Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-06-17
The MalcOntents.

The harmonious howl of opposition that
greets the recent action of the Republican
Convention, from many of the leading or
gans of that party, is source of surprise,
we should imagine, to the country at large.
The New York Times, in an article
blending pathetic wall over the party s
present Generalization with naughty and
eloquent enumeration of its past glores
and patriotic achievements, asserts at It's
close, that all that is needed to furnish It's
party now with the capstone Of defeat is for
the Democrats to retain, good sense and
presence of mind enough under their gooo
fortune to make prudent nomination, and
on the 4th Of March next the greatest party
that the nation has ever known will be re-
tired to the shades Of defeat to ponder over
its past errors, and purge and purify ltseil
for the time when it will be revoked to car
ry out the grand destiny, which, according
to. this exponent of its history and prlncl-
pies, it has as yet unfultilled.
A spasm of exalted and etherealized po-
litical virtue, far beyond anything in that
line known to the Republican organization,
seems to have seized upon these journals
with simultaneous violence that must almost
stagger the self possession of the sore-heads
themselves. Blaine and Logan may be,
and no doubt are, about as far below the
elevated plane of craftsmanship, and az
far removed from that ideal conception O.
what the heads of the Republic ought t.
be, as it is possible for two candidates to-
that exalted position to fall, yet the mas
of the American people will stand in rea
sonable and pardonable surprise at the VIZ.
faces made by these organs and their evi
dences Of outraged virtue, when it recall
the past leaders of its organization tina
they have accepted, and who were no viii
better in any particular, and in some ele
ments of fitness were infinitely inferior t.
those whom the Chicago Convention ha
elevated, with a remarkable unanimity o
choice, to its leadership.
A journal that slept. IN happy blindnes
to the gross corruptions and shameless pecu
lations of Grants eight years; that opene'
not its mouth against the infamy of Hayes
induction to an office that was not his; tina
could not see any weakness in poor Gar
field, whose hypocrisies and small deed
were merely shut out from view by tn
tragic and terrible manner of his taking of
for a journal that so quietly and philosoph
ically tolerated the shortcomings of thes
products Of the great party, to suddenl
lash itself into such tempest of outrage
patriotism and grieved disappointment owe
midst, is matter of the most unqualifie
surprise to the unprecedented outsider, an
calculated to make him feel that the reger
GRAFTON is too quick, to be consistent, an,
too violent to be permanent We hav
known symptoms like these to NANTES
themselves before in the ranks of this sam
party, and yet by the time the Democrat
had named the opposition, the tumult c
dissatisfaction had faded into the meres
ripple, and long before the day of election
the vast army was marching with I'LL
broken step towards the mass of spoils tina
lay behind the victory, and the unwelcom
} proudly in the van-seemed t
} shed all the vices and stains tina
marred his fitness, as the cobra sheds hi
last years envelope with the advent {
Spring.