Year: 1868

The nominations of Grant and COlfax have
been welcomed throughout the whole land
with an enthusiasm even exceeding that amidst
which they were presented by the Convention.
Not a ripple of personal complaint from the
defeated candidates or their friends, nor a taint
of local dissatisfaction from the States compe-


ting for the nomination to the Vice Presidency,
disturbs the harmony with which politicians,
the people and the press everywhere indorse
the work done at Chicago. While the names
of Grant and COlfax strengthen and supplement
each other, and probably no other name sug-
gested would have been as satisfactory 10 Gen.
Grant as that of Mr.. COliax, yet Mr.. Colfax
comes upon the ticket as independently and
as entirely on his own merits as his irwin
chile colleague. Only rare and peculiar fit


ness and strength in the men could have SO
silently OyerbOrne all geographical cOnsidera-
tions and induced the nomination of
candidates from the two adjoining States
of Illinois and Indiana, both of which COM
bined have an electoral vote less than New


York, and either of which would have been
safe for the Republican ticket whoever had
been chosen. Indeed, the West felt that it
could not afford to ask for both candidates.


and only on condition that the East, Center


South, and Pacific Coast should previously in
dicate COlfax as the choice could his own sec
ton, in Justice to the whole country, accept
him. We therefore find that out of the 100
votes cast by the States between Indiana and
the Plains in which MIR. COlfax is perhaps
more popular than in any other section Of the
Union, he got but 10, until the preference of
the other sections was clearly made known


When his nomination by the East was assured,
the North West cast for him its solid vote


The tabled gallantry of the French troops who
politely insisted that the English should fire first
would not have been, if true, more gracefully
courteous than the attitude of the West in ac


ceptng the inevitable honor of the whole ticket


1t was the sentiment of the Convention, and
has been the sense of the people, that neither
Grant nor COliax was a man in whose history
or reputation any State could claim title. Grant
born in Ohio, educated at West Point, and
lifted into greatness by his military achieve
ments in Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and
Virginia-presents a national career of which
his residence in Illinois is the merest accident
Mr.. COlfax, though more identified with the
politics and men of his State and section than
Grant, has amOre thoroughly national career and
popularity than any other civilian who could
have been chosen. His nomination was greeted
as enthusiastically by hundreds of thousands in
New-YOrk and Massachusetts, as in his own
State New-York moves to make it unanimous,
and bluff kBen Wade declares it is well
deserved The guns of California echo
those Of Maine in cOngratulatiOn, though neither
State voted for him in Convention. The East,
tbn Al or1o
for the ticket as Illinois and Indiana Even
the more prominent among the lights of the
Democratic press and party confess that it rs
the very best that could have been made. No
sooner is the ticket nominated and the plat
form adopted than from every point in the
political horizon the clouds which had gathered
at the failure of impeachment break, and the
skies brighten. Few seem disposed to question