E P E E C JH GMSORG^E GIH^.H — AT THE — State ReDuMicaii Convention MASSACHUSETTS, Sept. 19, 1S77. Our duty, today, is simple and honorable. We are commissioned to designate a fitting successor to that line of illustrious magistrates to whom, by annual election, the people of this state have entrusted their executive power from the days of Wiuthrop and Bradford, with a single interval, until the present hour. I hope the events of recent years have cured us of a spirit ot boasting. But if any man be inclined to question the capacity of an educated people for self-government, he is invited to compaie the roll of popular governors of Massachusetts with those who were placed over her by royal authority during the period of the provincial government, or with the succession of occu- pants of any throne, or the prime ministers of any European state from 1620 until today. But we have other than mere state interests. We have cUities whose importance is not meas- ured by state lines. The time has its own ques- tions which concern the people of the wnole country. The people of the whole country look with interest for the opinions ot the republicans of Massachusetts. We have lately passed through a season of great difficulty and peril. It is, I thiul{, the first time in history that a serious question of title to the supreme executive power lu any ua- tion has been settled otherwise than by force. After a presidential contest of unparalleled earnestness, in which, in large sections of the country, the entire population almost seemed divided into two hostile camps, it turned out that to determine the result required the deci- sion of the gravest questions of constitutional law, concerning which the two political parties and the two houses of congress differed irrecon- cileably. There existed no tribunal or arbiter authorized to decide betweeu them. Unlets such a tribunal could be created it is difficult to see how the country could have escaped the most serious convulsions. The power to deter- mine all these questions had been claimed for the president of the senate. But that ])ower was' not only denied by the majority of the house, but a majority of the republicans in the senate were committed against it. If it had been asserted and supported by a majority ia the senate, it cannot be doubted tliat one per- son would have been declared elected by the senate, while another person would have been elected and declared entitled to his office Iw the house. The outgoing president, the neS^sof departments, the senate, and the governineuTs of the great republican states would have recog- nized one claimant, while the other would have been recognized and supported by the new house of representatives, the solid south and the executives of the great northern states of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Indiana. In other words, we should have had a contro- versy as to the great vital question, who was en- titled to obedience and recognition as president of the United States, a controversy not between section and section, not between the Union aud some of the state'^, but a controversy separating men by party lines, and extending through the entire country. The house of representatives, in anticipation of this confiici, would doubtless have refused to pass any appropriations which could be used in support of an administration whose title it denied. I do not say that the good sense of the American people would not have found some escape from this condition of things other than through civil war, with its certain destruction of credit, industry and prop- erty, and its probable destruction of the republic itself. But I do say that no other escape from these things was suggested or devised so far as 1 know, except that which was in fact adopted. It is highly to the credit of both polincai parties that amid the excitements and passions of the hour a peaceful aud lawful solution was at- tained. The decision of the electoral commission must be approved or condemned by the American people and by history accordmg to their ulti- mate judgment of the soundness of the inter- pretation of the constitution on which it rests. Any decision must have occasioned the deepest . disappointm nt to the losing party. It is nat- ural that for the time tliis disaijpoiutment sliould find expression in bitter comphiint and in unjust and angry cluuiies against political opponents. Unlui[)iiil.v, lilie cbart;es are nut new in our political liistoiy. I'lolialjly, a ina- joiiiy ol the American people believe,! for a time tliat Jolm Qiiincy Adams obtained the presidency by a corrupt bargain with Mr Clay. Andrew Jackfou professed hiiiisell so assured of this baroain that he refused to extend to his predecessor the ordinary courtesies of social life. Tlie pure lame of Air. Adams has long suivived the cnlumny which the disappointed democracy of his time poured out upon his name. Tiie calumny is only to be remembered for the lesson which it teaches to distrust judg- ments formed and colored by the bitternets of personal disappointment or party defeat. Daring the c.imuaign there came from three of the southern stales complaints that armed minorities were conspiring to overcome by force and fear the resistance of the majority, and so take lawless possession of their slate govern- raeuts and of their electoral colleges; that i)ub- lic meetings of republicaus were surrounded by bands of mounted and armed ruffians, striking terror alike into speaker and hearer, while prominent republicans were maiked for secret assassination. These charges derived probability trom occurrences like the massacre at Hamburg, too notorious to be concealed or misuntlerstood, from the Mississippi cami)aign of 1874, and the terrible annals of Louisiana with their story of blood and crime from 18i;6 down to the present J ear. ISoon as the campaign was over, complaints came from the other side that the officials charged by these states with the duiy of count- ing the votes and decliriug the result had con- spired to defeat the will of the people and de- clare the result falsely. Gentlemen high