The Political Retrospect ATSID OUR RESOLVE AND DUTY. SPEECH / CHARLES A. SUMNER, OF SAN FRANCISCO. Delivered before the Jeffersonian Clubs of El Do- rado County, California, at Plaoerville, California, April 4th, 1877. Published by Request of the Hearers. 1^ eOlJilOKrOBPRINTOSj m =.^: ^'^■^'^■^^^^^^M I Political Retrospect and Outlook. OEGANIZATION AN I) DUTY. The President of the Jeffersoniau Club, Hon. G. J. Carpenter, Speaker of the Assem- bly, introduced Charles A. Sumner, of San Francisco. Mr. Sumner said : Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle- B. Hayes, characterised the action of the MEN, Fellow Citizens :— If, on the 7th of Democratic representatives hefore the people November, 1876, the electors on the Radical duriug that exciting period. Nor is there any tickets had received a clear majority of the proper deduction from the credit for chival- ballota actually cast in a sufficient number of rous abstinence on this subject on the part of States to give their Presidential candidate a the popular advocates for the Democracy — preponderance iu the Electoral College vote, wherein a loyal mind for submission to a even though he lacked a million votes of a justly ascertained majority may be recog- popular majority, the acquiescence of the nized— because we all felt that, in a sense more Democratic party in his election would have profound than ever before experienced, we been perfect and complete. If, in addition to were contending against an organization, such sufficient, constitutionally-decreed re- without special reference to any one opposing suit, the Radical candidate for the office of aspirant for office ; because it is true we did Chief Executive had received a majority over not believe that the personal qualities and per- all competitors of 160,000 votes, a plurality of sonal disposition and habits and intentions, 250,0(10 ballots, and a million majority of the all combined, of the Radical nominee for the white suffrages of the nation, any Democrat or any person claiming to be a Democrat ■who would have publicly questioned the de cisi veness of the victory for tlie opposite party would have been the object of almost uiiiver Presidency had much to do in a discriminat- ing consideration of the profit and loss to the nation in the failure or success of the struggle. We felt, it is true, that we were battling, not so much against a man who had been named sal ridicule and contempt. The testimony of for the Presidency at the Cinciunati Conven- the political events of this country during the tion, as agaiust the continued domination in past eight years is conclusive on this assur- nationalaffairsof a cabal of infamous wretches, ance; and the language and conduct of the who, after fighting successfully against each Democratic party during the recent campaign other's Presidential aspirations, conspired to is overwhelming iu confirmation of this state- put a neutral creature at the head of their ment. party ticket. ludependent of outside or fring- Among the engraved results of our Eepuh- ing reasons that might have justified our not- lic's history, on which introductory and elo- able care in refraining from reviews of what- quent and patriotic congratul ition was placed ever was or couhl be called the political rec- in the Democratic platform, adopted at St. ord of Rutherford B. Hayes— and one-tenth Louis, stands the proclamation— Acquiescence of the man we admitted him to be would have in the will of the majority. Alas ! the records rejected the tender he has accepted at Wash- of our Republic no louger give uninterrupted ington with unutterable scorn— the principal, emphasis to so fundamental and comfortable the controlling, the oft-assigned sentiment a doutrine. *iiid purpose was this: We will exhibit our All the time during the campaign of the faith and our sincerity iu behalf of our plat- centennial year, everywhere, with excep- form by directly and exclusively contending tions so infrequent as to be made subjects of prominent comment more on that account than for any other reason, the Presidential candidate of' the Radical managers was treated for the election of the man who perfectly rep- resents its resolutious in his biography and his letters. But the simple and constitutional terms by the Democratic speakers and newspapers upon which the Democratic party of the na- with great respect. The claim for the excel- tion would have been practically a unit in ac- lence'of his personal character stoutly set knowleding its defeat, have not been fullilled; forth by his next of friends in political expec- and no efforts of ingenious contemporaneous tation, were speedily accepted and recited by writers can fasten the shadow of a possibility nearly every Democratic orator and journal- of truthfulness in such a claim upon tlie ac- ist, without public qualification, if not with- cepted and enduring page of history. All the out private dispute or misgivimjs; and in nu- conditions which I have supposed— m the case merous instances, it can now be said, legiti- where lunacy alone would have excused a mate opportunities to criticise his obscure and member of our organization iu a rebeUious msi"'nificant public record were charitably demou.stration against the elected right of the ignored or unimproved. It is proper to de- Chief Mairisirate -belong to a different pic- clare, that a forbearance which amounted to tnre, and lend the gravest signiticaiice and the magnanimous courtesy towards Rutherford most imposing and imperative obligations in THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. an opposite direction. Not Rutherford B. Hayes, not William A. Wlieeler, but the Ciin- didates upon tlie Democraiic ticket, were electeil Presideut and Vice Piesident of the United States on the 7th of November last. It was for tlie latter, and not for the former, that the indisputable tally shows a popular majority over all riviils of IfiO. 000 votes, and 250,000" pUnalily; and in a million majority the wiiite voters of the country declared their preference and choice for President to be, not Rutherford B. Haves, of Ohio, but Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. From the outset of the campaign, it was manifest that the determination of the Demo- cratic party was to obtain success by the use of all f.iir and legitimate means; liaving, as it did, for its leaders and counsellors many men who are conceded to be among the wisest and best that have ever dignitied public lite in this nation or adorned an honorable profes- sion: — Charles Francis Adams, of Massachu- setts, andGideonWelles, of Connecticut; Park Godwin and John Bigelow, of New York ; Andrew Curtin, of Pennsylvania ; Montgom- ery Blair, of Maryland ; Lyman Trumbull and Joseph E. Palmer, of Illinois; George VV. Julian, of Lidiana; Austin Blair, of Michiiran; B. Gratz Brown, of Missouri ; John R Doo- little, of Wisconsin; Cassius M. Cliiy, of Ken- tucky ; — all old-line Republicans ; as pairi'>t8 and statesmen, tried and true, and peerless in their respective commonwealths ; these men being among the most intiuential in advising the nominations, suggesting the methods of the canvass, and contributing towards its progress and ultimate success. From the outset of the campaign, it whs evident to every intelligent and candid ob- server that the managers of the Radical or- ganization were determined to place their candidate in the Presidential chair, if means the most corrupt and artifices the most detest- able could suffice to accomplish that end; that party having, as it did, for its leaders some of the worst men that have ever disgraced high official station — men who at one time or an- other have been stamped as political rene- gades and scoundrels by every journalist in the land who has won any claim to respect for theworthiness of his opinions : — such men as Oliver P. Morton, of Indiana, and Zach. Chandler, of Michigan ; Ben. Butler, of Mas- sachusetts ; Jim Blaine and Eugene Hale, of Maine ; Simon Cameron and his son " Don," of Pennsylvania ; J. G. Gartield, of Ohio ; D. H. Chamberlain, of South Carolina ; M. L. Stearns, of Florida ; Madison Wells, of Louisiana : — and having for its candidate for Vice-Piesident one of the most servile and ready of railroadsubaidy representatives, and havingfor its principal outside " backers" the Princes of the railroad and whiskey rings, with Tom Scott and Jay Gould at their head — men whose preferences were known and satisfied at Cincinnati, and whose labor and expenditures at the close of the contest were all-powerful in seeming the consummation of the unparalleled and tremendous Conspiracy of usurpation. Fellow citizens : we did not contend for the salve of the temporary exultation of a party triumph, but for a lasting victory in behalf of great coubtitutional principles of free govern- ment. And there is nothing— I say it boldly, and 1 think I can place the record iu such a manner that no one will deny the glorious re- flection with any grace of accei t — there is nothing iu our canvass as a party for the man who was elected President of the United States that calls upon us for anything ap- proaching moral apidogy or explanation. Mis- takes on our side there were. Let them be avoided in the future. Inexpedient methods, acts of indiscreet local insubordination ag;iinst careful directions from headquarters, and slug- gish movements, are to be complained of, for ourselves and by ourselves ; but our hands were clean in the combat. And we can come here tonight, and go elsewhere fo morrow, and look each other in the face, and clasp each other by the hand, with a view to again renew the work of organization and the service of political soldiery, without studying to hide a recent political biography, but with every noble aiui generous fraternal impulse spring- ing therefrom. My friends: every man, everywhere, ac- cording to the prevailing belief of the civilized world, needs his own and his neighbors' prayers as he goes in and out to his daily da- ties. But if with our linite vision we can at any time discover any clear distinction be- tween the good and the bad, between evil and that which does not belong under the title, we can rise in this secular' assembly to- night, and with devoutly reverential senti- ments declare, that so far as the conduct of the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, in 1876, is before the people — as it now appears, after all the proper, searching inquiry and in- vestigation — in tlie white light that has beaten upon him and all his words and deeds dur-ing the campaign season, with power "lo blacken every blot" — so far as his life in respect to his candidacy is concerned, from Ma}' to March, he does not; need the prayers of any man. Nor can I fail to add in sucli evidently appropriate juxtaposition : wliile it is the al- most universal l)elief of enlightened people, that there is a divine forgiveness, not only for the acts and thoughts of imperfection and in- firmity, which are inseparable from human life, but also for the willful and most heinous sins of commission, it is not within the creed, or conscience, or suspected letter, of any theol- ogy that was ever outlined, to imagine that the witting receiver of stolen goods is any bet- ter than the thieves that enrich him ; or that a marble " fence" store, or a government junk shop, inhabited by political burtjlars and pick- pockets, where the nominal keeper calls to himself the principal cracksmen and panel sneaks who have successfully combined to steal foi- him both his house and his goods, is made by virtue of a concert of prayer or a tu- mult of sacred opera a sanctified dwelling- place for religious stategmausbip and republi- can honor. We are told that during the culminating days of the conspiracy at W;ishiMgton, the leaders and managers of the Radicil party were in a "tevei-ish condition of hope"; they expressed the belief that if they could once more secure a term of Fedei al power, no matter under what auspices or by what lever- age, they could perpetuate their party su- piemacy during the remainder of the century. I am not here to say that their hope and ex- pectation as thus chronicled wns strange or unreasonable. It is certain that by very dif- feient channels, men who manage in the Rad- ical party and men who have merely con- sented to abide in it hitherto, or within the.