The Red Cloud chief., 1884-03-14

Inc fafty OF WISDOM ana ffuooncob
The idea is being industriously urged
by certain newspapers and politicians
with the best intentions in the world
we are bound to believe-that q 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. that it is
worth while to analyze the notion a lit
tie. and see what it really amounts to.
Is there any sound and practical rea
sOn why u man from one section of the
country should be preferred to a man
from another section as the nominee of
a great party for the first Office in the
land? Can a single plausible argument
be urged. even from q strict partisan
point of view, in favor of ordering the
course of the National Convention &C
cording to 3 theory which would either
favor or disparage q particular man as
a candidate because Of his place of res
idence? 1t seems to us that there can
be but n answer, and that is that all
such talk is absurd, ill-timed and I'M
justitiable.
In the first place. the record and the
philosophy of the Republican party are
distinctly unsectiOnal. Republican doc
trines and policies are not for N 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-
tons of a merely geographical descrip-
ton, 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
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 1856 be-
he was a Western rather than an
Eastern man. His services as q 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 q Western man, but
in spite of that fact, strictly speaking;
for in the first instance, ut 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 lone 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 tho 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-
neeticut 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 to
use his power or his prerogatives. to
further the interests of n locality at
the expense of or in preference to those
of another locality. A President who
should manifest . disposition of that
kind would be a recreant and a simple
ton. BY the same token, no candidate
for the Presidency would dare declares
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
as q Residential quantityp More
especially, it strikes us, should West
ern aspirants refrain from the use of
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 far
for President by the Repub-
lican party has CHANGED to have his
home in the West.
The part of wisdom and prudence, of
duty and common sense. is to select for
n candidate the ablest, ~cleanest, strong
est, most available man that can be
let him live where he may. 1t is
great deal more important to choose
standard-bearer whose name and char
acter shall guarantee his fitness for the
position and inspire general confidence
the party's integrity of principle and
purpose than it is to make sure that he
belongs to q given section or has grown
up amid certain social and industrial
If Vermont or New York,
Illinois OF Iowa, Colorado or Oregon.
has that man. then he should be put in
the field and worked for zealously and
determinedly, without a care a. &c what
particular corner of the common coun-
it has pleased him to honor with
his residence. That is the Ia in
which Republican candidates have
been chosen and elected heretofore,
and that is the course which should be
pursued this year. The nomination of
} President is much too serious q matter
10 be determined by appeals to sectional
pride or prejudice; and any man who
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