iu the confidence of the two parties went to the dis- puted states to watch the count of the votes. VVheu congress met, each of the two branches sent committees to make investigation, lu every instance the republican majority of the committees of the senate reported to that body tliat the states to which they were sent had been carried by the republicans, the democratic minority dissenting. In every instance, the democratic majority of the committees of the house reported to that body that the disputed states had been carried by the democrats, the republican minority dissenting. There was in some cases even more than difference of opinion as to the result of the evidence. The minority charged upon their associates iu the Louisiana committee the design and purpose to prevent a full investigation into the crimes committed iu some of the parishes, and a refusal to take or to report evidence needful to a fair deter- mination of the true result of the election in that state. Now, unpleasant as the fact may be, who can doubt that the result of all this would have been that, with scarce an exception, republicans would have taken the republican ,and demo- crats the democratic side, of these questions. The republican senate, whenever it acted, would have sustained the report of the republican can committees. The democratic house, when- ever it acted, would have acted in accordance with the report of its democratic committees. I make the statement in no partisan spirit. It is a confession humiliating to us as Ameri- cans, humiliating to human nature itself, to say that with the single exception of Reverdy Johnson, the democrat has not yet been found, who iu the presence of the clearest evidence of murder or other outrage wrought lor political ends by those of his own party"^ has either con- demned it, endeavored to punish it, refused to firofil by it, or even been willing to repcjit it iionestly. Under these ciriiumstances, the two houses united 111 creating the electoral commission, ex- pressly referring to tliem tlie question whether any power existed in cougiess to oveiturn or go behind the decision of the stale officers as to the. choice of electors. This question was not only carefully stated and relerred to the commis- sion in the act itself, which gave to the commis- sion only "such powers as congress possesses, if any," buc was declared by Judge Thurman ol Ohio, a democratic member of the committee whicli framed the bill, not to be decided by ihe bill, but left to the commission. Nothing but the most intense strain of party excitement and necessity could ever have induced the demo- crats to assert such power. It had been earn- estly ate in the senate, within a year before the election, by Messrs. Thurman anil Bayard, two of their most distinguished leaders in tlie senate, as it has been since the decision of the commission by Chief Justice Church of New York, their most distinguished living jurist. The commission held that the power of de- ciding who had been duly chosen electors was iu the states. They held that the votes of such persons were to be counted as the tril)unal clioseu for that purpose iu each state had de- clared to have been duly appointed its electors. They held that congiess had no authority on pretense or suggestion of mistake, misconduct, fraud or any other ground whatever to usurp the power to determine who had been chosen electors in any state, or to reverse or overturn on any pretense whatever the state's decision by its own conscituted tribunal. We did not hold, as is sometimes represented, that the certificate of the certifying officer, gov- ernor or secretary, or whoever else he may be, was conclusive. But the determination of the tribunal itself, constituted by the state for that purpose, is binding upon all other authority. Just as the judgment of the supreme court of the United Stales, in cases within the jurisdic- tion given it by the constitution, is conclusive, and no man can be heaad anywhere to contro- vert it, or to impute that the judges miscon- ducted or erred through mistake or by fraudu- lent design, so the judgment of the state, ren- dered at the time prescribed, and before the electors vote, is final upon the title of the elect- ors. The clerk of the supreme court might fraudulently or by mistake wrongfully certify as to what the record of its judgment showed. So the secretary or governor of a state might wrongfully certify as to the contents or effect of the record of the judgment of its returning board, and that wrong certificate may be cor- rected by the real judgment. This is the sim- ple principle which the commission applied to all the disputed states, to Florida, to Louisiana, to South Carolina, to Oregon. Upon the soundness of this doctrine I am willing to risk whatever title I have to the re- spect of my fellow-citizens now or hereafter. I have one thing to say to our democratic brethren: If any democratic statesman, fairly representing the opinions of his party, with auy regard for his clTaracter or with any character to regard; if any democratic convention com- missioned to utter the opinions of the democra- cy of the country will in any formal and authen- tic way plant itself upon a denial of the doctrine applied by the commission, I think the repub- licans will be willing to join them in taking the sense of the American people, whether the presi- dent is henceforth to be chosen, as the constitu- tion requires, by electors whose title to cast their vote is determined by the states for whom they lift, or wlunhor, on tlie other liHiul, the right tu tlic pie.