Daily Kennebec Journal

When these questions come up in the Committees on Credentials and Rules the anti-Grant party will probably have about thirty votes in favor of their theory, which has been affirmed by every National Republican Convention in which the question has been raised, while the third-term men will have only about a dozen. This will place the latter in the position of having to make a contest against the organization of the Convention—a position that will be anything but easy to maintain.

It may, therefore, be confidently expected that when two sets of district delegates appear in the Convention, either from Illinois or from any other State, one holding credentials from the State Convention and the other from the districts which they represent, the latter will be admitted to seats, and the former excluded: and when any district delegate from a State which has adopted the unit rule and voted instructions expresses a desire to have his vote recorded in accordance with his own preference, his vote will be so recorded.

By these two decisions General Grant is certain to lose eighteen votes in Illinois and thirty-two in New York and Pennsylvania, and instead of leading on the first ballot his vote is likely to fall far below that of Senator Blaine's.

From this brief view of the situation as it will probably exist at Chicago next week, it will be seen how empty is the boasting of the third-term managers. The contest for them has become a desperate one, and their only hope now is to win over a few delegates from the South by the Chinese gong-tactics which they have adopted.

Z. L. W.