- litest dates, argue out for tliemselves and their own judgments and consciences, and for their neighbors, the justice and propriety of such a foretelling. Our time here does not THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. permit us to analyze the eelf-excueing plausi- bilities of the relatively better class, and the coriespondiiigly least, iufiiieiiliul members of the Radical committees. The main Conspirators of the Radical party unquestionably rejuice in the unclouded be- lief that by the same line of conduct tliat has been pursued by them, or under their direc- tion, dining the past eiglit or ten years, the perpetuity in power of the " Republican" or- ganization can be maintained for their special use and aggrandizement. More stealing, more gathering of plunder — more disciplining of forces that work best under the seive of dis- honest public appropriations of money, bonds and lands. These men who are at "the very bead of the administration, as controlling offi- cers or as '"Powers beliind the throne," do not believe, and do not pretend to believe, that there exists any enlightened moral senti- ment, discriminating as to the real fact of abuse and the only or best mode of remedy — existing among the masses of the people — ■which can be referred to or relied upon by the combatants for honesty and right in the affairs of government. In their secret con- ventions, as we are told by some of their comrades, who have through some inadver- tence been apprehended and sent to jail, and who have harbored revengeful feelings against their fellows on this account — in their private consultation chambers, they do scotf at the idea of such a popular moral sen- timent as I have indicated. And in open illnstralion of this contempt for all appeals whirh presuppose or attrib- ute a general rectitude of tliought and pur pose iimoiiK the masses, wliat is or could be more conclusive than the scene at the JJa- lional Capitol, where Senator Jim Blaine ap- pears the conspicuous figure :— entering the Senate Chamber " with his face all aglow with smiles," and relating to his fellow Radi- cal Senators — (not shunning with shame a few Democratic auditors) — how the Louis- iana Returning Board had reduced their an- nouncement of the theft of the vote of the State to " fractions," and actually given publi- cation to Parish numee, and the special pre- tences assigned thereto, in several outcasting paragraphs! And the Radical Senatorial as- sociates of this branded scoundrel Ha! Ha! with him, before the Senate of the United States — theieby interrupting the proceedings of that body — .ind, by the telegraphed record, sending befu'e all the people, their laugh over tiie action of the infaujous Returning Board of Louisiana in going into the extreme- ly unnecessary atfectation of making a figure and fractional showing in some respects, or in some instances, of their method and re- sults in " doing business! " To the same couilusion take another illus- tration. Alter " a praj'erful season" — (and my friends, how has the Christian religion been defamed and debauched by the national exliibltiou of Cant and Phariseeism we have had during the past few weeks) — after a prayeiful Sunday and Slonday and TuesJay, called by himself for himself, the usiii-perin the AVhiie House is reported in one of his party organs, as receiving " with great cordiality " the ineuibers of the Louisiana Returning Board, fresh from the examination room where they had confessed all tlieir alleged in- iquities thrice over; "' listening with pleased countenance to their expressions of high per- sonal regard," and dismissing them with as- surances of his " esteem for them person- ally," and his commission ^' to tlicm to bear with them to their people his desire to so conduct affairs as to bring peace to their sec- tion of the country." And one more illustration. Morton, the Radical Danton, whose presence and influ- ence was not to be tolerated at the White House if Hayes was elected, (so we were told during tlie campaign, by the usurper's "bosom friends,")— Morton appears at the north east- ern gateway of the Presidential garden, and has himself reported as unable to venture across the slippery walks. Instant, the usur- per comes forth ; " greets his distinguished guest with the utmost cordiality" — I quote from the New York Timex — and seats him- self in the carriage beside this notoriously unprincipled political (-haiL-itan — who is ready to profess any political sentiments at any time — and there holds " close conversa- tion for half an hour." Fellow citizens : the question is one that is at the heart of the nation's history and hope ; at the foundation of all approximate assurance of a change for the belter in the admistralion of Federal affairs in our day and generation : Does there exist a moral senti- ment among the people to which a saving and sufficient a ppe.il can be made against the Conspirators during the administration term on which we have entered ? Are the Radical managers correct when they assume, as they loudly do assume, tliat the people are either ready and anxious to sanction all their deeds of recent record, or too blind from prejudice or sheer ignorance to perceive the political iniquities of the Conspirators in their true light, or discern their kindred and infernal intentions ? Are the men who go about the streets of our cities and towns proclaiming jubilantly the utter fi>lly of any address to the sense of right and truth andjusiice in the breasts of a large majority of our fellow citi- zens, correct iu their judgment on this all- important matter? Is their shriek of deris- ion at every earnest effort to inform the peo- ple as to the real condition of national affairs, and to stir up their minds by way of lively remembrance against the day of righteous wrath for unpatriotic men, a very psalm of rejoicing that shall not be hushed until the physical revolution comes to make a terrible retribution for prolonged terms of national jobbery and repeated usurpations? It is the question that cannot be italicised too fre- quently; it is a fearful question; and one which concerns every citizen before me fully as much as it can personally affect or reason- ably excite the humble speaker of the evening. We mai/ say for one another, as well as for ourselves individually : We can endure the fact and the increase and the piomise of this condition of affairs as long as any one else. We may say, with seUish congratulation over our own exemption from the untold and un- utterable sorrows of anarchy and mob devas- tation : Our country is so large, ^ o rich, so un- developed, with such immense material resour- ces, with such a multitude of existing and npspiinging commercial interests — so many thousand avenues of trade, so many opportu- nities for new ;iiid remunerative manufactur- ing — with such correspiiuding possibilities for tide setting change which no man can take into his keenest endeavors to forecast and prophesy — all these things presumably ope- rating as a saving ventage or bewilderment, for a time — that we, at least, iu all human probability, shall not be disturbed or distressed THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. by the gathering on the fields of Gog and Magog. Let the plunderei-s riot if tliey will and as they will ; and cheat the people every time the majority elect honest rulers, aud by the ballot declare a disposition and determina- tion to substitute soundintelligence and probity in public stations in place of state's prison cun- ning and shameless rapacity. We might ex- claim to the jubilant supporteis of the Conspir- ators at Washington: "Shout to the full scope of your lungs over the achievements of your leaders and masters ; we neither stop our ears from chagrin, nor expect any serious personal injury or any inconvenience amount- ing to physical harm from these unholy tri- umphs which yon celebrate ; — which you cel- ebrate now with the blare of bugles and the roll of drums from marine and army bands, pressed into service through military orders, and now celebrate with prayers from Henry Ward Beecher, Cosmopolitan Consul New- man, I. S. Kalloch, John Glendeuning, Bob lugersol, and Frank Page." We may say, — we might, possibly, say, — that as there is nothing in tlie hurrah of fraudulent partisan triumph which torments us, so nothing in the plain letter of moral or material threatening against the country — misgoverned and plun- dered to the uttermost extent that we can sup- pose at all tolerable — will render us any the less secure in our respective habitations dur- ing our brief span of earthly existence. We may think this. We might say all this. On such a basis we might lay down our arms, or retire from the front; or take but an indiffer- ent part in the coming political contest. And yet : what is our duty ? Can we put aside the armor of patriotism, and justify our- selves as conscientious men before the coun- try, in the light of history,— in accordance with the hope that springs and swells within our bosoms, like rivers of great waters, as we look into the faces of our little children ! For one, I have my retrospect, my confes- sion and my vow, in the statement of which I will be entirely candid. Not obtruding my words under these titles in a spirit of egotism; but giving them because I Ijelieve they will put me on a tit and fraternal basis with many of you, and in a square and desirable plane of understanding with all, during this evening's communication. I am glad, aud I am bereaved, and I am re- solved. I said to you, five months ago, that the judg- ment seals were set ; that Samuel J. Tilden would be elected president of the United States. Did I then speak tl e words of truth aud soberness ? Samuel J. Tildeu was elect- ed President of the United States under the provisions of the Constitution : having besides a popular vote larger than that ciphered for him by his most sanguine supporters. Tlie people by majorities that must not be set aside from our daily answering memories, declared thatSamuelJ. Tildeu should be the President of the United States. In response to the editorials telegraphed from New York to the San Francisco " Inde- pendent Pre.