^ichjiitial ofticc is to lie ilecidud by a party vote, like a cotitcsted election case iu the house of re;iieseiit:itivcf!. The wise heads of tha democratic party skill- fully avoid a position so repusnaiit to the con- siifctioii and so opjjosed to their o»'n traditions, opinions and luture inlercsts. They content ilieniselves by savmu witli load outcry and clamor that th ■ repuhhcan party owes its vic- tory to fraud in three of the states. The clsarge rests upon no l)ap:s whatever, except the reports of picjndiced committees, who close their eyes to the methods by which the will of the people of those states, republican by large majorities, was obstructed iu its true expression, an expres- sion which their state boards had alone authori- ty to ascertain and declare. The people of Mas«achusetts are happily agreed by a large majority of both parties iu desiring an early return to specie payments. Un- der the operation of the resumption law of 1876, defective as that statute is, the greenback now fluctuates within from five to three per cent of an equality with gold. The secretary of the treasury expresses his certain couviclion that with the means at his commaud, if no adverse Jegislation be had, he will be able to resume specie payments by the 1st of January, 1879. I believe with him that until the resumption of specie payments be assured "there will be no new enterprises involving great sums, no active industries, but money will lie idle and watch and wait tlie changes that may be made before we reach the specie standard." Tlie great fame of Mr. Webster as an orator and constitutional lawyer has eclipsed his title to regard as a clear and profound reasoner on currency and finance. I believe him to have been one of the highest authorities we have erer had in this country on these subjects. He declared in Boston, late in life, that Uuring his whole political caieer, ever since the time of his coming into congress thirty years before, he had devoted himself in prelereuce to all otiier topics to the study of the finances ol the country. He never uttered a sentence which better de- served to take its place among the accepted ax- ioms of governmeuc than these: "The prosperity of the working classes lives, moves and has its being in establislK-d credit anil a steady medium ot payment." * * * ♦ "When tliat fluid in 'he human si'stem in- dispensable to life becomes disordered, cor- rupted or obstructed iin its circulation, not the head or the heart alone suffers, but the whole body — head, heart and hand, all the members and all the extremities — is affected with debili- ty, paralysis, numbness and death. The anal- ogy between the human system and the social and political system is complete; and what the life blood is to the former, circulation, money, currency is to the latter; and if that be disor- dered or corrupted, paralysis must fall on the system." Bat while the folly of an irredeemable cur- rency has been always clearly seen by the Yan- kee sagacity of New England and the commer- cial experience of New York without regard to party lines, there are other parts of the country in which different theories have prevailed. Some of our brethren in the far west have been disposed to impute the New England desire for a return to specie payment to the supposed fact that the accumulated capital of the east is in the hands of money lenders, who selfishly de- sire to increase the value of the debts due from debtor stales, at the expense of the debtor, or lo the influence of speculators in bonds or bullion. No greater mistake was ever made. Specu- lators who gamble in the stock marketer the gold market find their best harvest in the fluc- tuations which end when a uniform and stable currency is established. The savings of our working classes are largely invested in savings banks whose lundsaie in government bonds and other forms of credit. Bat the class of mere lenders of money as distinguished from workmen or business men whose capital is in- vested in productive enterprise, is not very large, and is by no meaus influential la making up the political opinion of the people of New England. The business man and the laborer of the east have the same interesfs, are embarked in the same boat, must seek success by the same methods as those of the rest of the country. They must find it, and find it alone in the pros- perity of the rest »f the country. The East, New England, Massachusetts, pos- sess capital, skilled labor, a full population, in- stitutions of education, admirable political con- stitutions, an honorable history full of stimu- lant memories. What Massachusetts wants — the one thing needful to her complete prosperi- ty — is a prosperous west and a prosperous south. She desires thaS the safe and steady maxims of business, that the stable currency, life-blood of trade, that the jealous care for credit which, in her own prosperity, have borne such abundant fruit, may bring forth a still larger harvest on their wider and more fertile fields. Without a stable currency, resting upon a specie basis, there can be neither safety in cred- it, nor any certain measure for exchange. Bold and reckless speculation alternates with timid- ity, paralysis and stagnation. Debts, public and private, recklessly contracted, are regarded only as a burden, never as an obligation. The sentiments of honor and honesty are eliminated from business. Public and private credit cease to be among the resources of the republic. "The wise merchant," says the great philoso- pher of our day, "by truth in his dealings can use in turn as he wants it, all the property in the world." What powers are in the hands of these great property owners, the people of the northwest and the southwest and the south, with their mighty rivers and lakes waiting for commerce, their timber lauds, their infinite corn fields and cotton fields, their sugar and rice, their mines of gold and silver and coal, let but this one thing be established. A kindred error, as it seems to me, to that which would carry on the business of the coun try with irredemable paper, is that which would lower and make uncertain the standard of value by rendering silver a legal tender to all amounts. There is some plausibility to the ar- gument that as the public debt is payable, prin- cipal and interest, in coin, the government which must have borne the loss if gold and sil- ver both had risen in value by eome unexpected cause, is fairly entitled to the benefit if one of the metals be cheapened by a largely increased supply. I should be slow to admit this argu- ment, even if the creditor and the government were alone