The Wheeling Daily Register

THE SHERIFFALITY.

The Intelligencer refers to the canvass for the Democratic nomination for the Sheriffalty, in this county, as follows:

"Mr. Curtis Brown publishes a card in our columns this morning, announcing his withdrawal from the race now in progress for the Sheriffalty nomination on the Democratic side. He thanks his friends for their disposition to support him, but declines to be considered a candidate any longer. In taking this step we think Mr. Brown has shown good judgment. He was well thought of by the public as a candidate, for he is personally popular, but at the same time his chances for the Democratic nomination were not such as to justify the expenditure of much time or money in pursuit of it.

"The withdrawal of Mr. Brown leaves the field to Messrs. Tingle, Sweeney and Bulger, with the chances of success, we judge, in favor of the first named. He holds the office and that is something under the circumstances. He has also the prestige of having received the appointment from the hands of the present chairman of the Democratic State Committee as a recognition of services performed on behalf of the party, in a strictly partisan sense, and also on behalf of the public generally of this community in the capital removal canvass at Charleston. This conspicuous recognition undoubtedly serves to give him strength for the party nomination, and the chances are that he will succeed in obtaining it when the County Convention meets.

It then questions whether the nomination will do Mr. Tingle any good, as he was once before defeated after receiving the nomination. This is a natural view of it from a Republican organ's standpoint. Of course that paper cannot be expected to concede his election, however well satisfied the editor may be of it; for that would bring down upon him the aspirants for the sheriffalty in his own party and all their friends. Providing the Intelligencer's prophecy as to whom the nominee will be is correct, which may or may not be, we add another one, that that nominee will be elected by a majority larger than the one by which he was defeated four years ago.

At that time, his opponent, the then incumbent of the office, was a candidate for re-election, after having had his first term cut in two in the middle by the adoption of the new constitution. The public felt that he was entitled to serve for at least the length of time for which he was originally elected. Those who voted for Mr. Brown in the first instance and a large number of those who voted against him, believed that it was but just that he should have another term under the circumstances. It was this sense of justice in the public mind alone that elected Mr. Brown. The circumstances are quite different now. The very reasons that influenced Mr. Tingle's appointment to fill the vacancy in the sheriff's office—an appointment which was tendered unsolicited by himself—will operate to elect him. As the Intelligencer says: "He holds the office and that is something. He is an active business man; he stands high in commercial circles; he is always awake to the interests of the city; he is accommodating and genial in his intercourse with his fellow men; he has been an active and devoted worker in the Democratic ranks for many years—never omitting an opportunity to advance the aims of the party and the aspirations of its nominees. Whatever interests have been intrusted to him, whether of public or private nature, have been guarded with fidelity. As a sample of his self-sacrificing devotion to the interests of the public, which is simply the interests of his neighbors, his labors on behalf of the removal of the Capital of the State to this city may be referred to. His conspicuous services in this regard the Intelligencer properly recognizes; and many of its own party will do the same thing at the polls on the 10th of October."

But in saying this, we in no sense throw a stone in the way of either Mr. Bulger or Mr. Sweeney. If either of these gentlemen shall receive the nomination at the hands of the party, he will be elected. In short, the Democratic nominee, let him be whom he may, will be elected this year; and we have only been led to make the above remarks by the Intelligencer's suggestion to the contrary.