=s," and the stumj) orators' quota- tions therefrom, uttered by the outriders for Morton and Sargent on this coast, I endeavor- ed to make plain the fact that the evidently earnest hope, aud, perhaps, sincere exjiecta- tion of a victory for the Radical ticket in New York, was unwarranted, if not ridiculous. Did I I'eason outside of the suggestions of the rec- ord and the probabilities of the hour ? That great State gave Samuel J. Tildeu one hun- dred and seven thousand more votes than be received when he ran for the gubernatorial office. But the conspirators "counted out" Sam- uel J. Tilden : — by a succession of audacious proceedings and a series of thieving tricks they accomplished their purpose ; and to-day a usurper sits in the chair of President Wash- ington I Five months ago, I said in the presence of many of you that if Samuel J. Tildeu was not chosen President, and did not enter upon the duties of the office of chief executive, I should have my lenten days of sorrow. I think that I may without an exhibition of morbid or mawkish weakness, confess a profound grief over the result as it stand.s depicted. Let oth- ers, if they can and will, profess a compla- cency that enables them to accept such a re- sult, so brought about, with "cheerful acquies- cence.'' I have no common lot either with the man who snivels in public over a wholly per- sonal loss, or claims that he has no personal sensitiveness touched and made to suffer by unjust political defeat. It is not a mere mat- ter of loss of victory. It is not the fact of be- ing in a minority. Individually I have lost more than one contest, through the purchas- ing power of the Central Pacific Railroad Company, after the majority of the people in my district or state had voted for me as their choice for CongressioUfd Representative. And I do not say that I could long remain in a ma- jority in the Democratic party, if it were ad- mittedly successful in all its elections to-mor- row. 13ut this national record is insufferable to my mind, by reason of what I know of the bad management that has been justly charged against our side by our own associates, and on account of the giviugs-away that I cannot refrain from suspecting; and I have at times to dismiss the subject, by the strongest exer- cise of my will from the chambers of recon- ciliation. No physical voice of one man or of any rabble of men, — no whispering or mutter- ing of satisfaction over the success of the Con- spiracy, — brings me the slightest uneasiness, or serves to fix my meditations on the record. It is the general contemplation of the situa- tion which I can suffer and iuvite,at mj^own volition, that fills me with regrets and fore- bodings. But from such contemplation I rise without abated pangs of distress, but with new resolu- tion ; with a freshened spirit of liostility to every form of ])olitical debasement ; with in- flexible purpose of re-dedication to every good aud every orderly work of redemption in the interests of honest republican government. Let others do as they may. I believe that to- day the Union calls for yeoman service from her true sons, as sternly and imploringly and cheeringly as ever bef'oie in the annals of our nation's time. For myself, as opportunity pro- vides, in so far as in me lies, consistent with the least I must do under the first obligations of every citizen, I will strive aud be spent in the service of my country. That service is made clear to my conscience as a bright noon- day path : that little service now belongs in the ranks of the Democratic party of the peo- ple of the nation. Do you doubt the existence of a fair field for the contest? Is there a moral sentiment among the vast majority of the people that will reach the sores aud exci'escences of the body politic with destroying force ? Is there not in this country a burning caustic of public opiuion that will yet scorch and fire out the THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. elephantiasis wens and warts and bunions and cancers that are now personified in the places of government aiitliority ? Or have the lep- ers come in from without the gates, into the beautiful city and the lialls of dominion, and captured the temple and council house for all time ; fattening upon the substance as well as the luxurious overplus of a mighty nation ; screeching in diabolical delight over their own increasingly repulsive imag^ and ap- pearances and demeanor and dictations, as they parade in ghastly ranks through the corridors of the Capitol building, and issue mandates and carry out Conspiracies that correspond upon each leaf of history with the unspeakable hideousness of their personal characters ? Let us be thankful as we enter anew on the service of patriots, that now there is so much more of absolute verity in the division on the one side as against the other. Only get the facts before the people, and it must be seen that this is the right or this is the wrong- Let the responsibility be welcomed, that sits indisputably on the constitution or wilful and wicked wish and pertinacity of the in- dividual. There is no compromise, there is no halfway house of judgment, when we do succeed in dragging the statement of the actual events before the couimunity. Tilden should have been inaugurated President of the United States, or Hayes is the rightful Chief Executive of the Republic. The effort made with every muscle taughteued and ev- ery nerve keyed up to the uttermost tension — with eyeballs horribly protruding and fixed in their staring, from rush of blood to the head— to make it seem that there is not a sharp line of demarkiition between the politi- cal ami moral truth and falsehood in this na- tional diary of the last twelve months, will prove to bs vain and impotent, if we do but follow the forms of simple duty everywhere, and keep the indisputable story in ever-pres- ent lettering among the masses of our fellow- citizens. On the one side or the other is the perfect right, or the clear, unqualified, unmit- igated wrong. The proceedings and incidents at which we have already glanced exhibit the case in unmistakable explicitness to the in- telligent understanding, and every step or thought of real inquiry will disclose deeper soundings for the gulf of separation. The Louisiana record is complete and beyond quib- ble or prevarication, in itself and by its inevi- table suggestions and impeachments and con- demnations. There need be no patience exer cised with those notoriously faint-hearted, soft-brained citizens who always imagine they see so much good on both sides of party lines that they never do thoroughly cast their own vote. But no man can be blamed for error of party choice, when he is not put in posses- sion of the record that justly belongs to the canvass ; — presuming, always, that he uses reasonable, conscientious means to obtain and read the needed chapters of contemporaneous history. The division is dear: — so much out of the situation to be grateful for, by every lover of the straight street to the house of judgment. Many men, let us believe and be ready to concede that uiany thousands upon thousands of good men, voted for the Rutherford I?. Hayes electors under the firm conviction that the success of Samuel J. Tilden would be dis- astrous to the best interests of the country. Is it to be wondered at that such is the la- mentable fact ; when the " Independent Piess'' of the country was employed to do its uttermost for the propagation of such an opinion '/ It is with these good men that the work of conversion has alreaily had its per- fect day; or their clumge of party affiliation awaits our fair and zealous etfoits in inform- ing, iuctructiug aiul proselyting. And mark you, such men will not be offended by the use of the plainest terms of arraignment and speci- fication. I rejoice to know that, since the ides of No- vember, with thousands upon thousands of our fellow-citizens, scattered throughout the Union, the perfect day of illumination has come. They have disclaimed all fellowship with the men who did advise such proceed- ings as secured the inauguration of a usurper in the Presidential office ; and step by step their protest of heart, if not of voice and pen, followed the doings of the Conspirators at Washington during the last session of Con- gress. Such men 1 can count in San Fran- cisco by the score. I hope you can name them in El "Dorado County by the dozen. But some remain as yet uninformed ; or hesitat- ing because the same influeuces that bam- boozled them during the campaign persist iu the work of deception with them; strongly prevailing with unsophisticated minds. It would seem that hardly anything else is necessary in the programme of work for us, with reference to our neighbors and friends who are not utterly committed by criminal intent or bigotry to the cause of the Conspira- tors, than to make sure that those over whom we can exercise a direct influence behold the developments, as they are called, of the Ad- ministration, from day to day, in these early weeks of the term of the usurper ; the de- clared stultiHcatiou — so admitted and pro- fessed — as against the cry of the campaign on which these neighbors and friends voted a few short months ago. The avowed incon- sistencies are so glaring that they must natur- ally turn the attention of all observers to a comparison with the pleadings of the summer and fall of 1876 ; and the closer the study of all this real and all this simulated variance and betrayal, — this accepting the inevitable under duress, and calling the bitter " sweet," and this undoubted readiness to go some dis- tance on a highway of justice, if thereby amo- mentarybenelit can be obtained — the more cer- tain and positive and clinching the accessions to our political brotherhood. And it is by the work that will afterwards come from these proselytes, that the standard of political right and truth will be carried higher before the country and the world. Discovering how they have been practiced upon with false pre- tences, their sense of the exact wrong perpe- trated, and their exasperation at the retros- pect, will enable atul impel them to make per- sonal appeals to their fellow citizens more powerful than any we can devise or declaim. Let them see how the sham " work of recon- ciliation" uuder the usuiper is, for him, and in the name of the " Republican party," begun and continued, with shouts of " Pacilication,'' ami with a hundred offers of bargains 'twixt the robbers and the elect, and a thousancl venal propositions for office and emolument- reward to party infidelity uublushingly put forth, — if so be the junta of Radicalism, still under the lead and contml of the old political prostitutes who have shaped the Presidential Conspiracy, can be reinstated in popular fa- vor. Every true citizen here to-night, should 6 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. strive from this hour until the day of electiou, the day of national interest ? We shall come to bring neighbors and social companions and again to this threshold inquiry, -with more di- occasional visiting friends, who voted the rect personal allusion, by and by ; and that Radical ticket last f:ill, face to face with the right home in California— if I have your pa- evidence of the contrasts and mutual condem- tience with me so far. nations of recent Administiation doiugs ; by In passing from tiiis point or admonition Bomo personal, respectful, proselyting meth- of duty, and the manner and relative ease of