concerned. Silver was at best but a subsidiary coin used for payments of small amounts only, and never contemplated by either party as the medium of payment of any consid- erable sum. It would be a sharp and hard ad- vantage, hardly worthy of a great government, to get a forced discount on its liability by avail- ing itself of this unexpected cheapening of the subsidiary coin. It would be quite as dignified and honorable to pay off the creditor in copper. But the chief objection to the monetization of silver is its effec on the currency. There are persons rt ho seem always striving to provide for the American people tiie worst m^ney that 4 tliey can persuade them to receive. If they will not accept tbut wliich is absolutely woillile.is, then at least Rive then] the most worth loss pos- sible. They were never lieaid urging the adoption of silver as money until the late addi- tion to Ihe supply cheapened that metal as com- pared with gold, and they do not now advocate it except at a rate which will lower the value of tlie dollar. The tendency of the great commercial nntions of the world is to the adoption of gold as the ex- clusive siaudaid of value. To ^ive silver a place in the currency ot the United States by makiuii' it a tender for all amounts will cause a large influx of silver to this country where aloue among hrst-class nations it will have value as money, while gold will be drained to those countries where it is in demand as the sole standard. Silver will then become a drug in our maikets aud gold become scarce. If the recent increase of supply from our mines shall be maiiitained, its value will sfdl lurcher be re- duced, the stability of the currency, which by tlie resumpiiou of specie payment should be at- tained, be destroyed, and the value of what will be practiciilly our only medium of exchange tlucUiate in accordance with the price of shares in some Coi'\stoek lode or Big Bonanza. There has been no time for thirty-live years, when the most prominent theme of political discussion nas not been the relation aud duty ot the American people toward the colored population of the south. The annexation of Texas, the war wi;h Mexico, the admission of Calilornia, the fugitive slave law, the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the attempt to force slavery on Kansas, the election of Lincoln, the rebellion, the enlistment of colored troops, the proclamation of emaucipatiou, the three last ameudmcnts to the eonstituiion,the readmission of the seceding states, the kuklux lo'.;islati(ni, — all iliese have been either the efforts of the white people of the south to strengthen or to extend tiie institution which subjected the negro to their uncontrolled will, or etforts of- the people of the noith, on the other hand, to per- form or to escape the duty to this class of their countrymen, wiiich justice and the law of God, uuder the most terrible penalties, demanded at their hands. If any m"an be inclined to lose faith, or lose heart, if any man doubt oti which side are tiie permanent aijd prevailing forces, if any raan — 1 would speak it revereutiv — doubt on which side is the power that has built ihis fabric of things, let him compare the conditiau of tlie negro race today with its condition in 1842. Then the constitutions of the nation aud of half the states, the decisions of the highest courts, the interest of trade and manufacture, the public sentiment of the whole country, stronger than constitutions or statutes, were millstones about his neck, sinking him, as it seemed, into the fathomless depths of a hopeless and endless slavery. I think in that very year. Prudence Crandall was in jail in Connecticut lor teaching a colored child to read. Today the colored man is a freeman, a citizen, a voter, a holder of office, a land owner. The schools are op m to his children. His risiht to all these things is secured by the Constitution of the United States and of every state, by the resolutions of both political parties, by the 'opin- ions of one of the great parties of the coun- try, and by the professions, at least, and most solemn pledges of the leaders of the other. 1 do not doubt that there is still grave and serious danger. There are men, able and numerous at the south, who mean, having first driven out from their states all white men who differ from them, to deprive the negro of the political and legal rights conferred on him by the amend- meuts to the constitution, aud to reduce him to such a condition of political and personal dependence upon the whiles, that the will of the latter shall be the law which deter- mines his personal rights, and lixes the price and condition of his laoor. This is paitly a conscious, purpose, and partly the effect of tliat curious mental hallucination wiiich, wiiile persuading itself of a desire to treat the colored man with justice, seems to lose unconseiously all understanding of what justice ami eqality really are wherever he is concerned. Tliete are still meu at the n(.)rth willing to buy power and office by pauderin,-,' lo these designs. The breed of doughfaces is not extiuct. But these evil jiur- poses cannot now be brought to pass without a revolution, every step in wli ise progress is not ouly a moral but a legal crime, whose success must bring with it not ouly the praeiical over- throw of thu constitution, but personal dislionor to the men whose solemn pledges it violates. I do not stand here to advise you to relax any- thing of your watchfulness to oreserve the Held you have won. Without constant and per]ieMial vigilance nothing in a republic is secure. But to be afraiil that, in SjUte of it, these designs will be successful, is to despair of the republic Itself. The mode in which President Hayes has dealt, witli the southern problem, as it is called, dur- ing the first six monihs of his term of office, ex- cites, as is natural, deep solicitude and earnest discussion. It is his great good fortune, that to a degree almost without an example, both friends aud Ojipone-fits accord to hiin the praise of peifect hunesty of purpose. By a solemn declaration he has put it out of