Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-06-15
Stauntoll Spectator.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18th.
Republican Nominees.
BENJAMIN HARRISON FOR PRESIDENT,
AND WHITELAW REID FOR VICE
PRESIDENT.

brought to bear on the delegates, the
National Republican Convention at
Minneapolis defeated the ablest and
most popular man of the Republican
party for President and nominated
Benjamin Harrison for reelection as
President, and Whitelaw Reid, Editor
of the New York Tribune and late Min
lister to France, for election as Vice
President. Though President Harri-
son was reported few weeks since to
have said that he did not, want the
nomination if it would depend on the
vote of the delegates of the Southern
States that would not elect a single
Presidential elector, yet he got the
nomination by that vote and joyfully
accepted the result. The vote neces-
sary to nominate was 453. The vote
he received was 5354, of which 241 and
one-sixth were from the Southern
delegates, showing that without that
vote he received only 294 and one
twelfth. How the States which are
expected to elect Republican electors
will like this way of getting the nomi-
nation remains to be seen.
The Southern delegation was com
posed in great part of office-holders
and colored men, who could not be in
fluenced to vote for the popular idol of
the Republican party-the office
holders because they got their bread
and butter from the present admins
tration and did not want a change !;
and the colored delegates, because Har-
rison was warm advocate of the Force
bill and Blaine was not. These con-
sideratiOns bound them as with hooks
of steel to Harrison and effected his
nomination, in spite of the blandish-
ments and more material inducements
offered by the friends of the ''Plumed
Knight The bread and butter
brigade stood immovable as stone
wall, and they held in line, by the
hopes of the Force bill, the "colored
troops who fought nobly."
The platform on which Harrison was
elected had plank favoring civil
service reform, and in his letter of ac-
ceptance he not only endorsed it cor
daily, but said it should be further ex-
tended, and yet he is nominated by
office-holding delegates, which shows
how he enforces the principle of civil
service reform.
1t is not at all strange that nomina-
ton so made should be received with
GOODNESS and Indifference, and that nc
shouts of rejoicing are heard except
from the office-holders who expect to
retain their positions through another
term if Harrison should be elected. 1t
is not to be expected that those who
are out of office and want to get in will
labor very zealously for the success of
candidate who bars the doors against
their entrance. They will be apt to
say by their acts, if not by words, that
as the office-holders nominated him,
they will leave them the honor of
electing him.
of Harrison is more acceptable to the
Democrats than to large portion of
the Republicans. They do not believe
generally, though some do, that he is
the strongest man the Republicans
could have nominated, and believe that
he will be defeated if the Democrats
make judicious nomination next
week at Chicago, as it is hoped they
will do. The record of Harrison's adj
ministration will furnish a good sup
ply of campaign material which can
be used with good effect by the Demo
Gratis. The chief issues of the canvass
will be the Tariff and Force bill, and
these should make the South solid. In
the South the Force bill, like Aaron's
rod, will swallow up all the other is
sues. The fact that the Force bill was
so prominently brought forward and
SO earnestly advocated by both the
Temporary and the PermanentC Chair
men of the Republican Convention, as
well as by Reed and others, shows that
they do not expect any electoral votes
from the Southern States, but hope
by it to excite sectional prejudices to
the highest degree and thereby secure
the votes of Northern States that can
not be carried otherwise. They will
make the Force bill a more prominent
issue than the Tariff, if they can, in
the Eastern, Northern, and Western
States. They consider it the most
popular issue they can make in those
States. They will continue to wave
the ensanguined neither garment-com-
monty called the ''bloody shirt'-for
the purpose of rallying to their sup
port all whose sectional prejudices can
be thus aroused. They will rake up
the ashes and blow into flame, if pos
sible, the dying eInbers of sectional
strife, and thereby do great injury to
the country by preventing that har-
mony and good feeling which should
prevail between all the people of an
''indissoluble union of indestructible
States" That they should fail in their
purpose, should be the earnest prayer
of every good and patriotic citizen.
This is no time for third party in
the South, which, in our opinion, has
more to dread from a third party than
from its old enemy, the Republican
party. Wehope the third-party ticket
will receive no support in the South.
The Most Sectional Administration.
In recent article in new magazine
styled Republican" Hon. John S.
Wise, himself a Republican living now
in New York, says =