Knoxville Daily Chronicle

THE DEMOCRATIC ELEPHANT.

For several days the telegraph wires have been burdened with mysterious messages, asserting, upon authority, that Samuel J. Tilden, the great centennial reformer, had determined to write a letter to be read at the Syracuse convention, in which he would formally withdraw from the list of presidential candidates. This report has gone into the associated press dispatches twice within a fortnight, backed with the assertion that it came from some one who stands high in the councils of the party. Anti-reformers, like the Memphis Appeal, received the news with great rejoicing, and thousands of democrats no doubt, secretly rejoiced that the presidential gordian knot had at last been cut, and that what had been an insurmountable trouble had been overcome. But the Syracuse convention has been held. The letter was not endorsed, and his devoted friend and supporter, ex-Governor Robinson, heads the list of delegates to Cincinnati. Samuel is a candidate, and a formidable one. He will go to Cincinnati with a full barrel and a strong following. The only way to defeat him is to vote him down. This is a sort of heroic treatment that the party is not just ready to administer. They could vote him down easy enough, but he won't stay down. It is the dread of what he may do, if he is sat down upon too vigorously, that gives them pain and makes them dread to do what they want to do. The fact is, Tilden is the elephant on the hands of the democratic party, and they don't know what to do with him.