his power to iie a candidate tor re-election, ile cau have no other ambition than to ejun the appiobatiou ol his countrymen by the purest and highest puii- lic service. He has made no other complete statement of the iirinciphs which will govern his administration than that contained in the piatlorm adopted at Cincinnati and his huier of acceptance, both of which are well known aud satisfactory to tlio.»e who voted for him. No man is more thoroughly piedged tiiaii President Hayes to uphold the constitutional rights and the constitutional equality of all citi- zens of the United States. To this his record of civil and military service aud his official pledjies alike bind him fast. In all his public utiei- ances since he came into office Iih has insisted on this as luudameutal. Indeed, that every voter in the country shall be protected in the riglits conferred by the thirteenth, fourteenth, aud tifteenth amendments by every exertion of nationaf power necessary to that end, is not matter of executive discretion or legislative dis- cretion, it is constitutional duty, which neither president nor legislator sworn to support the constitution can rightfully disregard. The executive action of the president has-been the subject ol severe criticism in three x)articu- lars. He lias refused to use the military forces to maintain the governments of Chamberlain in South Carolina, and Packard in Louisiana. He has ai)pointetl a southern democrat, form- erly a high officer in the confederate army, to a seat in the cabinet. lie has manifested in his personal and official bearing a temper and spirit of friendliness aud contldeiice toward the southern whites. The refusal to use the military lorces of the United States to keep iu power the governments of Chamberlain and Packard seems to me to have been a constitutional necessity. The con- stitution provides that "no appropriation of money for the use ot the army shall be for a longf'i- period than two year?." It was iu- teudcd by this lauLjuage to enable congress to determine tlie uses to wliieli the mili- tiiry force of the country sliould be put, by au opportunity to act upou the question of their support at least once in the term of every house of representatives, and the statute authority lo the president lo call out the militia and employ the laud and n.ival forces must be interpreted in the lijiht of that provision. The late house of iei)reseutaiives had refused appropriations lor the ai'iny unless the bill should contain an ex- press prohibition ol such exertion of military force, to which the senate refusing its consent, the supplies for the army were withheld alto- geihei'. A new liouse of repreeentaiives had bei'M chosen who, as every well informed man knows, would adhere to the action of its pie- decessor. The duty of determining wh,!t policy shall permanently control the use? of the mili- tary i'orci'S of the United States rcs;s with con- gress. The duty of deciding wiio shall be re- coiiuised as the true government of a stale, under the decision of I he sui)renie court rests also with congress. The i)resident niiiiht, in- deed, lor a fevv'weelcs have lawfully mainiaiued the governments of South Carolina and Louis- iana in the state houses lo which they were contined. Hut whenever his right to use the armj' or his lawful resources for its supply ended, those goverDineuts must have fallen. But the president's action does not lind its vindication in necessity alone. He has done something more and quite different from the tibandonmeut of force, simply because torce be- came, for the time, impossible. He has sought to meet in a spirit of confidence and friendship tb" assurances of prominent soutliern men of a ..i^a-e, on their p»rt, to suj>port, in good faith, hereafter, the results of the war and the whole amended consiituiion. Those who lind fault with this policy overlook, it seems to me, Ihe cuiisideration how narrow are the limits in ) which mere force, t>r law speaking only through its punishmeiils, have their domain. The of- ienses of individu;ils, having no Dublic senti- ment in their support and not stimulated by sec- tional or party spirit, are easily suppressed. But at the end of a great civil war, where the edu- cation and habits of thought ot gener.ilions, where the pride of slate and race, and the S[)irit of parly inflame the evil, other iusliu- mentalities must effect the cure. I do not utter these opinions now, for the first time. It was my duty two years ago to visit tiie stall' of Louisiana, as a member of the com- mittee of the house of rej)resentalives, to iu- vestigatethe disorders in that state. In the re- port which it was my office to write, but which derives added weight from the signatures of Vice Presidenc Wheeler gnd Mr. Frye of Maine, the committee say: "This great movement of the public mind in great states is not to be dealt with as if it were a street riot. You cannoL change great currents of public sentiment or the habits of thought and feeling of great bodies of men by act of con- gress. In a republic you cauuot long or perma- nently check their manifestation by the exercise of national power." 1 have little respect for weak and gushing platitudes. But when the president of the Unitsd States, in his own person one of the best types of that citizen soldiery which subdued the rebellion, and by his office the representative alike of the loyalty and the authority of the coun- try, deems that the lilting time to extend the right hand has come, the elforr at harmony must not tail for want of the hearty support of the republicans of Massachusetts. The president also has acted wisely in invit- ing the co-operation in his administration of a disting(!ish''d democrat f)f the south, hoiioied by his own parly and section, who accepts and supports in good faith all the results of the war. In not deeming a share in the rebellion reason for perpetual exclusion fiom public office of those who accept honestly and heartily these re- sults, President Hayes but follows the example set by Gen. Grant in the cases of Attorney G''i>- eral Akermau and Gen. Longstreet. The