Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-04-05
GRANTIN O--BRYAN IN 1900.

10 INV StonlDH wv
weaker as the day of the convention
draws nearer. His strength-that is,
the strength that will avail him in the
convention-Eow lies mainly in tho
attachment to his fortunes of the new
leaders OF the Democratic party in the
National and State Committees, small
men OF no capacity to sustain them
selves. who would disappear beneath
the surface If successful appeal were
made to the rank and file of the party
to choose delegates opposed to the
nomination Of surely doomed candi-
date. These men are for Bryan not
only to assert and maintain their own
leadership, but because they are SIM
cerely attached to him and to his prin-
ciples. AS they constitute the party
organization, both national and local,
at least in most of the States, their
loyalty to Bryan gives him for the
present commanding advantage.
Evidences multiply that among the
masses of the Democracy, even in the
States that gave him cordial support in
1896, Bryan is no longer invincible.
If the appeal could be had directly to
the rank and file, uninfuenced by the
active electioneering of the Bryan
touters of the organizations, it IS ex-
tremely probable that majority of the
delegates would go to Kansas City with
open minds and not at all predisposed
to nominate the enc man whose defeat
is foregone conclusion. The popular
detection from Bryan is visible, wide-
spread, and due to perfectly WE'LL
understood causes. In this year Of very
paid of, or have been paid off, when
labor is employed at good wages, and
when cotton is almost 10 cents o pound,
no considerable class of the American
people any longer feels that it has need
of Mr.. Bryan's services or = Mr..
Bryan's principles. The times have
changed and he has not really changed
with them, but he has made awkward
efforts to change, which have served
merely as public exhibition of the
weakest side of his shifty character,
Those Democrats who are still to be.
counted among bis admirers are the
convinced 16 to men, and that some-
what numerous class OF the unthinking
who, with the soldiers reverence for
his general, yield to an imperishable
enthusiasm for candidate with whom
they have once made campaign, even
though 1T were to defeat. These ele-
ments of the Democratic party are not
its worthiest part. they are not the
majority part They ought not to
determine SO serious matter as the
choice of the party's candidate for the
Presidency. With the aid Of the active
Bryan men of the organization they
may be able to commit the party to this
fatal candidacy.
The meddling of the Populists has
hurt Bryan among Democrats who still
~ .oL II 4~a
and name Of their party. We are in
formed that in the South Democrats
resent the idea that Populists should
write the Democratic platform. Demo-
Gratis know that it was not an accident
that the platforms of the Democrats and
the Populists in Nebraska are identical
in substance and principles. They
know that Mr.. Bryan saw and approved
the Democratic platform before it was
submitted to the convention. As the
Populist platform was close copy Of
that of the other convention, held at
the same time, the conclusion is irre--
sistlble that Bryan accomplished Praoti-
cally the fusion Of the Democrats and
the Populists in his own State and his
speech was ebually acceptable to both.
That evil companionship was barely
tolerated four years ago. 1t Is much
more distasteful now.
With increasing frequency reports
come from the South and the Middle
West and Northwest Bryan could be
beaten in the convention II the Demo
cratic leaders in the East would bestir
themselves against him. This is ques-
tion of highly practical politics. No
man has the right to say merely from
loos over the field that Bryan is too
strong to be beaten and that his renomi-
nation is inevitable. Nobody who is
sure of defeat at the polls is too strong
to be beaten in the convention. The
situation is not unlike that of the
Republican party in 1880, with the
single exception that two popular Re-
publicans, Blame and John Sherman,
were then actively in the field against
the third term aspirations OF Grant.
The Grant movement was powerful
in generalship, and the generals
following was not only perfectly
united but it was very confident
Grant would have been beaten at
the polls by the ineradicable hos
tility of the American people to the
third term idea, but his managers re-
fused to believe his defeat possible-,
even in the convention. NM.
At this time of the year twenty years
ago Mr.. Conkling and his lieutenants
counted with certainty upon the cleo.
ticn of majority of Grant delegates.
On the It'll of April 1880, George @.
Gorham, long the clerk of the Senate,
conceded that it was possible, not
probable. that Blaine would haze 2l7
votes in the convention and Sherman
100, making the combined opposition
3l7. This would leave Grant 437,
being majority of 100 over all. ;" Up
to the very day of the convention they
continued to figure out a sure majority
for Grant, the only element Of doubt
being the colored delegates from the
Southern States, those very same
''niggers" that Sherman bitter y com
planned that Alger had stolen from him
in the interest of Blaine.
Yet CRAFTS highest vote in the con-
vention was 313, on the 35th ballot. the
one Immediately preceding the ballot
that made Garfield the candidate.
1t is true that the candidates. Of
Blaine and Sherman were rallying
points for the opposition to Grant,
without which his defeat might have
been impossible. 1t is true also, that
nobody now stands up to contest the
honor Of the nomination with w. j.
Bryan. That is an important detail.
1t would not do to ignore 1t. But it is
by no means fatal to the contention
that Bryan can be beaten. The broad
likeness of the two situations is the
cocksureness respectively OF the Grant
men in 1880 and Of the Bryan men to-
day. Grant was beaten, although in