Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1884-07-03
Butler as u Candidate.


1t is hardly worth while specializing, as
some of our contemporaries have taken TO
doing, upon what would happen if Gen.
Butler should be nominated by the Demo
cratic Convention. That is one blunder
which the Democrats are not likely to COM
nit. The votes of the South might possibly
be cast in favor of Butler at the polls, but
they would certainly be cast soldly against
him in the convention. 1t is not by any
means certain that they would be cast for
him at the polls A third party would arise
almost spontaneously in the event of such
q nomination, and there is no Southern
Democrat of any political or social standing
who would not feel bound to support the
candidates of that party as against Butler
and Blaine. Bntler is more odiouS to the
South, for various reasons, GOOD and bad,
than any other man in the North.
Nevertheless, Butler may become tector
in the canvass by reason of the position
which he has already acquired as the can
lidate of the Adullamites. If he were to
make vigorous canvass for the support of
the Greenbackers and the silver men and
the labor retOrmerS and the Socialists, there
is no reason to suppose that the Electoral
vote of single State would be cast for him.
But there is reason to suppose that IN seve-
raj States he might draw of enough votes
rom one side or the other to affect the
result. The peculiarly of the campaign in
hat case would be that in some States But
ler's canvass would be managed under the
auspices of the Republican managers and
in others of the Democratic managers. In
Maine, for example, he would draw from
the Republican vote, and in Massachusetts,
and in the Middle States generally from the
Democratic vote, while in those parts of the
Northwest where many people still cherish
the belief that a man who lends another
dollar is "ShylOck," he would draw from
the Republicans again. What the net result
would be nobody can foretell For that rea-
son it would be very hazardous for the ma
tional managers of either party to give aid
and comfort to the Adullamite ticket They
could not do so without fearful conscious
ness that they were handling dynamite
which wasIiablc to explode in unexpected
directions.
1t would no doubt rejoice Butler to in
spire this terror as extensively as possible
There is nothing that he enjoys more than
to be regarded as parcel Of political dyna-
mite. At the same time the ScandalOuS
veteran is not the sort Of person who car
riPs on warfare at his own cost, and the
Adullamites are not flush enough of money
TO make very vigorous canvass for him
He can at any time fulfill his mission Of
putting respectable people in state Of irri
iation and depriving them of their natural
rest by simply announcing his intention Of
running for Governor of Massachusetts
Moreover, the respectable persons who are
his personal enemies, and whom he lives to
infuriate, would be more infatuated by the
prospect ofhis becoming Governor of Massa-
chusetts than by his candidacy for the
Presidency which he had not the slightest
chance of attaining 1t is therefore as un.
likely that, as a third candidate, his can
yass will be energetically made as it is i'm
possible that he should be the Democratic
candidate.