The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-06-28
THE FAILURE OF BOLTS,

In referring to the projected bolt OF
Col. Roosevelt the st. Louis Globe.
Democrat has compiled a history Of
the bolts heretofore from the Republi,
can party, all of which have come to
nothing.
In 1864 the radical element in the
Republican party, discontented with the
patient and seeming dilatory move
ments Of President Lincoln, got up 2
convention in Cleveland and nomi-
mated Fremont for President But the
movement came to nothing, and was
abandoned before election day.
In 1872 the radical element, headed
by Greeley, Carl Schurz and others,
held its convention in Cincinnati and
nominated Greeley for President. The
Democrats Endorsed that nomination,
but Grant was triumpbantly elected.
with majority unprecedented.
Our st. Louis contemporary speaks
of the action of number OF Conkling
Republicans in New York in 1884 as a
bolt, but that was not a bolt; ii was
Of Mr.. Conkling IS friends in New York
at the insulting treatment which Mr.
Conkling had received at the hands of
Garfield and Blaine. In no sense was
it bolt, and in no sense WAS the sue
cess of those Conkling Republicans to
be considered as bolt against the Re
publican party. 1t was simply the re-
sentiment against scandalous insults
heaped upon Mr.. Conkling, and was a
personal matter. 1t was made so dis
tinctly and emphatically by Mr.. Conk-
lng's friends in New York It kept
Mr.. Blaine out Of the Presidency. to be
sure, and if it could in any way be
considered bolt then it was q success
full one, and the only successful one
that there has been. But as we say,
that was by no mans to be considered
as bolt against the Republican party.
And 1T must also be remembered that
Blaine had encouraged the bolt in New
York in favor Of Cleveland for Gov
ernor two years before
In 1896 the free silver men walked
out Of the ST. Lonis Republican con.
vention because of the adoption by that
convention of the gold plank. That
was bolt on principle, and had not
only economic but political authority
for the action taken. President Me-
Kinley himself, who was nominated ia
that convention, had been known as 4
silver man, We doubt if he ever gave
up the idea that silver was proper
metal for coinage purposes. 1t is quite
true, however, that he rejected the
greenback theory and rejected the sill
Yer proposition in so far as those who
advocated silver advocated it merely
because they considered il sort of
metallic greenback. Mr.. Mckinley had
supported the silver position because
he considered silver good money, and
not because he considered il bad money.
or in the nature of metallic fiat money.
He supported silver because he consid-
cred it n royal metal Of value, worthy
TO be recognized in the coinage. Still
well-founded and well based as the sill
yer bolt was, it did not hinder a great
Republican triumph at the November
election.
1t is true that conditions are very
much more unsettled now than they
have been at any time where a bolt
against the Republican party was
launched, save only in. the first. one
named, in 1864. That bolt against
Lincoln seemed at first to be formi.
dabIe. but the ebullition subsidcd. and
Lincoln was triumphantly elected and
the Union saved as it could not have
been with his defeat
The lesson. then, is that bolts against
the Republican party have no practi-
cal effect, even when there is good.
solid basis for them. as there was in
i s96. The present year affords less
reason for bolt than any other bolt
could produce, for Col. Roosevelt docs
not present anv National principle, any
public proposition OF the slightest Ma
tional consequence in support of his