ods. Let not the minds of these subjects for its perforniauce towards our neighbors and your persuasion be led away from the fact friends, we take np something springing from that last fall they were induced to remain in the last consideration, for the most anxious the ranks of the " Republican " organization and earnest of fraternal warninss. because it was proclaimed unto them^again and During the next four years there will he no again, that a Radical success at that time was end of promises of good from the administra- essential to prevent the unmixed evil of the tion ; there will be constant reiteration of aa- domiiiation in tlie Southern States of such suiances that great good has been accom- men as Wade Hampton, Xichols, and Ben. plished by the usurper aud his cabinet and Hill; because it was intimated that a new in- their advisers. The Western Union Tele- surrection in the South— actual rebellions in graph monopoly and the " Independent Press" one locality and another, with horrible negro- will be devoted to this work of manuf ictur- massacres — would follow the recognition of ing a popular opinion, to the etfect that al- such men as Wade Hampton and Nichols as though the President of the United St;ite8 Governors of their respective States. In pre- defacto, may be challenged as a man who has cisely these particulars were the charges of no legal right to the office which he holds, slumbering treason and inhuman disposition yet he does so conduct himself in his high and determination shed abroad by the chain- station, which has been stolen for him — he pions for the Radical ticket in the campaign does in some respects so imitate the virtues of of 1876. It must not be forgotten that the the administration that was outlined by the staple of the Radical campaign of 1876 was Democratic Platform and the writings of " the bloody shiit." And under its folds the Samuel J. Tilden— as not only to entitle him- summons went forth, to keep, and cajole, and self to the commendation of the people, but capture. also to recommend the party managers who Now read the current record, and induce fradulently counted him into the executive your sometime " Republican" neighbors to do chair to the complacent consideration, to the the same. wholesale forgiveness, perhaps even to the ad- Again there come before us personal illus- miration of citizens, irrespective of party trations with irresistable demonstration of du- lines. In this way, by these channels for plicity and fraud. Jim Blaine tnkes a special general communication and repeated assertion lookout, after the Georgia Senatoiial Electiou, of excellence — with respect to things necessa- that he may be the first to welcome on the ry to he done by any chief executive, and lloor of the Senate Chamber, at the National with respect to many little and some large Capitol, the very man whom it was hurrah- reforms (for which everybody will be duly iugly said that Jim was elected to combat and glad) which he and his surroundings coiild o vertln-o w — even Ben. Hill, of Atlanta. And not do otherwise than assent to, or acquiesce in, when this welcome was extended, there ap- in obedience to the manifest will of that very peared to be every probability tiiat Tilden majority which chose Samuel J. Tilden Presi- would be the inaugurated President. dent of the United States— it is even hoped Where is the bloody shirt ? on which was not only to save the Conspirators from merit- inscribed— as their orators had it — " in Let- ed retirement, but actually to reverse the pop- ters of Living Light," the denunciations by ular party verdict of 1N76; — when the popular Representative Jim Blaine against Southern majority over all of 160,000 votes, aud a mil- rebels aud their alleged insurrectionary inten- lion majority of white men, declared that not tions — denunciations uttered in a quick retort, the creature of Chandler aud the Camerons and also in studied phrases over the text of a and Morton and Gould, but another person speech by Representative Ben. Hill, otGeor- should be President of the United States — gia. Can this thing be, and not overcome us none other than that noble gentleman, that all with disgust at the boldest and basest po- grand old Jetfersouian statesman and Political litical and personal inconsistency and infidel- Reformer— Pre-eminent before the world in iiy among Radical chieftains? Can this be, the Centennial year of our country— Samuel and not open the eyes of the simplest man J. Tilden, of New York, among the number that composed the hosts of Be not deceived. Imitations and affecta- compfetely deluded citizens who did support tions there will be ; and making-the-most by Rutherford B. Hayes at the ballot box, on the way of profession and out of enforced good 7th of last November? Is there to be any conduct there will be. Be not deceived, standard of honest judgment on political con- The stream cannot rise higher than the foun- duct in this land? May you and I be one tain. Do men gather grapes of thorns and person in politics to-day, and absolutely an- ligs of thistles 1 Reforms there will be. Re- other person in politics "to-morrow — quite the forms there must he in any Administration reverse — and then shout cheerilv to the cheat- that succeeds the administration of Ulysses S. ed thousands who sanctioned the tirst declar- Grant. Or so the changes will appear— ation; formally extending an invitation to them whatever they may be, be they really State to continue their support under an exactly op- Reforms or merely a change in the games of posing prodamalion, or apparently expecting cards at the White House— so they will ap- unabated approval ? Is there no'intellectual pear at the first blush of announcement. We inteijrily to be accredited among the masses, will have such "Reforms" as Morton and capable of judging of such vaulting tricks and Jay Gould would have conceded to the people tumbles, with soleinnjadgment; a mental up- in person, had they been counted into the rightness that is to be vindicated in conclu- Presidential chair ; none other or different, sioub as to how this and that citizen will vote Be not deceived. There may be a pretence in this State this year and the next, and on of dissolving party ties, as there is a readiness THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. to do anything to recover fiivor among the people — anything that will not sacrifice tlie preceilence and power in plunder of the men who by IVaiid placed Rutherford B. Hayes in the Presidential clmir. Much will be in;ide of the pul)lic declarations of every old liulii who — quire on tiie ragged edge of going to pieces in every sense of the word— may be appointed to cry out in behalf of a general " brealiing up of parties." Be not deceived. There may even be se- rious attempt or labor to actually change the name of the " Republican Party." That's an old trick of some of its present owners. When a Contract and Finance Company has robbed the nation of a few millions, more or less, and it looks strongly as if there was going to be a call for an uccouiiting, it may be considered judicious to disincorporate, and change the ti- tle of the company to the Western Develop- ment Association, and buin the books, and pension ott some of the clerks of the ftjrmer con- cern. But the same thieves ujay be gathered together, with new title, and renew their roundabout, shuttle cock and battledore pro- cesses ot State and Nation robbery. Be not deceived. Hampton and Nicholls must be acknowledged Governors of their re- spective Connnonwealths, or there will be civil war within the borders of South Caroli- na and Louisiana ; or there will be the ap- pointment of two military Governors, with all the perplexities and exposures of Radical- ism which such a proceeding would inevita- bly involve. Delays in the issuance of orders and dallyings in "Commissions" will be had and commended ; maneuveriugs to dis- cover, if possible, some exculpating methods of coming to the unavoidable. O, if there could be a shining, dazzling pathway cut through the woods, by which the ordinary observer would not see that the President of the United States permitted one man to be Governor who came in the same direction that his competitor for the highest office travelled, with the same credit for a destination ticket ! There will at limes be cunning displayed in affecting to steal the policy of the party whose elected candidate was deprived of his office by chicanery and fraud. But if there is a moral judgment existing among the majority millions of this Republic, the measure of re- formatory action that must come in any ad- ministration — that vrould come, I repeal, un- der Morton himself -will not avail to stay the rising wave of judgment — inevitable, ir- repressible, irresistible, overthrowing, exter- minating ! Be not deceived. Some reformatory movements are absolutely necessary from the circumstances of the situation. The party division in the two houses of the National Legislature guarantees this. The wish for a personal retention of power on the part of the leading Conspirators promises this; al- though with them, undoubtedly, there is the expectation that while the right hand of the Executive obtrusively shows gifts of honor and justice, the lingers of the hand that is not displayed will secretly sign permissions or commands in their behalf for more than coun- terbalancing charters for plunder and extor- tion. Be not deceived. There will be all sorts of wars, so called, and rumors of wars, within the ranks of the Radical party durinir the .administration term of Rutherford B. Hayes. Co7ip-de-Solcil-Bhnue commenced that sharp practice in the Senate ; and has deceived some. Now it will be this leader, now it will be another. The principal Cor- rupter of Congress, and one of the greatest monopolies on earth, I he Western Union Tel- egraph Company, with its twin or creature, the Associated Phkss Bureau, will be tearfullv exercised every now and then, in despatching to the Pacific C(.)ast "Lndepen- DENT Press'' accounts about this and that principal villain in the pack of Presidency thieves; — how this one or that one has be- come dissatisfied, disgusted, morose, mad, ob- streporous, " rambankshious," " rearing and tearing," all because tootsy-pootsy, sweety- eety, rosy-posjs pansyanzy Rutherford B., — protege of Sladisou Wells, John Sherman, Jay Gould, Zach Chandler, and O. P. Morton, — has insisted on doing something so, 0, so goody-oody, that every body-oddy ought to get right down on tlieir knees, and thank their stars and every bodyodie-else' stars, that such a sweety-eety, rosy-posy, panzy-an- zy cherub-saint was thrust into the Presi- dential chair of a mighty nation by the great- est political atrocity ever perpetrated within the confines of a Republic ! Be not deceived. And let not your neigh- bors and friends be deceived any more. All tills is but a part of a well-rehearsed piece of "strategy, my boy," with which to gull the multiiude. Sprats for gudgeons, springes to catch woodcocks, — manikin Jonahs to be thrown overboard as bait for a whole belly full of ballots to be cast upon some Florida reef, or emitted on the bank of some Louisana bayou, or depos- ited on a reedy ocean beach of South Caro- lina. Diversions to amuse the groundlings, while their day of sovereignty passes, while their names