Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-02-17
FRIDAY MORNING. FEB. II. 1883.
THE SCRIl[MAGE OYER TIL e RE
PUBLICAN NOMINATION.


party come up every four years to be push
ed in harness for the Presidential race.
They have been up so regularly and so
often that they back into the shafts
with an accuracy Of position and con-
fidence, the growth of backing up many
a time before and being led back
by the national convention to the stable
to wait another four years. Mr.. Shermans
is case like this. One would think he
had been there often enough to now think
about giving some else a chance. How
many close shaves he has had When
Hayes of Ohio was nominated the voice
of Ohio was for Sherman, but her vote
went to expediency. When Garfield of
Ohio was nominated, the voice Of that
State was again for Sherman, but was
again given to expediency. The old man
has been used SO so often that it looks
very much as il it was just scheme to
use his name in holding the State deega-
ton together and batting the rural del
egates-long enough to put the vote where
it will do the most good. He has, too, had
He has held that convention-fxing lever
the Treasury Department, and we can all
remember what Sherman boom through
the far South was once spread by the heel
ers of that Department. But when its ten
der leaves that put forth in the genial
Southern cline, were once touched by the
chilling breeze of the North they wilted.
In different case is another boom, that
of Edmunds of Vermont frozen, icicle
sort of boom that puts up its head in the
New England States. lowers it before the
milder cline of the Middle States. and
melts out of sight when it gets South.
But there is boom which is warranted
to stand transportation to any cline and
to remain as fresh as when first made, if
kept securely corked-and that is the
is safe to say that if James G. Blaine
didn'5 beat himself every tine he comes
before the natio3, it would not be so
easy to beat him. His letters, his
speeches, and his interviews have a
boomerang quality about them that the
efforts of no other candidate seem
to have. They have kept him eternally
on the explanation bench and he is again
there to-day. When President Cleveland's
message reached Europe, where MIR. Blaine
has been for some time tourist, that gen.
tleman responded to it at once by mes
sage of his own. 1t Was for Protection so
tall that Its caves could hardly be reached
and 50 broad that nothing could escape
its pressure. He was more for protection
than protection is for itself, His organ,
the Y. Y. Tribune" pointed TO it as the
tissue made'' and the American SYSTEM
at last clearly defined against what is
called the british system. But an omi-
nous roar came out of the Northwest. The
Republicans of that section who, if they
could slip their party leash, would be tariff
Teformers after the Morrison pattern, pro-
tested that if this was the tissue made"
then Mr.. Blaine had gotten on the wrong
side Of the issue. The Chicago Tribune"
spoke out very plainly to that effect. Then
came the explanations of the \. Y. TIL
bune'-those monotonoas explanations
that are doomed to follow everything Mr.
Blaine ys or writes. But they haven't
done much good. in fact the Republicans
of the Northwest do not want any salts
factory explanations from Mr.. Blaine,
they would rather they would be unsatis-
factory because they don't want Mr..
Blaine himself. And so every day or SO,
we see that some prominent Repub-
lcan of the Northwest has just returned
from the East and is satisfied that it
would not be good policy to nominate Mr..
Blaine. So often reported is this, that it
seems clear that that geographical section
of the Republican party wants somebody
of its own-Mr. Allison of Iowa, perhaps
but on no account Mr.. Blaine. But in
rating MIR. Blaine's chances we must not
forget that while there is a very large body
of men in bis party which does not want
him, there is also very large body
that does-quite large enough and infuen-
tial enough to enable him to name the
nominee. Such, in all probability, will be
the outcome of his candidacy this year
and it becomes far more important to
know who Nh. Blaine would, next to him
self, like to see President, than to have
an accurate estimate of his own strength.
The Republican field in Virginia is, if
we mistake not all the signs of the past,
surveyed and staked out by William Ma
hone for John Sherman. Malone. by
some sort of instinct always manages to
in 70 ha
hated by the Virginia Democracy and
least likely to get any vote out of that
party. His idea seems to be that the more
a Presidential nominee is hated by the
Democracy, the 'stronger' he is. A
strange sort of reasoning for so old and
usually astute politician, but nevertheless
that seems to be the way he looks at it, AS
matter of fact, except among the colored
Republicans, Sherman is the weakest
Republican candidate who could have
been billed on the Virginia fences this
campaign. He is to Virginia eyes, cold,
relentless, implacable sort of political
product-a product that finds little SYM
pathy south of the Potomac. Blaine, at
least, is not to be described by these terms,
and before his Augusta speech, delivered
after his defeat in 1884, threatening the
South with loss of congressional represen-
tation, he had many friends in Virginia.
But, however Objectionable, We have little
doubt that the Virginia delegation to
Chicago will be secured for Sherman, and
as has been the fate of his Ohio delega-
tions heretofore-be probably given to
somebody else when it gets there.
The political atmosphere this Spring has
a faint scent of the stable door alar and
new horses to be in the field all around