“Raymond is a little shaky and has to make frequent journeys to Washington for instructions. . . .

“Now, to what does all this amount?  Our experience of politics convinces us that it amounts to nothing.  The sorehead Republicans complain that Lincoln gives them either too little shoddy or too little nigger.  What candidate can they find who will give them more of either?

“The Chicago (Democratic) delegates must very emphatically comprehend that they must beat the whole Re-publican party if they elect their candidate.  It is a strong party even yet and has a heavy army vote to draw upon.  The error of relying too greatly upon the weakness of the Republicans as developed in the quarrels of the Republican leaders, may prove fatal . . . the Republican leaders may have their personal quarrels, or their shoddy quarrels, or their nigger quarrels with Old Abe; but he has the whip hand of them and they will soon be bobbing back into the Republican fold, like sheep who have gone astray.  The most of the fuss some of them kick up now, is simply to force Lincoln to give them their terms. .

“We have studied all classes of politicians in our day and we warn the Chicago Convention to put no trust in the Republican soreheads.  Furiously as some of them denounce Lincoln now, and lukewarm as the rest of them are in his cause, they will all be shouting for him as the only true Union candidate as soon as the nominations have all been made and the chances for bargains have passed.

“Whatever they say now, we venture to predict that Wade and his tail; and Bryant and his tail; and Wendell Phillips and his tail; and Weed, Barney, Chase and their tails; and Winter Davis, Raymond, Opdyke and Forney who have no tails; will all make tracks for Old Abe’s plantation, and will soon be found crowing and blowing, and vowing and writing, and swearing and stumping the state on his side, declaring that he and he alone, is the hope of the nation, the bugaboo of Jeff Davis, the first of Conservatives, the best of Abolitionists, the purest of patriots, the most gullible of mankind, the easiest President to manage, and the person especially predestined and foreordained by Providence to carry on the war, free the niggers, and give all the faithful a fair share of the spoils.  The spectacle will be ridiculous; but it is inevitable."(1)

The cynic of The Herald had something to go upon besides his general knowledge of politicians and elections.  The Manifesto had not met with universal acclaim.  In the course of this month of surprises, there were several things that an apprehensive observer might interpret as the shadow of that hand of fate which was soon to appear upon the wall.  In the Republican Convention of the Nineteenth Ohio District, which included Ashtabula County, Wade’s county, there were fierce words and then with few dissenting votes, a resolution, “That the recent attack upon the President by Wade and Davis is, in our opinion, ill-timed, ill-tempered, and ill-advised . . . and inasmuch as one of the authors of said protest is a citizen of this Congressional District and indebted in no small degree to our friendship for the position, we deem it a duty no less imperative than disagreeable, to pronounce upon that disorganizing Manifesto our unqualified disapproval and condemnation."(2)