great victory cf the Union arms was achieved, not to make the men of the south dnpendeuts, but only equals; not to bring them to your feet, but only to your side. You conquered only to achieve a fuller and more perfect union; not that you miiiht have vassal stales or subject citizens. It was asked, the other day, in this I'.all, if it is to be lohn-ated that a Union and a rebel gen- eral should be seen standing together on ihe same platform. I ausver, yes, if that plailorm be made up ol the unity of the republic and tiie three amendments lo tiie consiituiion. The plailorm ado[)Ced at Cineinu-iti, and the letter of acceptance of Prcsideiu Hayes loliow- iiig the earlier example of the iMassaehusetts rejiublicau state convention ol 1873, pleducil Ihe iiicfjming admiuistralion to atiempt the over- tlij-ow of a gigantic tliieefold evil. Tm; (ivil service of the country has taken three snccess- sive downward steps since the inauguratiou of Andrew Jackson in 1829. For the Hrst fcnty years of the government, although i)ariy leci- ina burned with a fierceness of which in our f;ivored state today we have little lonceplimi, there were few removals from office, and those for cause in no way connected with political opinion. Andrew Jackson inaugurated the sys- tem of removal for mere opinion, an example which has been followed by all his successors. This was the hrst downward step. Nowhere in the constitution is power express- ly given to the president to remove civil ol- licers. The construction which originally con- ceded it lo J'residenl Washington, only pre- vailed on a tie vote in the senate by the cast- ing vote of John Adams. II has been denird by many of our ablest statesmen, both in early and later times. But the weight of the argu- ment is in its lavor. A practice uubroken for nearly fourscoie years has firmly eslalilislied the p(jwer, to which what remains of the tenure of office act will be but a slight impedimeut. Bui the generation wh ich framed the consiiui- tiou never dreamed that the president would ii'- move faithlnl public officers on account of iheir opinions. Mr. Madison declared that such an act would be sufficient cause for the imiieach- ment and removal from office of the president himself. The evil — fruit of this seed — can hardly be overstated. It excludes from the service of the people all good men, no matter svhat their title to lespect or gratitude, unless they agree in opinion with the dominant party. It puts con- straint on cne freedom of thought and action of large numbers of our most active citizens. It places all the office holders of the country, now more than sixty-two thousand in number, who should be, and commonly are, among our most efficient and int; lligent citizens, in the degrad- ing position of being compelled to agree in opin- ion with the president in all the nev7 and shift- ing phases of politics on pain of loss of subsis- tence by themselves and their families. It has been well said that if ^Valren had been among the living he could not have held office without a party collar about his neck. The offices cre- ated to serve the people, under the opeiation of this rule, are used only to bribe them. Office and honors are given as rewards for political service and not for merit. Political service in its turn is given only for reward. But the worst evil of a partisan civil sprvice is not Its immediate injury to otticials or peo|ile. It tends to uiti;um> and increase tliat party spirit ag.iinst which VVasiiin.utuu, in his tarewell ad- dress, warns us as tlie one greatest danger to our country. Tlie warning against that senti- ment, so Irnitful of danger, called party spirit, is not a warning against party itself. Parties are honorable, useful, necessary. Tliey aie old as liberty, old as government, older than his- tory. Party should lie tht union of men, con- nected by no Ottier band than that of honest, unb'iught opinion as to what is for the interest of the state to carry tliat opinion into political effect in its administration. Tne evil of party spirit is that it transfers to that association a love, allegiance and obedience due only to the state itself. Now wliat must be the effect in In- flaming this spirit to have nearly one-half of the |)eople continue for a generation to feel that they are excluded from all share in the government by rf^asou of their opinion, even from those functions which their opinions do not affect. To them the government becomes only the rep- resentative of their antagonists. It is, to their minds, only organized party. Every act of its necessary authority is viewed as the act of an enemy. Its victories in war, its most success- ful and beneficent administration in peace, are regarded with jealousy and dislike, as tending to prolong the rule of toes, and perpetuate their own exclusion from power. The holders of ofHce, appointed as a reward for political service, tend naturally to become a compact and ilisciplined cohort, exerting a pow- erful influence upon the political action of the rest of the people. This is the second down- ward step. They are expected to give time, and he subject to assessments of money for tlie ser- vice ol the party. The whole peo[>le, witltout distinction of party, is thus taxed to sup|)ort body of men for the service of the party. This second evil is none the less real and formidable because it has been sometimes exaggerated, or because there are localities to which its influence has not reached. I have no faith in Mr. Cal- houn's prophecy that when the number of hold- ers of otfice shall reach one hundred thousana it will be impossible for the American people to dislodge Irom power the governing party which has such a band at its service. The temper cf the American people must be radically changed if such an influence does cot generate a resist- ing power ample for its overthrow. Certainly in that part of Massachusetts in whose service my own official life has for eight years been spent no such influence has been ever exerted. 