are being voted — perhaps in the eighth precinct of the tenth ward of San Francisco; snutf to be thrown in the eyes of business-laden, travel worn citizens, who are approaching home with a view to vote "no confidence" in his frauduleucy's administra- tion; sulphuric acid cider, to be crammed down the throat of rural innocents, under one pretence and another, by wandering Radical peddlers; — innocents who were just waking up to a realizing tense of the fact thiit theretofore they had been drugged with the rinsings of tlie '' bloody shirt," and had better improve an adjacent opportunity to go on tlie witness stand, against their deceivers and impostors, before the jiii'y of the nation. It will be puff, puff, puff, day in and night out, for the fraudulent President; and desperate exceptions will be reported to have been taken to his perfect line of conduct by succeeding Radical actors on the National stage; all ending in the defeat of the re- bellious chieftains and the triumph of Virtue, as it is personified in the Presidential chair. And shortly thereafter, th.eie will be direct or implied confession of error, on the part of the fellow who has given up his cue and taken off his buskins, and a dozen paragraphs by telegraph describing the demonstrations of welcome home to the wanderer from the Radical fold; coining back in penitential tears to the kitchen door of the good butler in the VVhite House. And then must come an apotiieosis : before the country sits Rutherford B. Hayes on a revolving pedestal; sun-satu- rated clouds all around him! And sacrilege most infamous, desecration upon desecration most grievous : every Revolutionary hero and martyr, every whole-souled patriot and scholarly statesman, who has long since had 8 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. Becular canonization in the hearts of the in- There is the contempt of the " Independent tellitrent people of this land, ^viU have liis fam- Press "—which is mvanably the press of the iliar" face photoijraphed for this display— set lobbying corruptionists of the country, except on the red margin round about the Presiden- where the managers have themselves a sep- and commanded to sit, by the voice and votes ated contempt of the papers tliat come boast of a mi-hlv maioritv multitude of the peo- fully under this caption, against Poli- ple of the "United States of America. ticians," and especially against " Ward Foh- O, my countrymen : will vou be deceived ticians," and '•.Politicians of the Street, orperm'it your 'next-door neighbor or your Let us inquire into this matter, for it is im- saluting friend to be deceived any longer by portant. ,r- i 8uch thin devices and demonstrations? Will Probably, unless yoa interest yourself in the you be humbugged or fascinated, or permit first processes of the canvass, the strong op- your associates to be hoodwinked or en- portuulty for your personal inliuence is gone; chanted, while John Sherman plays the role you will not have acceptable men in your lo- of financier, and his implements receive the cal or county conventions; you will not secure highest honors at his hand, in the house of nominations and expressions of political faith the executive; and Carl Schurtz abides in and doctrine in accordance with your best the same circle under a man he speciallv sin- judgment, and, I will presume, in consonance gled out as especially unfit to be President with the views of a large and honest majority, —sitting tliere under a conditional con- Of all miserable, flagrant, and as it seems to tract; while every evil genius that lent a me, self-evident contradictions in life— being helping hand to the Conspiracy has audience, citizens here as we are— of all sickening in- aud boasts in turn a thorough and intimate consistenciesof public speech, defend me now friendship with tlie ruler they have made in and forever against hearing, and protect me spite of the constitutionally registered ver- in reading, these stereotyped tirades against diet of the People? politics and parties, and the men who engage But before I proceed further, right in this everywhere, under the proprieties, in the de- connection, let me have my first hearty word bate of the political issues of the day, and par- in congratulation on your organization. You ticipate in the preliminary and consummating have taken the initiative in the work of or- management of political associations, which gauizing which ouirht to be followed in every are to carry out— if ever they are put in prac- other county in 'California, and for which tical operation— the written principles of a you must have the credit of pioneer enter- free government. prise and wisdom. Politics are as we make them. I believe ' Your organization will be the channel for and insist that it still requires an adjective or communications, and furnish the forum for a challenging context, to really stigmatize a debates that must undeceive hundreds of politician ; that is, such addition for such a worthy people. Among the methods for such purpose is necessary, outside of the " Inde- a needed business under your auspices, I pendent Press." The first definition of the shall venture to select and" to submit some word in every dictionary makes the appella- that seem to me most judicious. tion a credit to any man; and if popular You call me here to speak. And so, at the odium nas been smoked into its syllables, the outset or within your preface days, you de- wholesome word should be rescued from the clare a good work of vindication." I say this down grade of signification, and returned to without acknowledging the compliment or the original excellence of isolated meaning, the flattery that exists'iu the fact or form of The more thoroughly a community is inter- the invitation. ested in politics, within the due and decent Who is to labor for the people, with the limits of life as those boundaries are under- people, in these degenerate days ? Let him stood by us all, the more certain the outcome be named quickiy and squarely. It is the of worthy men in ofiice, bound by a clear and honest politician. Come now, let us look at formal i)iedge, aud obligated by the still more him. It is the day for plain speech upon the binding rule of their own sense of honor, to subject. I may turn your gaze to better men protect and foster the rights of the whole than I have a right to class myself with; to people. '• Takes too much time from private strontrer minds than I profess to exercise in business?" Why, it is your time for your the service of the people as a politician ; but couuti'y. " The effects of the associations and I am not immodest in the hope and belief excitement are dissipating." Why, you all that none of my respected associates in the niake up the associations ; and experience on field have more of sincere devotion or relent- the soberest page of history preaches the less will in the cause of Democracy. Let healthfulness of the magnetism and the inter- that stand as my introduction to this section est and the enthusiasm that is in such labor of the address. . and convocations. Most of you have gone My friends, here is one and there is an- iiome better men from the halls of political other person continually prating about the disputation, consultation and arrangement. " filthy pool of politics." And here is one i appeal to you if it has not been so ? There man and there is another regularly engaged jg more " dissipation " in the theatre and un- in declaiming regretfully about his own hesi- der the spell of the merriment-making min- tancy, and everybody else's reluctance — the strelsy than in your club assemblies. And general and notorious reluctance of good citi- yom- "wives may have a greater assurance of 2ens — to enter upon the labor of forming and managing political conventions * * I use the very ^5h^a^e of the disparaging talkers and writers, that there may be no mis- take in my allusions. your respectable whereabouts, if you promise to come here, than during the long evenings you have regularly appropriated for " the Lodge." And what is the evidence and demonstra- THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. tion of this great eatberiiiij here tonight ? A epectacle for the '• Iii(k-peudent Press" to weep over ! Leading ojipouents desiring to know what is uie uit by this meeting, in what seems to tbem the mid winter of our discom- fiture. A glorious testimony this to your pa- triotic sympathy, resolution and hope. And will you not be able to say, setting aside all consideration of the poverty of my para- graphs : " For the greetings and the mutual and the personal benefits to us as citizens of a common country, it was good for us to have been there " ? Yet, every one of this vast audience is here as a practical politician. Why, if you are to accept the daily editor- ials of these metropolitan "Independent" newspapers, and those who relish and repeat their saw-dust sentences, the maxim " Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty " should be ignominiously stricken from the table of patri- otic proverbs. Fellow citizens: Have we any other way of effectively displaying our Vigilance save by our action in the piditical arena ? Why, sir, sometimes I have feared, amid the whiz- zing of unpleasant epithets shot by the influ- ential " Independent Press " at every man, and at all classes and clubs of men, who " en- gage in politics," followed by approving rec- itations from many weak-minded creatures in the wake of the " Independent Press," — I have feared lest a majority of our people ac- tually forget what kind of Government we are credited abroad with possessing — a Gov- ernment of the people, for the people, by the people.