers which
insist that Mr.. Tilden is craftily schem-
ing to secure the nomination, and
others which declare that he would be
the strongest candidate. There are
others which impatiently assert that
under no circumstances would Mr. Til
den accept the nomination, although
they hold him to be by far the fittest
man in the country for the Presidency
These asseverations accompany the tales
of his extraordinary physical vigor and
marvellous health, and supply amusing
reading in the dull season. But that
Mr.. Tilden would be the strongest cam
didate for his party is improbable. The
theory of his strength springs from the
conviction that he is supposed to have
been elected in 1876, that he was un-
justly deprived of the Office, and that
the country will prove that it thinks
him to have been elected in 1876 by
electing him in 1884.
This is not only altogether too senti-
mental view, even if its premises were
correct, but it is based upon misappre-
hension. 1t is undoubtedly the Demo
cratic opinion that Mr.. Tilden was
elected. But the better and more gen.
eral opinion is that it can not be proved,
and that the dangerous question was
very happily settled by the Commits
sion. What is called the popular ma
iority is of no importance. The Presi-
dent Is not elected by a popular but by
an Electoral majority, and the un-
doubted Democratic intimidation and
false count in many States threw q fatal
doubt upon the result, and the persist
ent assertion of the unquestionable and
make general conviction. 1t would
be unfortunate for the Democratic party
to suppose that the American people
| would elect q President to Z" condone"
such very problematical wrong" as
| this. There is really no feeling Of this
kind which could aid the candidacy of
Mr.. Tilden in 1884. That would de-
pend for success upon q situation much
more unfavorable to him than that of
1876. There was then very great impa-
| tience and dissatisfaction with the Re-
publican Administration. The Whisky
Ring prosecutions, the Belknap trouble,
the ascendency of certain distrusted
leaders, were some of the causes which
had produced great discomfort within
the Republican party and among inde-
| pendent voters. In such q situation the
nomination of Mr.. Tilden was fortu-
nate stroke for the Democratic party.
He was wholly unknown to the country
until he was elected Governor of New
York, and began his movement against
the Canal Ring. This stamped him as
a reformer at the very time that reform
was especially desired, and made him
seem to be the man for the hour.
Mr.. Tilden is an experienced polite
ian, and he shrewdly held the campaign
strictly to the line of reform. The ac-
ceptance of Mr.. Adams of the Demo
cratic nomination in Massachusetts,
swelled the cry, and favored the asser-
ton that Democratic success really
meant a kind of independent political
regeneration. The circumstances were
turned skillfully to account. 1t was a
clever game, but it failed; and it can
not be played again under changed cir
cumstances. The campaign of 1876
placed Mr.. Tilden in some other lights
before the country than that of a re-
former. His strong Copperhead sym
| pathies during the war; his silence un-
der the Tweed ascendency in his party;
the general impression of a want of pa
| triotism in regard to his income tax;
his personal management of the cam
| paign, and the disclosure of the char
acter of his agents in the business of the
cipher dispatches-all these things are
much more familiar to the public mind
than any claim of reform that could be
made for him; and in the absence of
any personal enthusiasm for him, and
with the changed public sentiment
in regard to the Republican party. and
the absolute public incredulity of Dem
ocratic reform, these would be most
serious distractions in his canvass. No
close observer can doubt that as Pres
idential candidate in 1884 Mr.. Tillen
was very seriously damaged by the
campaign of 1876. If he could be pre-
sented to the country next year with the
same freshness and with the same ig-
norance of him in the public mind as in
'76, his chances would be more promis-
| ing.-Rdrper's WeeklU.