Year: 1876

sign!


There is a rumor that Governor Tilden has
determined to resign from the Presidential
ticket if the House of Representatives votes
in favor of the repeal of the Resumption act.
Startling as this rumor is it is not bit more
startling than the fact tina. the repeal is pro-
posed in the House as political measure.
If the democratic party goes mad over the
financial question it will not be singular II
Mr.. Tilden leaves that famous asylum for
lunatics and chooses to be sane citizen
rather than a crazy candidate.


The democratic party has shown for fifteen
years symptoms of insanity. The loss Of
power seemed to have affected its brain, and
1t added blunder to blunder, till now
''times greatest offspring is the last" Itput
war candidate on a peace platform in 1864
and took its old enemy Horace Greeley, as
its candidate in 1872. Now it chooses as its
candidate one of the most earnest hard
money men in the country, and after NOM
! mating him with maniacal Joy proceeds
10 oppose with idiotic delight the very prin-
ciples to which he is pledged. Our Wash
lngton correspondent has given the public
comprehensive and faithful account of the
efforts now being made in the House to pass
a bill repeating the act which declares that
specie payments shall 30 resumed In 1879.
Mr. Hendricks, it is said on good authority,
has, by direct messages to members Of Con-
gress, expressed his wish for the repeal, and
the plot is managed with surprising energy.
OF course the passage of bill
by the House for the repeal of the
Resumption act would be nugatory in
regard to Legislative change, for it could
never become q law. The Senate would
reject it and if the Senate could possibly
accept it the President would veto it.
AS measure intended to affect the finan-
cial policy of the government the re-
poaling bill is therefore, without the
slightest value If it should be passed
the House would only be in the
position of the viper that gnawed the file.
Now, as the repeal cannot be forced through
Congress, and as the pledge made for re-
sumption in 1879 must stand, it follows that
the bill is solely intended for political effect
in this campaign. What effect is that which





that it is meant to help the party in Indiana,
but everybody sees that its result would be to
cut the ground from under Mr.. Tilden's feet.


Governor Tilden's financial position and
principles were we'll known to the demo-
cratic party long before it nominated him
for the Presidency and it cannot, therefore,
accuse him of having deceived it. 1t took
1. - r
decidedly preferred him to Mr.. Hendricks.
The compact between the candidate and the
party was thoroughly understood at the
time, and the platform and the nomina-
ton both meant that Governor Tilden's
financial policy was to rule in the national
canvass. Ii, then, democratic House
of Representatives passes fruitless bill for
the repeal of the promise of resumption it
will be an official insult of the democratic
party to the democratic candidate for the
Presidency. Under such an affront what
else could Governor Tilden do but resign?
Honor would forbid the humiliation. The
democratic party cannot reasonably demand
that its candidate shall repudiate his record,
though it had the impertinence to ask this
of Mcclellan and the vanity to expect it of
Mr.. Greeley. Governor Tilden would be
bound by prudence as well as pride to refuse
to obey this ca post facto order of the House
issued after the Convention has dissolved
If he should surrender to the imitation party
in the House-and if repeal passes any
thing less than his resignation from the
ticket would be surrender--he would be the
worst whipped man on record. He would
destroy himself without even helping the
party. We believe, therefore, after this brief
survey of the issue between Governor Tilden
and the democratic imitation party in Con-
gress, that this rumor is substantially true.
If he has not yet said he will resign he has
probably determined to resign in case he is
forced to choose between political subiuga-
ton and personal honor


The position of Mr.. Hendricks in this mat
ter is peculiar. Lord Dundreary says that the
reason the dog wags his tail is because the
tail is not strong enough to wag the dog;
but this is not the case with the democratic
Presidential ticket Mr.. Hendricks wags
Tilden in q manner dreadful to behold
Nobody expected this to happen when Mr..
Hendricks was chosen at st. Louis, for it was
universally believed the compromise would
be respected by all the parties concerned.
Then came the Saratoga interview, where
the high contracting powers were thought
to have concluded permanent peace. But
Mr.. Hendricks suddenly rebels. The infa-
ton flag, which was lowered in the st.
Louis Convention, he raises again in Con-
gress, and seems resolved that Mr.. Tilden
shall either bend to his will or be broken.
SO the captain and the first mate are quar-
relling on the quarterback while the dem
ocratic ships drifting on the rocks. 1t will be
wrecked before it is hardly out of port unless