The Syracuse Convention

The Syracuse Convention

The harmony that characterized its proceedings, the prompt dispatch of business, the overwhelming majority of 295 to 80 in favor of Samuel J. Tilden utterly befogs his opponents, surprises those who have been decrying his health and giving credence to the statements that he is paralyzed and losing his influence among the Democrats of New York. If the announcements that have been made from time to time by enemies within and without the party were to be believed, he has for some months had one foot in the grave and the other quite ready to follow.

"His intellect is impaired," says one report; "he is physically incapacitated to do any business," says another; and yet another states "his arm to be so palsied that he is unable to feed himself." Although not admitting that he is less vigorous than he was four years ago, yet those newspapers controlled by the Tammany bolting crowd that have designedly set these stories afloat purposely to harm Mr. Tilden in this campaign, have, with palpable inconsistency, turned to Seymour, four years older, and whom, if nominated, concedes the improbability of being able to withstand the excitement of a presidential campaign. All these stories begotten have signally exploded and return to plague the inventor.

We will hear no more about "imbecility," "paralysis," or "growing enfeebleness." The old story of the barrel will need to be revamped. The income tax suit and the cipher dispatches, though old, will have to be again called into requisition.

Whether Mr. Tilden is or is not the Cincinnati candidate, the victory achieved at Syracuse, so overwhelming, so harmonious, so non-aggressive, will present him to the democracy of the union in a different light than was expected either by his friends or his enemies. The triumph established the confidence in which he is held as a leader. It demonstrated the deep-seated affection the great mass of the rank and file entertain for him. It proved that he is no less an organizer than he was in 1874, and '76, and that his political sagacity continues unimpaired. The result pleases his friends and dumbfounds his enemies.

In accord with all the other states which have acted on the question: Shall the two-thirds rule be repealed? This great state, through its democracy, resolves in favor of its retainment. At first thought, it appears anti-democratic, but its wisdom has been proven time and again. The man who can get the votes of two-thirds of the delegates from all the States in the Union will be the strongest man in the party and will be entitled to the nomination. And after he gets the nomination, be he Tilden, Seymour, or Hancock, or Bayard, or Thurman, or Hendricks, or Randall, or any other of the leading men of the Democratic party, he will be entitled to receive the earnest, cordial support of every true Democrat in the land.