Year: 1872

1t is certainly in the power of the North


ern Democrats and Southern Conservatives
to elect the Cincinnati ticket or to elect
Grant; but it is as certainly not in their
power to elect ticket of their own. If


they nominate such a ticket and attempt


to carry it, they will be worse beaten than


they have ever been in any previous con-


test. There are thousands upon thousands


of Northern Democrats and Southern Con-


servatIves who, under all the circumstances,


will refuse to vote for such a ticket. There


has been a taeit understanding among


them that if the Liberal Republicans should
nominate good, liberal ticket, they would


support it as the surest means of defeating
the extreme Radicals, and getting rid of the
present administration. The action at Gin


'innati has full " met their expectations and
wishes. If there was any trick in standing
neutral until the Liberals should commit
themselves, such Democrats and COnserva-
tiVes as we have referred TO were not parties
to it, and will not become parties to it.
They stood off in good faith, and under the
patriotic hope that the Liberals would act
In such manner as to deserve their sup
port. In this hope they have not been dis
appointed. They will support their ticket
whether the Democrats have ticket or not.


Should the Democrats, valuing adher-
ence to party above everything else, put a
ticket in the field, with any prospect of
success, it does not require prophet to
foretell that the two wings of the Repub-
hcan party will be reunited if both Greeley
and Grant have to be thrown aside and a
new candidate taken up. In this view it
Will be the fault of the Democracy If the
great Liberal movement, which has inspired
so much hope, should be brought suddenly
to a stop.


Should, however, the split between the
Liberals and the administration party have
gone too tar to be healed, and should there
be three tickets in the tield-the Cincinnati,
the administration and the Democratic
tickets-the reelection of Grant will be as
sured. This, too. the Democrats win have
accomplished.


Why have all of us hereabouts encouraged
the Liberal movement? Was it a ruse to
split the Republican party in order to pave
the way for the election of a Democrat!
No. We never dreamed that, if split, a
Democrat could be run in. Our real and
only purpose was to get the opportunity of
supporting liberal ticket, believing that if
voted for by all the opponents of proserip-
tive Radiealism it would defeat the admin
istration, and give us a new and better or
der of things. There has been no trick or
deception in the matter so far as we are
concerned, nor will we be drawn into any
thing that looks like perfdy.


We honestly sympathized with the Lib
eral movement, because we regarded it as
offering the only means of defeating the
administration party. Our opinion is un-
changed. We believe now as we believed
in the beginning, that the only hope of es-
cape from military despOtism and malignant
radioalism is to be found in that movement
and we protest that a Democratic ticket
can result in nothing but the defeat of hber-
alism and the reelection of Grant, or the
election Of such ticket as may be agreed
upon at Philadelphia.


1t is nonsense to talk about Democratic
ticket. There is nothing but mischief in
it, To US of the South it means ruin; be-
cause it means the re-establishmento of pro-
scriptive radicalism in power for another |
Presidential term.