Year: 1872

THE p1STE-POT IND SCISSORS CAMP1IGN


A recent dispatch from Washington informs
us that Senator Chandler, Judge Edmunds,
the Postmaster of that City, and a large
force of Government clerks, are busy over the
files of THE TRIBUNE, trying to find material
to prove that Mr.. Greeley was an original and
earnest Republican, with a very decided Opin-
ion about the Democratic party and an un-
commonly vigorous manner of expressing that
opinion. The data thus gathered were to be
used to prevent, if possible, a result which
some of the Grant people pretend to desire
the nomination of Mr.. Greeley at Baltimore.


Senator Chandler has at length found
calling adapted to his capacities. 1t requires
neither ability, a knowledge of the English
language, nor fitness for public life,
to grope through old files, and pick out
what he may consider calculated to en-
bitter mems minds and prevent them from
combining their efforts in behalf Of the public
veal We cannot blame Judge Edmunds for
assisting in this petty business; he has q
Post Office, and will no doubt please his su
periors better by this kind of service than he
would by the diligent discharge of til. duties
for which he is paid public money. And we





elastic enough to sanction the employment of
"the large force of Government clerks" for
such purposes. We should imagine, however,
that the Senator would last of all suggest
investigation into others records" seeing
that the rule will work both ways, and that
in Michigan, where he is 20 well known, there
is a general disposition to terminate the Sen
atorial part of his own at the next opportu-
nifty.


But this performance is in harmony with
the spirit in which the Grant people intend to
carry on this campaign. The number of per-
sons who believe in implacable hate is not
small. Tell them that men have been Political
foes, that they have said hard things OF each
other, and such assume that all concord between
them is feigned if not impossible. 1t is
not in their code to allow that the
Canot who denounced Napoleon in
the hour of triumph could tender
his services after Leipsic and Elba and
clamation, al have known you too late.'
Their only ideas of political duty are en-
braced in fruitless, bitter warfare.


We owe our liberties and their preservation
to different code. If men didnot forget their
personal orparty contentious Washington could
not have triumphed, nor could North Point have
been won. But, if the lesson of our own history
is not strong enough, the events enacting in
France teach with strong emphasis the wis
dom of concord and liberation. No leader has
been more unrelenting or unsparing to his op-
pOnents than Thiers. During the closing years
of the Empire, he mercilessly assaied the sup
porters of its policy. He opposed the war in
the face of an Assembly intoxicated by fool
ish enthusiasm and delusive hopes of certain
triumph. But, although his timely counsel
was unheeded, he still displayed his passionate
love for France by forgetting all animosities
and appealing from court to court for aid to
retrieve her shattered fortunes. And when
the Empire fell and humiliating peace had
to be concluded, he was still at the post of
duty. Many leading men either secretly or
openly opposed investing him with the
executive power, but the greater portion were
with him, and opposition proved of little avail.
Forgetting the conflicts of the past, Napoleon
lists, Bourbons, and a-Republicans fastened
TO give him cordial unpurchased support.
On his part he acted in similar spirit. lie
called to his councils the best minds of France.
He is a PrOtectionistj yet he invited Jules
Fayre and Jules Simon, avOwed Free Traders,
TO his cabinet; he opposed Louis Bonaparte,
and nevertheless esteemed and confded the
command of the army to MacMahon-a chiYal