* It is our imperative duty to engage in politics ; so much so that — other tilings being equal — given the ordinary opportunities of mankind in this country — it may be said that he who does not directly interest himself in politics is unworthy the legacy of free in- stitutions. But let us come close, and, if possible, con- clusively examine this subject, with two or three illustrations which touch the extremes of constant interest and devotion, in the ecpially honorable, yet confessedly widely contrasting service of politics. They may give us an analysis and a test of the whole practical question of privilege and duty in the premises— something that will justi'fyingly abide in our memories. Can we not set in the pillory these whining, snuffling, cringing, crawling, every-way mean and mercenary fellows who "run" the pretentiously "im- partial " daily press of our principal cities — serving the monopolies always, always, al- ways, with the Pecksniffiau editorial squeak, "Hi! hi! hi! that's a politician, that's a politician, that's a politician ; and that's a bhoy!'' — [this last is considered a crusher] — " Hi ! hi ! hi ! If you want to know who you ought to vote for, hear us ! Read what we write ! We don't care for politics or poli- ticians. We're unbiased ; we're pious, we are !" Is not the weiilthiest man in Placerville, proportioned to his profits and his risks and * In re-reading this speech, before sending it to the priuter, I have been compiiuctiously re- minded of the fact that it is hardly possible to dwell upon the character of the Administration that recently has been, and now is, without -con- stantly, inadvertently, using words and phrases that imply an absolute Ruler, rather than a Re- publican President. The battle of the Demo- cratic party is for a President of the People, and a Ruler only against those who have been, and now are, public thieves. his pecuniary expectations, profoundly inter- ested in obtaining and perpetuating good government ? Do not ids most selfish con- siderations impel him to take an active part in the management of political affairs ; to that end, making it his business to ascertain the first proposition for organization in his pre- cinct or ward, iu the party to which he may be attached ? Has he not an original place in the councils of the people, where he will be gladly received by associates and friends, and where his advice and suggestions and protests will be heeded, and made most ef- fective by their timely utteriince 1 The more completely intelligent, respousible men in any community fill tlie measure of reasonable at- tention to politics, from the very commence- ment, of a canvass, the more certain is honesty of dealing at the polls and general excellence of result from the final ballot. These things do staud on end before our unvexed vision. And yet the statement of that which seems to you. perhaps, with all that has gone before to concentrate our thoughts on the subject, a very truism, is coml)ative against the depre- cating and denouncing and exiling cry of "The politicians! the politicians! the poli- ticians ! Cursed be they !" Ah yes : You wait and receive your in- structions from the metropolitan " Independ- ent Press ' — the blackmail organs of the Cor- ruptionists — when the tickets are all made up. Either go, under such dictation, for one candi- date or another, orj^nn an Independent Or- ganization, which shall be avowedly and ex- cludiugly controlled by the mauageis of these hermaphrodite journals. Have you not had enough of this sort of thing in the State of California? An enlightened pulpit tells men of wealth and men of leaining to be at the first political consultation room, and early at the primary polls ; and when, alter a campaign is over, the " Independent Press " has to relieve its shoulders a little, by shifting the water buck- et, we actually have essays to the same effect from that delectable quarter ! In other words and in short, when yon come down to the actual proprieties for the people, you find that :ill competent citizens are equally and impressively called upon to as- semble and discuss and plan and agree at the beginning of a political campaign ; and that in 80 doing every man ranks himself " a poli- tician ;" and that in thus being a politician — if he is a sincere man — he is none other than a patriotic American citizen. With Independent parties you may come to the same result on the same basis. The management may be the same in some in- stances; or you will have platform and nom- inations from a secret conclave of self-chosen delegates to a nominating convention or com- mittee. Under some circmmstances, in some localities, for one term there may be benefit assumed or proved from such an organiza- tion ; hut the experience of a century in this Republic has demonstrated that such organi- zations do not beget or l)ring about lasting re- forms. More money has been stolen in San Francisco by offiie-liolders who were nomi- nated and elected under the hauner of politi- cal Independencj", than during the administra- tion of Democratic and " Republican " rulers iu tiiat city. There is as much of distasteful record in State archives against the Independ- ent-party men management as can be hrought forth in criticism or censure of either the Democratic or Republican parties, who have 10 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. been in power during the same or a longer pe- riod of time — comparing the same number of years. You must bear in mind that I am speaking now with reference to political duties of the citizens, as against the arraignment of all political paities. If you wait until nomina- tions are made, announcing that j'ou will Vote for "the best man,'' or for the ticket that has the largest number of candidates ■whom you consider to be the " best men," you put yourself in the vocative. You may be obliged to vote for some men whom you do not think fitted in any respect for the ofBce to which they aspire, or you will be compelled, in common parlance, to throw your vote away ; or you may in a fit of disgust relin- quish your right of sovereignty for the year, and refrain fnmi approaching the polls. But again the piping voice of the echoer and rostrum-representative or star-chamber delegate of the " Independent Press " is heai-d: "The politician!" "The politi- cian ! " " The politician ! " If it be claimed that what I have said amounts to a discursive meditation, not di- rectly in reply to the challenge and the char- acterization and the condemnation that is in- tended and is given by the shout which has been quoted, I reply: — It is well to get the underbrush away, so that there cannot be any misapprehension or mistake when we do come flat up against the mammoth exclama- tion points of the whited-sepulchre pharisees of the '' Independent Press." Let us be sure what they mean, when they are put in a cor- ner to interpet their own libels upon the common people of this Republic. Noic they will tell us: "Why, the politic- ian is a man who goes around the country, from city to town, from town to village, ad- dressing whosoever will come to listen on the political questions of a political campaign." And they will Hatter themselves by adding in substance — these managers of the " Independ- ent Press" will so write — that they have done a very handsome thing ; that they have exhib- ited great condescension and good nature, in granting such an explanation, in such subdued and decent phrases. Is this politician a bad man ? He may be. He may be a hired talker, without principle, without conscience ; speaking on either side of a political issue according to his reward. You and I know such bad men in the State of California. I know a dozen such bad men ; always ready to don the mantle of political Independency. The common people understand the ethics of this matter. A lawyer may defend a client whom he knows to be in the wrong, and be thoroughly justified in so doing. But no man can mount the stump and advocate political doctrines which he does not believe, without meriting every opprobrious epithet which le- gitimately belongs to the "Independent Press." The dictionary is open for private indulgence, and we pass on. My friends : there is no difficulty in making a right discrimination here. You and I know, after a little observation and trial, in this lit- tle State of California, who are true men and ■who are false. We know in our own re- spective communities where the honest man lives, and where the man without conscience and without courage has for the time being bis political headquarters. Does a citizen rise into prominence as a candidate for official Station ? His record is well known or easily ascertained. And notwithstanding the libeli that will be published against him, if he be a true anti-monopolist, a substantially just ap- preciation of the man is within the lines of your convenience. Fellow ciiizens : hcniest men do not fail to meet and form each others' acquaintance, and thereafter know and love each other as they pass and repass and so- journ, in political as well as in commercial circles — in California as fvell as in Connecti- cut. We all hate the dishonest politician, the Political hypocrite, the venal pleader of the stump. But " The politician !" " The politician !" " The politician!' Who is he that goeth about seeking whom he may devour; and agairst whom the apostolic balms-of-a-thous- aiid-fiowers that do dwell at San Francisco and publish the "Independent Press' are so much incensed ? You have every facility for seeing what manner of man he is. Is he your enemy or your servant? Is he your foe in ambush or your friend on the open liill-side? Some particulars as to the real individual will be appropriate. Very likely he is a man of very large family, as poor men are apt to be, and in this has a commonly accepted title to respect as an earnestly and deeply inter- ested supporter of home rule. Very likely he has a great and almost uninterrupted task in his calliny, his trade or profession, under which he must struggle with all his might to -win bread for his household. Very likely, he is not better nor worse than the average of his fellow citizens. But he has been brought up by his father, whose memory he cherishes, to love the literature of his coun- try; and his duty has been marked and map- ped therein. He was taught by liis mother — a sense of whose affection dwells like sum- mer sun-shine in his heart — that he must in all i^laces and on all occasions, when he shall have become a man — with due circumspec- tion as to the fitness of things — manifest his loyalty to his free country; — never, never foregoing clear opportunity_ to exhibit his grateful and combative zeal in behalf of the institutions of civil and religious liberty. He has been instructed and nurtured in the scholarship of the fact, the simple, the living, the duty-suggesting fact — which seems to be ignored a thousand times in this country for every occasion when it is practically recog- nized — that his country belongs to him ; that its laws and its powers and its privileges are literally a part of his inheritance; and that all its wonderful and gentle beneficence develops and involves corresponding ob- ligations against him. And common sense persuades and convinces him that if he has the ability to speak effectively to his fellow citizens on the political issues of the day, as he finds opportunity or has the occasion made for him — with reasonable respect for the more imperative demands of life — he must go abroad and stand up for the right, as God gives him to see the right. Woe ig upon him, if he proclaim not the political truth, and the just expediency for the pres- ent, and the waruiugs that ought to be sounded ; — even as the message comes to him in the watches of the night ! The labor of the politician who is called by his own sense of duty and the welcome of his fellow citizens to speak from the plat- form, is hard labor. It is not pastime. IS may be that he would prefer on all personal account to be at home with his wife and ba- bies. Though he loves to greet in the THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. 