The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1884-03-19

T.
by certain newspapers and politicians
with the best Intentions I'm the world
we are bound to bolieve-that a West
ern man should by all means be select
ed as the Republican candidate for
President So much is heard from day
TO day to that effect, indeed, Chat it is
worth while to analyze the notion "a lit
tie, and see what il really amounts TO.
Is there any sound and practical rea-
son why % man from one section of the
country should be preferred to q man
from another section as tine nominee of
q great party for the first office in the
land? Can a single plausible argument
be urged, even from strict partisan
point of view, i'm favor of ordering the
course of the National Convention ac-
COrding to q theory which would either
favor or disparage a particular man as
q candidate because of his place of res
idenceP 1t seems to us that there can
be but one answer and that is that all
such talk is absurd, iu-timed and un-
iusliiable,
I'm the first place, the record and the
philosophy of the Republican party are
distinctly unsectional Republican doc
trines and policies are not for any one
class or locality, but for the whole peo-
pie and the entire country. The
strength and splendOr of the party's
character reside chiefly in the fact that
it has never sought to make discrimina-
tiOns of a merely geographical descrip-
tiOn, and has never recognized any dis
tinctions but those of patriotism and
justice. 1t is above all else a National
party-the party of one flag and of
equal rights and privileges. The plan
upon which it has always chosen its
standard-bearers has been the broad
and practical one of preferring the men
that seemed best adapted to win the
victories and advance the welfare and
I usefulness of the organization, without
any regard to where they happened to
live. Not one of the men nominated
for the Presidency on the Republican
ticken has been chosen on account of
his Identification with any given section
of the country, but solely for the rea-
son, in every case, that he appeared to
be the best man for the emergency.
/ 1t will not be claimed, surely, that
Fremont was nominated in 1886 be
/ cause he was a Western rather than an
Eastern man. His services as a from
tier explorer had helped to make him
prominent, to be sure, but they were
not such services as signalized him in q
political way, and it was the East more
than the West that brought about his
candidacy. Lincoln was not NOM
mated in 1860, nor again in 1864, on the
. ground that he was Western man, but
in spite of that fact, strictly speaking;
for in the first instance at least, there
were considerations properly to be
urged in behalf of an Eastern Candi-
date, as the situation then stood with
respect to party leaders. Grant was
chosen both times, as everybody under
stands, for reasons wholly apart from
the question of locality, and because he
had done more than any other man of
his time to preserve the unity of the
country and put down a sectional re-
belliOn against right and law and liber-
ty. Hayes and Garfield though both
from the West, were not selected on
that account particularly, but by virtue
of influences that would have been Just
as operative had they resided in Con-
necticut or New Jersey, instead Of
Ohio.
When each of these men was elected,
in turn, he became the President of all
the States, and Of every section of the
country, as any man must do who shall
be elected next November. Nobody
would expect or desire a President tC
use his power or his prerogatives, tC
further the interests of one locality al
the expense of or in preference to those
of another locality. A President who
should manifest a disposition of thai
kind would be a recreant and a simple.
ton. BY the same token, no candidate
for the Presidency would dare declare 9
purpose, if elected to administer the
Office as a Western man, or an Eastern
man. What sense can there be, then,
in making such an issue on the nOmi
nation? is it not obviously improper
and misChievous TO urge a consideration
of that sort either for or against any
man as a Presidential quantity? More
especially, it strikes us, should West
ern aspirants refrain from the use o.
such an argument, for if there be any
thing in it at all, it is manifestly on the
side of the East, since every man so fan
nominated for President by the Repub
licln party has chanced to have hi,
home in the West.
The part of wisdom and prudence, o
duty and common sense, is to select fO
q candidate the uJlcst, ClCanest, strong
est, most available man that can bD
found, let him live where he may. Ii i
a great deal more important to choos
a standard-bearerw whose name and char
acter shall guarantee his fitness for the
position and inspire general confidence
. in the party S integrity of principle ant
purpose than it is to make sure that h
belongs to a given section or has crow
: up amid certain social and industria
conditions Ii Vermont or New York
Illinois or Iowa, Colorado or Oregon
has that man, then he should he put il
/ the field and worked for ZealOusly ant
: determnedly, without q care as to wha
r particular corner of the common cOun
!, try it has pleased him to honor wit
his residence That is the manner il
which Republican candidates hav
been chosen and elected heretofore
and that is the course which should b
: pursued this year. The nomination O
=. a President is much too serious amatte
, to be determined by appeals to sectiona
/ pride or prejudice; and any man VIII
encourages or permits the raising @
such an issue in his interest is clearl
not the man that the occasion requires
All sections and all States are alike con
cerned in having a man placed in nomi
nation who win stand not for locality
7 but for the doctrines and objects of tn
. party, and for those personal capabil
/ ities and virtues which command re
spect and promote the party's chance
Of success. There are such men, bot