Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-12
William Walter Phelps Confident
That the Chicago Nominees
Will be Elected.
They Were the judicial Selection OF
the Convention as the Strong
est Possible Ticket.
Reasons for the Rejection Of Other
Candidates-High Praise for
Harrison and Morton.
Mr.. PHELPS VIEWS.

Mr.. PHELPS VIEWS.
WASHINGTON. - Congressman William
Walter Phelps, returned last night from
Chicago, expressed himself as well salts
fed with the conventions work. 81 sus-
pect it seemed little. tedious to those
outside" he said, shut I assure you it
was busy time on the inside. The con-
yention was vast hive, and It's delegates
were swarming night and day in the eff
fort to exchange and unity their senti-
ments. You see, it was not like other
conventions. They went out to select a
candidate and that is harder work than
merely to accept and declare ono. The
people did not know what candidates
they wanted; and how could the delegates?
They had to learn; and it takes time to
learn. The eight hundred delegates
came with honest views, but all shaded
with local coloring; so they went to work
to get clear view. There were several
noticeable steps Ia the process. The
convention, which was composed largely
of Mr.. Blaine's friends, had first to CON
vince itself that it would not do to nomi-
nate Blaine against his will. There we're
men who wanted to nominate him at any
cost, and there were men who wanted TO
nominate him only when it could be done
without harm to his honor and without
danger to Republican success at the
polls. Their differences were practically
compromised by the recognition of the
fact that it would not do to nominate Mr..
Blaine until his friendly rivals, whom he
had in the contest were
READY TO UNITE
in asking him 10 take the nomination.
That was probable contingency, but as
a fact it never came. It required, first
of all, The assent of Senator ShermaE, but
this he was not expected to give, and he
ought not to have given, as his vote was
the highest in the poll, and fell to second
on the moment that General Harrison was
nominated. The next duty was 10 dis
cover if the paramount and solid quail
ties of Mr.. Depew, making him the ideal
candidate, and in that regard the only
rival of MIR. Blaine. were strong enough
IN the granger States to overcome the
panic which strikes all the Western poll
ticians at the mention of a railway or
railway official. Opinions of the most
sagacious politicians differed as to the
conventions duty in this case. All such
recognized the existence and the impor-
lance of the grangers' prejudice, but
well to brave it with candidate of such
exceptional merit, whose personal popu
larity would bring to the Republican col
lege the thirty-six electoral votes of
New York, this was question which only
the united wisdom of the convention
could decide. The convention decided
it, and decided it on the side of prudence.
It risked no certain States in the effort,
however gallant and exciting, to capture
a doubtful one. When these questions
were settled there was still left the task
of discovering which of the many remain
ing candidates was the best. In deciding
the superiority, where all were good-fit-
ting in character and capacity to fill the
position, the only question was which
could get the most votes. This, too, re-
quired time, many interviews, and much
discussion.
THE ALLISON DEL GATEs.
had to learn that there were preiudices
against their candidate which affected
his merits as a vote getter. The politi-
clans of the convention land it was
convention made up exclusively of men
who had acquired political knowledge by
experience) insisted that State was the
best Judge of the political strength of its
relative strength between two of her sons,
Indiana, who knew them best, should
have them right to decide the question.
Then, too, the earnest advocacy of Judge
Gresham's claims by mugwump journals,
which had no intention to support his
candidacy at the polls, was generally
Recognized as ersignal not to be
disregarded, and they who found pecu-
liar attraction in the lofty character and
splendid record of Judge Gresham and
were willing to disregard these mere
sentimental objections, were checked by
the admission on his own part that he
had once been a Know-nothing. TIE
foreign vote in New York and New Jersey,
upon hearing that fact, would never wait
or listen to any excuse-that he was
young; that his connection was a tenn
porary one, and that he Indignantly
sundered it as soon as he learned of its
cruel prescription. There was still left
Sherman, and AllisG Alger and Harri-
son. The defeat of Senator Sherman
was practically settled by the almost
unanimous declaration of New York's
delegation, that this great leader, ad
nittsdly the best equipped of all candi
dates, and the one whose long and valued
services best entitled him the nomina-
ton.
COULD NOT CARRY THAT STATE.
From the beginning there had been
recognition of the fact that the four
doubtful States were, in case of anything
like unanimity to direct the action of the
convention, and among these four States
the influence of New York was of course
paramount. Even admitting that New
-, r. hot
ator Sherman's was the weakest vote given
in that State, yet at one iuncture it was
the .ction of New York that made the
nomination of Sherman seem an immedi-
ate certainty. Mr.. Phelps here remarked
that the New York delegation resolved in
a contingency to support Mr.. Sherman
rather than TO take up some new man.
The convention leaned longer and more
heavily on Alger than the ballots indicat-
ed. A soldier, business man, an ex-Gov-
sernor of great popularity, of q generosity
well known before his political ambition,
and with hosts of personal friends in and
about the convention-had Michigan
been a doubtful State. or even without
that, had his graceful friends been more
retioect in exploiting his kind effort in
direct connection with the convention
and its necessary expenditures, he might
uave secured the nomination. So, too,
Allison was more thought of than the
votes indicated, but through all the dis
acussing there had grown and strength
rsned the belief that the candidate must
come from
A DOUBTFUL STATE.
Even jealous Henderson could not claim
that Iowa was in doubt, but what really
destroyed the hope of Mr.. Alllson's
friends WAS the conviction that since