Year: 1872

| 's. - lAUWahIlkND.
| The Question of Enthusiasm.
| From the Nation,l


| 1t seems pretty PLAIN that this is not


to be a Singing campaign. We do not


see hint of that enthusiasm with which


some of the astOnished reforIners were


at first disposed to console themselves.
The valuable element of fun and humor


which it was supposed Mr.. Greeley's


nomination would bring into the can


vass is altogether missing, and were it


not so much easier to foresee things af-
| ter they had come to pass, we should


marvel that anything else WAS expected.


No joke is irresistibly funny and de-
| hghtful after two weeks contemplation.


The mood of the public is cynically cool;


the people appear pervcrsely disposed


not to be amused. Mr.. Greeley must


stand before the country entirely denu-


ded of all his ludicrous or attractive ac-
| cidents; his white hat and overcoat will


not hurt him, but they viii not help


him. At first glance the state of the pop


ular mind would appear to he apathetic,
but this impression is superficial. The
people do not believe that anybody's
election is necessary to the salvation of
the country. The country has besn
saved, at least for sometime to come
Not Fernando Wood, not Murphy, not
Morrissy, can destroy it. But, never
theless. something should be done, and
other things should not be done, so there
is room for as much conscience as we
propose to bring to bear upon this ques-
tiOn. The country feels that il has
IL e IL,
mind; it has no need to be in a hurry;
but there is a latent determination to
decide the question upon its pure mer-
it's, to put that man III the place who,
upon the whole, shall be the fittest or
the least Objectionable.


OF the two candidates at present be-
fore the people, Grant has the warmest
followers. When we look at the charac-
ters and careers of the candidates, this
fact, if it be fact, is certainly notewor-
thy. Since Donaldson, when he was
merely q name to us, Grant has excited
scarcely spark of enthusiasm in the
national breast. Not only is he not pop
ular at present, but we have by no means
satisfactory sense of his personality.
Greeley, on the contrary, is bet tier known
to us than any other living man, and
with the exception of Jackson and Lin
coin, than any other man III American
history He has made out of journal
ism, what men of genius, with a passion
for confession and the exhibition of their
own natures, have hitherto made out of
of literature. The utteranees of the
newspapers had previously been sup
posed to escape out of some nebulous
and inscrutable impersonality; the value
of the opinion was thought to be in pro-
portion to the mystery of its origin
But Greeley may be said to have
brought down journalism from the
clouds; through him we have discovered
that the utteralces gain rather than
loses in interest and authority when as
sociated with some vigorous and famil-
lar character. It is not the Tribune that
speaks TO the New England mechanic
and the Illinois farmer; it is Greeley
When wicked enemies assail him, and
he calls them bard names, then it is
known that "H. c." is angry, and there
comes wildly before the mind of his
far-away reader the face and form of the
enraged editor. The New York Tribune
may be described as the daily fulmina-
tion of Horace Greedy to the American
people. The country people say, ''Gree-
ley says" the simplest of them not
accepting, but nevertheless considering
the opinion.


At first view, then, it was natural to
imagine that Greeley would nc popu-
lar candidate But the difficulty is that
men who are enthusiastic about MIR.
Greeley are not apt to care much for re-
form, while ardent rcformers cannot be
enthusiastic about MIR. Greeley. There
was certainly was no lack of enthusiasm
before and during the Convention
But the enthusiasm was for facts and
ideas; that expected of Mr.. Greeley was
of the traditional raccoOn and log-cabin
sort. The only enthusiasm it is now in
the power of this country to give, MIR.
G. +. Adams was the man to embOdy.
He would have had at his back the
"honest few that give even the devil his
DUE" the men who neither find truth in
ihe extremes, nor yet get at it with
pair of compasses midway between them,
but recognize it wherever it appears;
who see things as they are, and not as
they ought to be; who believe In law;
who have an imperative sense OF doing
little things well; and who consider it
not unpatriotic to accept the experiences
of other countries when We have none
of our own. From men who believe
these things, Mr. Greeley could never get
anything but lukewarm and enforced
support We are not now in q condi-
tion to live over again one of our histor-
ical Presidential excitements. But even
if we were, we doubt if Mr.. Greeley
could inspire the people with one Of the
old timed passiOns