1 do not believe the people of Worcester county differ in that respect from the majority of the people of Massachusetts. The holders of fed- eral and state offices have been men of intelli- gence and woith who have never violated the proprieties of their place. The proportion of them who have been active politicians has been no greater than the proportion of such politi- cians among the citizens at large. The small number of them who have been leaders in poli- tics would have taken the same place if their party had been out of power or they themselves had held no office. A new ylemtut has been in- troduced, under republican rule, which has largely diminished this special evil, as com- pared with democratic adrainistralions since the days of Jackson. That element is the recogni- tion ot the superior title of the citizen soldier, who renderea service to his country in the hour of her peril to every civil opportunity. But our own party is not fai:Itless in this regard. I have no doubt that under the administration of Grant this evil has been felt heavily in parts of the country, especially in the large commercial cities. I have no doubt that if this weapon be not now cast aside it will hereafter in uns'^riipu- lous hands become dangerous to lilierly. Uur ablest and wisest statesmen, from Washington to Sumner, have uttered abundant warnini:s against the two evils I have described. If I were to undertake to cite them I should detain you till the sun went down. A third downward step, of still worse public conseqnenee, has been taken since the victory of congress in its controversy with Andrew Johnson. From the feeble hands of Johnson, contending against the victorious loyalty of the coimtry represented by a two-thirds majority iu both blanches, congress, for the safety of the public, deemed itself compelled to wrest a portion of the executive power. It was a measure deemed necessary in a time of public danger, which should have been aban- doned when the danger was over. There grew up in congress a claim, not merely that its mem- bers should be respected and consulted like other citizens, in executive appointments, but of a right to dictate those appointments to the president and heads of department. The result soon was that iu many cases these appoint- ments were used by members of congress as patronage for their own personal advantage. As President Hayes well says, "The offices in these cases become not merely rewards for par- ty services, but rewards for services to party leaders." Where this practice obtains, each senator or representative surrounds himself, at the public expense, with a band of adherents devoted to his personal fortunes. This power, we all know, may be very much abused, and become a public scandal in the hands of an adroit, unscrupulous, self-seeking representa- tive. I ilesire to quote iu this connection, after the presidential election, a few sentences which I uttered before. But the evil is greater yet when the claim is made by the senator, and when it is supported by an understanding among senators that no a|>pointment shall be confirmed to which the senator from the state to which it rela es ob- jects, and no appointment rejected, except in rare cases, which that senator has advised. From this understanding have proceeded many of those appointments to office, especially in the south, which have met the public disapproba- tion. Instead of the question concerning can- didates to office, "Is he honest, is he capable, is lie faithful to the constitution?" instead, even, of the question, "Is he faithful to the principles of the republican party?" is the question, "Is he faithful to the senator?" I have heard this unconstitutional and corrupting practice de- fended as if it were but an exchange of offices of friendship, honorable alike to giver and re- ceiver. That is a strange friendsliip in which two parties, at no cost to themselves, exchange benetita at the expense of the people, and mark their gratitude to each other by generous gifts from the public treasury. Certainly no republican, aspiring to purity in government, can be insensible to the dishonor of using the povvers conferred by the people and intended only for their advantage, to purchase or to repay private benefits, or the promotion of personal ambitious — a principle only sur- passed in baseness by that which would use the same powers for the giatification of personal re- venge. Under this system, which I have described but imperfectly, the honorable service of the re- public, which should be the noblest of human avocations, becomes degraded to an infamous bargain. The separation between the executive and legislative departments, on which the con- stitution of our own commonwealth lays such stress, "to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men," is overtlirown. Tno exreutive power wliii-h ilie const. iuiii)u conliis iijjon an olticer chosen by tl)e people, is tiaus- fi-iie(.l to a buily ie|ireseiiinix suites in vvbicli Diilawaie and New Vurk liave an equal voice. Uespuiisiijilit.v rests in one place; aciual power in another. The president and heads of depart- ments become dependent upon congress; con- gress iu its Luru becomes dependent u the pres- ident. To overthrow this threefold evil, the repub- licans of Massachusetts ai:d the Union are solemnly engaged. The republicans of Massa- cliusetis iu their platform of 1873, denounced tlie undue interference of federal officers in elections, and demanded of the president that "puulie offices siiouki be hereafter used to serve the people and not to bribe them." The republicans of the whole country, by their rep- jesenialives at Cincinnati, asked the voles of the people ou the distinct promise that "The invariable rule iu appointments should have reference to the honesty, fidelity and ca- pacity of the appointees, giving to the party in power those places where harmony and vigor of admiuistratiou require its policy to be repre- sented, but permitting all others to be filled by persons selected with sole reference to the effi- ciency of the public service, aud the right of all citizens to share in the honor of rendering faith- ful service to the country." To this promise Gov. Hayes