Year: 1868

The Presidential campaign so far has
consisted of preparation rather than of
conflict. The combatants have been sharp
ening their arms, measuring their dlstan-
ces, and accumulating their resources, but
neither has yet actually taken the field
Trumpets of defiance and fsh-horns of vi
tuperation have been sounded on both
sides in a manner sufficiently discreditable,
and the respective candidates have been so
satisfactorily proved to be the basest of
mankind that neither would seem tolpossess
any moral advantage over the other. The
1nouthpieces of each fairly contests the
palm for pre-eminence in blackguardlsm,
and Mr.. Greeley's La Crosse Republican
is neck -andneck with Mr.. Pomeroy's La
Crosse Democrat.


Specifically speaking, the chances of
the two parties may appear to be relatively
unchanged, and the probability, therefore,


would seem to be vastly in favor of the
election of General Grant. Our conviction
was freely expressed at the time of the
New York nomination that in selecting
Governor Seymour for their standard
bearer the Democrats had set the seal to
their own defeat. Did we Judge merely
from indications on the surface, this con-
viction might remain unchanged. We
have, however, become persuaded that
there is a powerful under-current of popu-
lar dissatisfaction with Radical rule and
Radical measures which is gaining rather
than losing strength with the passage of
time, and that consequently the chances,
which at present we estimate as nearly
even, may incline in November, in vic
torious degree, to the Democratic side.


It is plain that, notwithstanding the as
sistance of some of their old time al
lies, the fire eating zealots of the South,
the efforts of the Radicals to affix to the
Democratic cause the stigma of disloyalty,
or, in general, of attachment to dead and
gone unpopular issues, meets no sympa-
thetic response from the great body of the
people. The civil war is rot TO be fought
over again, neither is slavery 10 be revived,
There are repudiators among Republicans
as we'll as among Democrats, and the re.
spective advocates of free trade and protec-
tion are alike to be found in the ranks OF
both parties. In a word, there is no dis
tinctive principle or measure on either side
which is likely to outweigh with the bulk
of voters their convictions on the subject
of reconstruction. Substantially speaking,
those who believe in and wonld perpetuate
universal negro suffrage will vote solidly
on one side, and those who disbelieve in
universal negro suffrage, or would leave il
to the regulation of the States themselves
will vote on the other.


Assuredly no intelligent man can credit
that there would be less danger to the na


tional honor, SO far as the public debt il
concerned, in the success of "a party which
| counts General Butler among the most in
| fuential leaders than would rise from the
victory of its rival But in point of fac


no immediate question of finance will bt
determined either one way or the other by
the Presidential election. Prospectively


there may be looked for that mitigation O


public burdens or that aggravation of then


which becomes respectively natural wher


a man trained in public affairs or {


man ignorant of them-both being admit


ted to be equally patriotic to {


commanding and influential position: II
| the absence Of specific pledges, or, indeed