The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-12
THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION FOR PRECEDENT.

The Republican Convention at Chicago have nom.
mated Abraham Lincoln OF Illinois for President of
the United States. q third.rate Western lawyer.
poorer than even poor Pierce. The result was
brought about by the intrigues of Horace Greeley and
old Blair OF Silver Spring, who. though they could
not obtain the nomination for Madame Bates. their
nrst love. yet prevented the success of the apostle OF
the higher law and got a man whom they can mould
to their personal purposes moro readily than Mr..
Seward.
The conduct Of the Republican party in this nom.
ination is Q remarkable indication of small intellect
growing smaller. They pass over Seward, Chase.
and Banks. who are statesmen and able men. and
they take up a fourth.rate lecturer. who cannot
speak good grammar. and who. to raise tho wind,
delivers his hackneyed, iliterate compositions at
5000 apiece. Our readers will recollect that this
peripatetic politician visited New York two or three
months ago on his financial tour. when, in return for
the most unmitigated trash. interlarded with coarse
and clumsy Jokes, no filled his empty pockets with
dollars coined out of Republican fanaticism. II. after
he becomes President Of the United States. the public
finances should fall. he can set out upon q lecturtng
mission through the country. taking Horace Greeley
along with him. and thus replenish a collapsed
treasury. II the people will not exchange their loose
dimes for the instruction or the pleasure derived
from his eloquence, they may be induced to part with
some of their cash in the cause OF patriotism, and
save the nation from bankruptcy-an event which is
very likely to happen, II the Republicans get hold Of
the nations purse.
The only thing for which Lincoln has been distin.
guished. besides his itinerant lecturlng, Is his defeat
by Douglas in his own State at a time when the ticket
OF the Republican party had 8 900 majority over the
Democracy in Illinois. In his anti.slavery opinions
he 10 the most ultra and revolutionary of all the can.
didates whose names were introduced at Chicago;
and In tho campaign in which he was beaten he gave
utterance to the most violent entiments and went
into the irrepressible conflict before Seward himself.
At such a nomination the Democrats have good rea-
son to rejoice. They have q clear road now before
them. and nothing can arrest their onward march
to victory II they are only true to them.
selves. Their stars are luckier to them than
they deserve. They have the game in their
hands II they will suppress their insane quar-.
rels. and unite upon q single candidate, be he Doug.
las or Dickinson or Lane. but not Guthrie. Hunter or
Breckinrdge. or any Southern man. The candidate
must be a man who will run well in the middle
States. and he must be taken without any platform
on his former record in regard to the South. There
is no need of any platform. The Republicans have
made the issue. and that must DO met. not by side
winds or distractions. but by q direct negative.
Their principles involve the dissolution OF the
Union. Their policy is to overthrow the institu.
lions OF the South by force or fraud, by legislation
in violation OF the constitution. or, II necessary. by
fire and sword. In the face OF this formidable DO
sition. to split hairs about squatter or popular sover.
eighty in distant Territories. is like Nero nddlne
while Rome was burning. or the mariners In a gallant
ship disputing about her measurement or what ought
to be the form Of her rig while the vessel fast drifts
on a lee shore to the imminent peril of all on board.
II those who undertake to navigate the Democratic
party will abandon from this moment their senseless
Jargon. and set about working the ship as practical
men. they will weather the storm, and make their
destined port in safety. By the discontinue of
Seward at Chicago and the nomination of such a man
as Lincoln. even the State OF New York, with its
thirty'hve votes, is lost to Republicanism. and with
It the hopes that the party cherished, II the Democ.
racy know how to take advantage OF the biunder
that has been made and rally round a single banner,
inscribed with these words. United we stand, di.
vided we fall"