responded, "The resolutions are iu accord with my views, aud I heartily concur iu the principles they an- no ince. "The fifth resolution adopted by tlie conven- tion is of paramount interest. More than forty years ago a system of making appointmeuts to office grew up based upon the maxim "to the victors beloug the spoils." The old rule — the true rule, that honesty, capacity and fidelity constitute the only real qualifications for office, and that there is uo other claim, gave place to the idea that party services were to be chiefly considered. All parties in practice have adopt- ed this system. It has been essentially modified since its first introduction; it has not, however, been improved. At first the president, either directly or through the heads of the depart- ments, made all the appointmeuts, but gradual- ly the appointing power in many cases passed into the control of members of congress. The offices in these cases have become not merely rewards for party services, but rewards for ser- vices to party leaders. This system destroys the indepeudence of the separate departments of the government. It leads directly to ex- travagance and official incapacity. It is a temptation to dishonesty. It hinders and injures that careful supervision and strict accountability by which alone faith- ful and efficient public service can be se- cured. It obstructs the prompt removal and sure punishment of the unworthy. In every way it degrades the civil service aud the character of the government. It is felt, I am confident, by a large majority of the members of congress, to be an intolerable burden and an unwarrantable hindrance to the proper discharge of their legit- imate duties. It ought to be abolished. The reform should be thorough, radical aud com- plete. VVe should return to the principles aud practice of the founders of the government, sup- plying by legislation, when needed, that which was formerly established custom. They neither expected nor desired from public officers any partisan service. They meant that public offi- cers should owe their whole service to the gov- ernment and to the i>eople. They meant that the officer should be secure in his tenure as long as his personal character remained untarnished aud the performance of hia duties satisfactory. If elected I shall conduct the administration of the government upon these priiciples, and all constitutional powers vested in the executive will be employed to establish this reform." Unless we would be dishonored, we must sup- port the president in bis efforts to fulfill these pledges. The republican party cannot afford to make pledges before the election to be aban- doned alterward, or make lofty declarations of principle, to which its conduct shall give the lie. \'oa would not willingly exhibit the spectacle of that democracy which assembled here last weik, whose first resolution proclaimed its hos- tility to alleged frauds committed with respect to eleciions in the south, and whose last resolu- tion demands the repeal of laws passed in Mas- sachusetts, which aae the only obstacle to its own committing them here. It is said that, iu adopting this policy, the re- publican party throws away a weapon for us defence which its opponents will use against it whenever they get opportunity. But this surely is no objection, if the weapon be not lawtul and houorable. The republican party desire^J no advantage from a practice injurious to the public interest. It is said that no party can maintain itself iu this country which does not rely on its holders of office to conduct its campaigus, to defray its charges, aud to do the work ol its organization. History r»tutes this argument. The parties iu the days of our early presidents showed no lack of zeal or ener- gy. VVe do not complain of any want of energy iu our democratic opponents, who for sixteen years iu the nation, aud except for brief periods for fifty years in Massachusetts, have been ex- cluded from office. No great cause, in making its way to the hearts and consciences of man- kind, has found the aid of holders of office esential. When Matthew became an apostle he ceased to sit at the receipt of customs. Iu these remarks, I have spoken my own views on the questions of the hour, imperfectly, but frankly as becomes a republican speakiug to republicans. They, of course, biud uo man except as they approve themselves to his own judgment. In seeking to divorce the civil of- fices of the country from mere party service, do not deem that I fall into that cant of the doc- trinaire of which we hear so much in the early summer which speaks with arrogant and ignor- ant scorn of the party, the politician and the caucus. Such sentiments ridiculous ■Buywhere, would be doubly unbecoming here. Party, iu a free state, is that mechanism, by which, iu ad- ministration, public opinion becomes effective in government. In opposition, it is the zealous watchman of power. The politician — the hon- est politician — is that citizen who of all others best does his duty to his country in times of civil struggle. Without his marshaling of political forces, civil contests must be carried on by mobs and not by parties. The caucus and American liberty are twin sisters. They were born in the same city aud in the same hour. They were rocked in the same cradle. Sam Adams and Paul Revere and James Otis were|the inventors of the caucus. Our fathers put into the constitution of the state by the pen of John Adams, that clause of the bill of rights vf hich declares that "the right of the people to assem- ble in a peaceable aud orderly manner to con- sult together for the public good," shall be held sacred, with direct reference to the politi- cal caucus; and this was so declared by that great jurist and statesman. Chief Justice Shaw, iu one of his greatest constitutional judgments. It is an office worthy of the republicans of Mas- sachusetts—lineal successors of Adams aud Otis — to add to their great achievements iu the cause of constitutional liberty the restoration to their original purity of those great instrumen- talities, to which that liberty has owed so much.