Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1883-07-20

the following letter to his paper. the
Cincinnati Enquirer:
The question of questions this sum
mer is the democratic presidential
candidate. The republican party has
SO many discouragements that It's
candidate is a secondary thing. As
in 1876, when the
HOSTILITY To GRANTS ADMINISTRATION
in the republican party and the long
stagnation rendered it probable in
conjunction with the recovery of lhe
south by the white people that a
democrat would easily be elected, the
present struggle for the nomination is
spirited and worth attention.
Long habits of putting myself out
of political organizations, and trying
to determine the facts at any given
moment, are my excuses to-day for
studying the democratic field Ny
ideas are, of course, prompt and in
stlnctive, and have not been very
carefully considered. Such as they
are, however, at the present moment.
though they might change in another
fortnight, you shall have them. | see
just three candidates i'll the front list
of democrats, and they are
MCDONALD, TILDEN AND GEN. BUTLER.
All other persons incidentally con-
sidered for the presidency stand in the
second and third groups, subsidiary
or antagonistic to the above three.
Mcdonald is the only candidate at
this moment who has an organization
which means votes His prominence
has become the focalizing necessity
around the other two candidates. 1t
is his prominence which is annoying
Mr.. Hendricks so much and driving
Hendricks into Tilden's camp again
willing now to be the second person
on the old ticket, whereas three years
ago Hendricks was going about pooh
pooling Tilden and saying that the
old ticket was an absurdity, that he
would no more be president than
he would run again for governor of
Indiana. Hendricks involuntary as
sent to become the second man on the
ticket beside Tilden has resuscitated
Tilden and brought him forward as
the great silent, saddened injured
statesman of the party.
Tilden had no desire to run for
president under the circumstances
when he solicited the nomination in
1876. He was then put up as rich
man, the governor of state, an act
i've and fresh quantity, to be made the
principal contributor to his own cleo
ton, to be consulted by everybody.
He now wishes to run merely as the
type of the injured, of the submitting
patriot, who could lose the greatest
office in the world rather than break
the laws of this country.
THE SPEAKERSHIP CONTEST
may, to some extent, assist Mcdonald
in the South, as he and Carlisle stand
on substantially the same tariff plat
form as opposed to Mr. Randall, who
has all along been Tilden's unwaver-
ing friend. Ny own idea is that Til
den has been the victim of his fero-
cious republican friends ever since he
lost the presidency. The attacks
made in the New York Sun on slavery
and the Confederate element after
Hayes was counted in were probably
not of Mr. Tilden's suggestion. but
merely arose from a desire to step
into the place of the national dema-
cratic organ.
| have now considered two of the
men named as in the front rank OF
the democratic presidential quantities.
| now mention
GENERAL BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.
as the third because of the revival OF
the old hostility to Tilden III New
York State
Butler is the only independent
quantity in the democratic party.
His record as democrat for nearly
twenty-five years is without a flaw.
He supported the measures of demo
cratic administrations; he voted for
Jefferson Davis as the democratic
nominee at Charleston. He returned
slaves to their owners in Maryland.
Not till the logic of war convinced
/ him that it was useless to fight the
south without neutraliZing the con
traband slave population did he be
come republican, and then he led the
force element of the republican party
not only to the close of the war,
but through the period of our recon
struction, opposing johnson for trim.
ming toward the south and slavery
and prosecuting him under the i'm
parchment articles. Buffers views on
slavery are now the views of nearly
all democrats. There is hardly pub
lie man IN the south who wants to see
slavery restored, and large percent
age of the leading men in the south
have applauded the persistence with
which the war was waged to the ex-
termination of slavery by men like
Butler. The literature of the world
ever since the war has forestalled any
reconsideration of the slavery ques
ton.
After the republican party
BECAME A REsPECTER OF PERSONS
and treated the politicians of its own
stripe with ingratitude and hostility,
Butler considered that the rules oi
the game were violated, and he step
ped back into the party he originated
with. For personal force and adroit-
ness he has no match among the dem
ocratic leaders of the present day,
and comes nearer the standard
of Andrew jackson than
am democrat we have.
After he reached the Office for which
he ran as the Breckenridge candidate
in 1860 he was fortunate enough to OBJ
tain the uncharitable treatment of the
educated class, and when they refused
him his degree at Harvard, a degree
they had invariably given TO governors
of Massachusetts,, he not only recover
ed lost ground, but be split the educat-
ed class itself, a portion of which
would not indorse the bigo$ry that
had insulted governor of the state
in order to reach General Butler. This
has been 50 thoroughly felt In Massa.
chusetts that it has produced tempo
rary cessation of hostility TO Butler,
his enemies fearing 10 take the often
sive lest he should outmaneuver them
every time.
Butler Is about sixty-four years of
age, and has no later chance at the
presidency than In 1854 His life has
been stormy one, and his independ-
ent positions have gained him the