11 market places; and thoufjh wlien he goes down from his ret-idence in the monntKiiis, he is strenytliened by meeting the people who dwell in the valleys and in the st-aport cities, or is refreshed and made K'lad when he shall have irone up from the metropolis to the inland plains or foot hills or mountain sides or summits, and discoursed before the inhabitants who have their dwelliiiij places there, vet is his service hard work; if his speech be worth the hearing. It is not mere recreation. It is not pleasant at times — it is taxation upon every faculty of the mind, it is strain of intellectual skill and stress of nervous force, — to lead a conversation by natural lines awaj' from the topic that pleases him well, from the subject tliat he most delights to hear discussed by the man beside him; — it may be, from the theme of science or art, of inven- tion or discovery, of poetry or architecture; — it may be from the contemplation and inter- changing of helpful views on the commonest mutual concerns, other than political; — away, away, around to the subject of politics, local, State or national. But duty niav admonish and compel the conscientious politician to do this, ten thousand times during liis active life. The politician may have no ambition out- side of his toil-worn profession. Yet he will be stigmatized all the same. Or he may have a just and laudable desire to be accepted by his felloft' men as one worthy to bear rule — as the measure of a ruling power is com- mitted in this country — that he may bring about governmental reforms. Is he to be re- spected the less on this account? Let the din of the " Independent-Pie8s''-talk die out for a moment, that you may fairly see who the politician is; and what he really assumes to A sound politician in this country is among the best of patriots. And he who joins in the wholesale scoffing at the politician does not know what he is talking about, or does not care what he is talking about; or desires tor some s.nister purpose to set some particu- lar person aside from the path of popular pro- motion; or wishes to discourage the holding of public political meetings, or attendance thereon, in order that the people may have their officials named for them and their laws dictated by the mercenary wretches who con- trol the most licentious journals on the face of the earth, — ranged under the captivating heading of tiie ''Independent Press." Of course, there are hucksters and traders who largely if not exclusively engage in the business of politics; ofcentiines acquiring a livelihood and sometimes obtaining riches in office. They make merchandize in the tem- ple. But when you come to trace their his- tory, yon will almost invariably find that they have l)een "made," built up, be- fore the people, by this same "Independent Press." We know these men at home. Iii- telliireut citizens who study politics and polit- ical movements are not deceived as to their character for any great length of time. And while Jetfersonian clubs will affijrd proper and special opportunity for the display of true political sagacity on the part of every mem- ber, frauds will be di^covered and rebuked here ; and from hence discoveries and rel)ukes against all sorts of political frauds will go forth with enlightening emphasis, reaching through the county and the Slate, and strik- ing with no diminution of force because of the distance of the target on the high priest of all frauds, the chief among thousands and altogether despicable — Rutherford B. Hayes, the fi-andulenl President of the United States of America. '•I am a politician," wrote Thomas Jeffer- son, in 1814, "I always have been a politi- cian; I glory in the name; accoiding as my strength and opportunity may be, I shall con- tribute my labor to make the name and the occupation it imports more and more honora- ble, until the day of my death." But, perhaps, forced to graciously excuse the class of "politicians" I have delineated, as the haltit of the non-partizan organs of the Corruptioiiists is to confess and concede and avoid, when they are put in a corner: the cry uiav now be "The IVard Politician!" "The Ward Politician!" "The B'hoys." Shuffiing around, or clianging from a general call, the "Independent Press" will tell us that special contemptuous reference was in- tended for thg men and youths who gather nightly during a political campaign, in ward club rooms and party wigwams. Well, what of them? There are loafers everywhere, in every public place ; and as a rule, in San Francisco and Sacramento, (from which places I can speak from observation,) these v.'aifs, young and old, are regularly bought up by the Radical party mauiigers, — unless an "Independent" party management comes in to compete, and carry off these voting prizes. But what of the men and "b'hoys" that " hang around the Democratic ward rooms ?" I have put this searching question directly to the shrieking slanderers, many and luany a time. How nrmy " b'hoys" are there, to be so complained of ? Name them! Andinvariably the reply has brought forward no more than one name for each ward : — perchance because it was not prudent to risk the naming of any more, lest it be disclosed in rebuttal that the extra men were really the hired attaches of the pretentiously pure Radical or Independent organizations? ' But the one fearful example that is brought forward: what of this ward politician or wigwam " b'hoy ? " Why, he is a janitor for the l)uilding. Every church must have a sexton, or some one acting in that ca- pacity. The large churches in the towns and cities must have a sexton in daily attendance. Every bank must have a porter ; every large store must have a teamster ; every large fam- ily must have a servant. So simple are the parallel occupations. Some one must prepare a hall for a political assembly ; some one must provide or arrange seats, if they are not sta- tionary ; some one may be needed to procure fuel for fires within and without the building, to light the lamps, and see to it that there is a table and a pitcher of water for the officers and speakers. And if these assemblages are repeated, these services must be repeated ; and if they are regular and frequent, the ser- vices must be continuous during a canvass. Labor of this kind implies the want of a laborer ; and all labor is honorable. Some one must do it. In doing liiis, the result will be the awful spectacle of a man or youth in constant or regular attendance at the town or ward hall hired l)y a party for party meetings. The Pauline injunction that requires every- thing to be done decently and in order com- mends this attendance and labor. And yet the name of this honoral)le servant is the solitary sure victim of the indicters of the " b'hoys," in nearly every instance. Sometimes — and it always should be the 12 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. case— newspapers and magazines are supplied ators, and ask tliem to stand up in public in for one or more tables in a political club-room, any community where they are well known, and citizens gather to read the publications and take the same number of " Independent tliere spread out or tiled. Let, these men who Press " managers, and bid them stand up side "run" the "Independent Press," go into by side, in a row on the opposite side of a our club-rooms on any one evening, and take platform, and I will invite and abide a judg- down the names of persons who fi^ather there ment on any basis of inquiry that involves for readinit and for fellowship salutations and consideration of personal record or political conversations, and print those names under intelligence or patriotic devotion or general one of their editorial diatribes against " ward moral character. I would solicit and abide politicians ? " They dare not do it. The list a verdict from any jury of respectable citizens, would expose their slanderous declarations or or a decision from any modern judicial tribu- inuendoes,— by virlue of the weil-kriowu re- nal in this country, of which I have had any spectability of the persons so arraigned. definite knowledge,— always excepting the Of course, there are bummers in all our cit- eiijht perjured scoundrels who composed the ies and towns who will lounge in and around majority of the Congressional Electoral Com- plaees for public assembly, if there is any- mission. thing to be gained by them in such expendi- ture of their time. That proves nothing in defence or justification of the sweeping accusation that we have been examinin" Here, in Jeffersonian clubs, let every mem- ber be recognized and honored as a politician. I congratulate you, people of El Dorado County, because in the early days of the Strange to s.iv, there are thousands of wor- year, when you can claim dispassionate thy people, aiiiong those who take a morning thoughts and purposes in your councils, yoa or evening paper that claims entire impartial- have come together upon the articles of polit- ity in political matters, who at breakfast or ical association which you have published, dinner accept as Gospel truth the grossest From heuce may the power of true political libels against their fellow-citizens,— libels that enlightenment t;o forth. From hence may are air duly classified under the caption you depart, when the sessions shall close, "Ward Politicians," and that are met anddia- from time to time, with your memories siip- sipated by a simple inquiry and ascertainment plied with pertinent facts and suggestive iu- such as I have indicated. qniries, and your minds braced with whole- All this editorial outcry is intended and cal- some, patriotic, Democratic resolutions— hav- culated to bring all political club meetings ii>g the temper and strength of your political into disrepute, in order that wrong mav tri- atflliations and determinations enhanced an umph in the absence of siftinsj public discus- hundred fold, as the open political truth passes sions and the lack of party discipline adapted fi'om one to each and each to all. May your to the enforcement of just principles through young men be instructed and encouraged here the forms of legislation. This motive is at to take their full share of interest and respon- the bottom of these daily flings and jeers and sibility in the field of politics. They are sneers at the American Politician. needed in the present contest. We look over Take your political views from a venal the catalogue of laboring political orators, and press, and go into secret camps over which mark our deficiencies, and wonder and hope the conductors of that press or their ancient concerning the supply of sensible and effect- agents preside, and agree to this and that pro- ive speakers. You must have young men gramme and ticket, and you will be heralded ""to whom a political sage might well ad- as " good men for the state," in the journals dress a call " because they are stronsr." My of the monopolists. attention and rejoicing is marked at each re- Be he rich or poor, learned or unlearned, curring visit here, on my sketching diary : the man who deserves the title of American "Beautiful girls and a manly lot of boys in El Politician is a hard-working, conscientious Dorado County." And with your appropri- citizen.* If there are no patriotic politicians, ate and fitting incentives for participation m then there are no political patriots in the political debates, we may expect soon to wit- ness here the coming forward on the public rostrums of your own sons, garlanded by the bands" of the fairest daughters in the commonwealth — educated, equipped, valiant and invincible soldiers of the Demo- land. These " b'hoys," in nine cases out of ten, are thoroughly honest young men. I have known them to reject oHers of thousands of dollars rather than desert a party standard or a personal friend in politics, when they were cratic faith. Happy shall I be if I am per- verv poor aud could not expect any reward for mitted to bid them All Hail ! to a champion- their faithfulness. Will any man of respect- ship in California of the cause of constitu- able reputation venture to "say as much for tional liberty. Nor shall I fail, if I survive one of these cat-footed, breath- bated creatures "nto that occasion, to remind them of what who publish "Independent" daily papers in they must owe to patriotic mothers and pa- metropolitan cities .' Produce one such in- triotic sires, and to every political elder and dorser ! He cannot be found. Select by lot a given number of political or- * " Parties are necessary to a country. They make men love their country. They make them - .