New-York tribune., 1911-12-14


Of Influences that will oppose hn' ,"
company with this quotation some oi '"'
things which We read now about the in1PoS.
sibility Of President Tafts reelection SUM-
like the borrowed words of lspng parto'
Pomeroy used another word which the i''o'
ern insurgent has borrowed He declareu
that President Lincoln was not propeis "
sufficiently progressive" We also see w"
literally history repeats itself in tne ia''
that tho head and front Of insurgency W
day is Western Senator, az II was III ioO''
In the insurgent movement against Inn
coin some very prominent men were cou'''
ed. Among them were Salmon +. Chase' ''
that time Lincoln's Secretary or the Treas
ury; Horace Greeley. Of The Tribune an"
such war horses Of the party as Benjamin
T. Wade. Of Ohio. and Thsddeus stevens OF
Pennsylvania.
The climax was reached on May 26. lNef'
when an insurgent convention was held IN
Cleveland at which John e. Fremont was
nominated for President and John Cochran
for Vice President. In september this un-
"a He'd for ticket did the only proper thing
bv taking itself out of the way. leaving
Lincoln and his Democratic opponent, GEN
ersl Mcclellan. the only Presidential con
testants. ITp 10 the withdrawal OF the IN
surgent ticket Lincoln was dubious ot MS
own election
| several things happened when the cleo
| tion came off, in November. and later, that
showed how little confidence can he placed
I'm the cocksure conclusions of pollticai
prophets Of the insurgent sort. In the hrs'
place. the Democratic candidate received
| only twenty electoral votes IN tne loEdi
| states which alone mad part I'm the elecuoh'
| Within much less than year after the IN
| ception Of the insurgent movement the COM
mon sense Of tho loyal men Of the country
was convinced Of tho political and moral
shortsghtedness Of the anti-Hncoln move
ment. OF the nsurgent leaders Greeley was
by far the least violent, and i'm his "Recol-
lectons Of a Busy Life" published In 1858
made a handsome confession Of his error IN
| the case.
There were conditions in 1854 which IN
other WAYS remind us Of tho situation to-
day. Lincoln had TO meet the objections
! and the opposition of both conservatives
and radicals. very much as is President
Taft's good or bad fortune now. For some
| Ancoln did not move fast enough. and Tor
| others he moved too fast In the minds or
| those who profess to want to soc all prog
ress toward the correction Of evils yoked
up TO jail sentence Mr.. Taft is reac-
| tionary, while to those individualists VINO
think that all business, corporate and other
should be let alone he is dlsturper OF
| the economic peace. Considering the con
dtions I'm 1864. to say nothing about the
| perils that hung over the country, the IN
surgent movement against Lincoln Is hard
| for the present day man to understand. VIII
| the insurgent movement of 1911 be just as
| bewilderlng half a century from now?
The most formidable Republican insur-
gent movement. at least at its birth, came
I'm General Grants first term, and enlisted
some of the most forcefu mon Of the party,
among them being not a few who figured
as it's founders and charter members.
Among them were Leonard Sweet, Of ILL
nos, the bosom friend OF Lincoln, ana
Lyman Trumbull and David Davis. Of the
same state; Stanley Matthews, OF Ohlo'
George w. Julian, Of Indiana; Senator
Charles Sumner, Of Massachusetts,; eX-GoV-
ernor Fenton Of New York: A. X Mcclure.
| of Pennsylvania. who directed the frst
Lincoln campaign I'm that state, and a host
| of others of like calibre. The Liberal Re
nubltcan convention met In Cincinnati the
lst day Of May. 1872. II was rather a
stormy gathering, with Carl Schurz as the
| permanent presiding officer. After much
sparring Horace Greeley, the reformer ana
philosopher of The Tribune, was nominal
ed for President, and s. Gratz Brown, of
Missouri for President. As everybody
knows, the Democrats INDUCED In the po-
litical incongruty of indorsing this ticket
The funny part Of this story is that
section of the insurgents again insurged
group Of New Workers, and others, who
did not like the nomination of Greeley held
q convention I'm the Fifth Avenue Hotel
and nominated William S. Groesbeck. OF
Ohio. for President. and Frederick l.. Ohm
stead. of New York, for Vice-President
But this "insurged insurSent' ticket was
forgotten long before Election Day. The
sequel is known to even the most casual
students Of our political history. With his
Democratic Endorsement, in part, II Is true,
A deusion and a snare Greeley went down
TO defeat Yet. when the Liberal Repub-
Iican convention met I'm Cincinnati there
was a pretty general feeling that the rank
and file Of the country's citizenship we're
opposed 10 the reelection Of General Grant,
and for the second time the boastful Ger
tainty Of a formidable group Of insurgents
was dissipated into nothingness
Just at the present time history would
seem to teach that many Of our overzealous
proenostlcators would show the part of
wisdom by holding their peace and making
their predictions about tho day after cleo
tion in 1912. HENRY W. WILBUR.