Year: 1876

we are litLlS pulLleu Dy our lNeAy
piquant versatile contemporary, the Sun.
In the early part of last week it disclosed its
knowledge of the movement for pledging the
republican delegates from this State to Sena-
tor Conkling, and indorsed it with the vigor
so characteristic of that journal What
| puzzles us is not the alertness of the sun In
detecting this scheme, for its enterprise and
penetration are too well known TO
seem surprising, nor its strong ap-
| proval of a movement whose intrinsic
fitness would naturally commend 1T
| to the clear discernment and sound judg-
ment of our contemporary; but we do think
it singular that when the S,R had risen so
brilliantly on Mr.. Conkling it passed at once
behind eclipsing clouds. 1t cannot be un-
aware of the activity with which the prepa-
rations for nominating Mr.. Conkling by his
friends in this State have since been prose-
cuted, nor of the attendant tokens of sue
cess; and it seems not a little enigmatical
that the ardent, persistent Sun should SO
entirely abandon a subject whose signif-
canoe it was so prompt to recognize.


1t may be that our contemporary suspects
on second thoughts that the Conkling move
ment is only a stratagem in aid of General
Grant Such a suspicion would explain,
inteligibly enough, its sudden abandonment
and blank silence. If it were true, or if the
SIN thinks it true, that the New York delega-
ton is to be pledged to Senator Conkling as
a means of putting it in friendly hands with
a concealed purpose of ultimately turning it
over to President Grant, the course of our
brilliant contemporary would admit of an
easy explanation. We know what might
be said in support of such con-
lecture. 1t could be maintained with SUI
perfcial show of plausibility, that inasmuch
as the last Republican State Convention
passed an anti-third-term resolution the New
York delegates to Cincinnati were thereby
bound to vote against the nomination of Gen
eral Grant and that by pledging them to
Mr. Conkling they would be kept neutral as
between General Grant and other rivals 1t
might be further said that it, with the vote
of New York thus neutralized, General
Grant should prove stronger in the Con-
vention than any rival, Mr.. Conkling, to
whom the New York votes wera pledged,
would be more likely to turn them over to
Grant, and so determine the contest in his
favor, than to give them to any other candi-
date. If the San has reasoned in this way it
has evinced less than its usual penetration.


Even if such subtle project were enter
tanned it could not succeed. In the first
place, Mr.. Conkling is man of too much
pride and spirit to lend himself to such
game If he permits his friends to pledge
the New York delegation to him his honor
will bind him to consider himselfas a candi-
date in good faith and to prosecute the can
vass in his own interest. 1t is incredible
that man of honor like Mr.. Conkling
should degrade himself into an acconplice
in trick for circumventing the declared in
tentions and real wishes of the New York re-
publicans. He, as their foremost represen-
tative, is bound to respect their declar-
alton in their last State Conven-
ton against third term He
would forfeit the respect of honorable
men, and what is more, would degrade him
|. self in his own esteem, if he should consent
to be the instrument of such a scheme Of
duplicity. His fellow citizens have utterly
mistaken his character ii pride, principle
and sense of fair dealing would not alike
cause him to scorn so dishonest an artfce
His whole nature would recoil against play
ing the part of political decoy duck to en-
trap the New York delegation into the sup
port of the third term, after the solemn
and formal declaration of the New York re-
l cf int tbnir tot
vention.


Even if Senator Conkling's character were
not perfect guarantee against so dishonor-
able a trick it would still be impossible by
the ordinary workings of human nature. A
man with such real claims as Senator Conk-
ling possesses cannot be put in the position
of Presidential candidate without having
his ambition so infamed that he can never
relnquish his individual hopes. That pow
erful fascination is irresistible when it has
once entered the mind of an American
| politician. No man with the Pres-
/ Dental bee in his bonnet ever got
/ it out, or ever afterward deemed any other
aspirants claims superior to his own The
most dangerous and exciting experiment
that can be practised on an American poll
tician is to put him. even transiently, in the
position of Presidential candidate. An
experiment of that kind ruined Chief JUS
tice Church's peace of mind for all his life.
In the Democratic National Convention of
1865 the New York delegation, as a means
of reserving their votes while the contest
was in progress between Pendleton
and Hendricks, bestowed them stead
ily through numerous ballotings on
Mr.. Church, not from any desire to make
him the candidate, but merely TO keep their
votes secure for finally turning the scale.
4 They selected for this purpose a man on
whom they thought there was no danger of
such concentration as would lift him into