• <• ■ i • o. . •" iq'tc forget selfishness, and inculcate patriotism."— ed, in every county jn this btate, m l^S/b; associate who gave them the first recogni- tion and summons in the Jeffersonian clubs of their native district. Undoubtedly, if we had had Jeffersonian clubs, organized as is the one here represent- California, despite all the ballot-box lifting n San Francisco, we would have rolled up ten Horatio Seymour. " It is true that jjarties are necessary. Noth- ing can be done, even in bringing public opin- ion to bear on affairs, unless men act together, vote together, come together to agree upon cer- tain priuciiiles. It is true, also, that there is such a thing as unselfish adherence to a partj', in the honest conviction that its success will pro- ^ ■ • t • ■ j -ci -^ mote the welfare of the country."- William CuU ■"'ere successful m Louisiana ana I? loriaa. ten Bryant. With such reflection, which is unavoidable thousand Democratic majority for the count- ed-out President-Elect, Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. Then would have been extend- ed to Mississippi and North Carolina a class of Radical maneuveres similar to those that THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. 13 at this moment, let us proceed to glance at one or two points in tbeliislory of tiie canvass in the " disputed States." We will take up for briefest consideration matters which do not admit of reasonable dispute before any or- dinarily well-informed meeting of American citizens. We may notice some matters that have not heretofore received the emphasis that is due, even in a concise consideration of the main facts. In the midst of the campaign a call was sent up from two of the Soutliern States — South Carolina and Louisiana — for tlie inter- vention of the Federal Government against "alleged acts of insurrection." Examined under the light of precedent, the call for troops did not in either case justify the send- ing. The troops being called for and sent under the interpretations of the Attorney General of the United States, congratulat'ions poured into the President's office from Democraticas well as Republican sources. Leading Demo- cratic journalists, who liad recently given special personal attention to the condition of affairs in South Carolina and Louisiana, dif- fered in opinion with prominent Democratic statesmen of the East respecting this very matter. And this point was made by the for- mer, in conspicuous and telling paragraphs : When the election shall have taken place in South Carolina and Louisiana, whatever may be the result, it never can be claimed with any show of decency that the Republicans were intimidated in either of those States. And the leading Republican journalists of the country assented to that statement and prop- ositiou. These troops were stationed at all points designated upon the map by the managers for the Radical party in the States of South Car- olina and Louisiana. Tiiere was no com- plaint of inadequacy in the number of the sol- diers that were dispatched by President Grant to the States we have mentioned. In addition, in the State of Louisiana, the Radical United States Marshal had full license and authority to ajjpoint as many dep- uties as he deemed nece.ssary or expedient. The Radical Governor of South Carolina publicly and repeatedly boasted that with the aid which he had obtained from the general government, alaige Radical majority for him- self and for the electors of Rutherford B. Hayes might be siiid to be absolutely guaran- teed. I give the substance, and I believe I recite the words of Governor Chamberlain, of South Carolina. Now, without going one step further on the unquestioned record, where is the man of ordi nary intelligence and the slightest claim to a character for honesty, who w ill stand up be- fore the audiences of 1877 and assert that the stories of intimidation in South Carolina and Louisiana, brought np since November 7, 187(1, from the fei'tile shallows of Radical in- vention, have any possible basis in truth? If the whole review stopped here, what ought inevitably to be the conclusion and the ver- dict of rational men ? But we have other general testimony, which takes in the whole scope for conscien- tious doubt in the premises. When Governor Chamberlain of South Carolina announced that there was a reign of teri'orism throughout that State, every lead- ing clergyman in that commonwealth, includ- ing the Roman Catholic and the Episcopal and the Methodist Bisliops, voluntarily signed a protest against the gubernatorial proclama- tion to which I have referred — stating in ef- fect that the Governor did not speak the truth, and that the alleged terrorism did not exist. In the State of Louisiana, immediate- ly after the report was made by the Jolin Sherman committee of liars, every leading clergyman in the city of New Orleans and adjacent parishes, including the Bishops of the Catholic and Episcopal and Methodist denominations, voluntarily prepared and sign- ed a statement in which one important por- tion of the Sherman report was challenged and denied. And in this statement these clergymen united in declaring before the world that if the Radical carpet-baggers would desist from their devilish work of ex- citing the colored people to suspicion, and to acts of hostility against their old white mas- ters, a perfect peace would speedily follow and be established throughout that common- wealth. Look at this for one moment. Suppose that Aaron A. Sargent and Newton Booth and Frank Page should rise in their places in the national Legislature at Washington, on the same day, and announce that there was a reign of terrorism in the State of California; stating that the cause of this unhappy condition of affairs was owing to " democratic bull-doz- ing" in the principal cities and towns of Cal- ifornia ; stating, if you please, that the begin- ning of this unhappy condition of affairs was to be traced to imprudent executive interfer- ence and suppression in the city of Placer- ville ; where a man by the name of Blanchard, with two or three other members of the same church, and one colored boy of seventeen years of age and not quite an idiot, undertook to give vent to their religious indignation and the spirit of moral horror with which thev had been inoculated by the simple process of re- ceiving letters from Senator Booth and Rep- resentative Page, — concerning the counting of the Cronin vote. It had been attempted to hold a public meeting in Placerville, whereat a man by the name of Blanchard and two or three other members of the same church and a negro boy of seventeen or thereabouts, not quite an idiot, proposed to pass a series of res- olutions denunciatory of Governor Grover of Oregon, for his reported action on the Electo- ral vote. Suppose Senators Sargent and Booth and Representative Frank Page should on the same day at the Capitol, in the city of Wash- ington, rise and set forth the above as a state- ment of fact ; and then should proceed to say that the G ivernor of the State had ordered out the troops, with General McComb at their head — displaying twenty-one feathers in his hat — to prevent and suppress the intended re- ligious indignation meeting at Placerville, proposed by a man by the name of Blanchard with two or three other members of the same church, and a negro boy who was not quite an idiot. Suppose Sargent and Booth and Page should rise in their places in the national Legislature, on the same day, and represent that from this beginning, popular dissatisfaction and dissension had spread all over the State : and that it had then been dis- covered that every Democrat was a member of a military league, and was armed and equip- ped as the law directs that military men should be. Suppose Sargent and Booth and Page should represent that the ultimate out- come of this excitement was a perfect reign of terror from Modoc to San Diego, from the Mendocino lighthouse to the Colorado point- 14 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. ing end of the Southern Pacific Railroad Com- pany's embankments. Suppose tliis outline should be filled in with details of outrages and tragedies in three score towns and villaites in California. Suppose it should be repre- sented that the lath-.ind-plaster castles of Le- laud Stanford and Mark Hopkins were in dantrer of the tori-h from some villains in a mob that was surging on Russian Hill in San Francisco, and demanding a reduction of fare on the Oakland ferry. Fill in the picture with innumerable fitting incidents, danyjera and threateuings. Suppose that you sat in the gallery of the U. S. Senate, and heard this acconnt as it was delivered at Washing- ington. Suppose that immediat'»ly after you had listened to such a report, you read a coni- pletelv authenticated telegraphic dispatch from California, signed by Bisliops Aleuiany and Kip and Amat and O'Connell and Wing- tield and Peck, and by the leading clerfrymen of the State, denying in whole and in part the statements — of tlie character indicated — made by Senators Sargent and Booth and Representative Page : Which statement would you believe, and what would be your opinion under such circumstances, as to the veracity of our United States Senators and Mr. Leland Stanford's favorite Congi-esfional flunkey ? Go down to Louisiana I You know, and every man, woman and child among you knows, that the Bishops of the Roman Catho- lic and Episcopal and Methodist churches in that State, have regular and frequent and in- timate correspondence with representative clergymen in every parish of Louisiana. And wheii these men, who have been consecrated in the highest ecclesiastical chairs, declare that an important portion of the John Sherman report is an unmitigated libel — yiatuitous and infernal — whose testimony are we to take ? There were in certain parishes of Louisiana a given number of duly registered citizens. Within the councils of the local government as well as under the advice of outside party managers, a sewing machine circular' was oi-- dered to be sent tiirontth the post-office to the address of a large number of these qualified voters. In every case where the circul.irs were uncalled for, or not taken out of the post-office box, non-residence was adjmlged. This is the statement as it comes from the Radical managers themselves. But under this artifice almost every registered Democrat addressed is said to have been disfranchised, — whether he received and responded to the sewing machine card, or net;lected or failed to take it from the carrier oi- the office. Prior to the election, the Governor of Flor- ida congratulated his people upon the perfect peace and the absolute freedom that existed throughout that State; and yet even there it was sought, after the electoral vote had been taken, to raise the cry of intimidation ! Hon. William J. Purman, Republican Con- gressman from Florida, stated on the floor of the House, Tuesday, Feb. 13th, 1677, that, "It is a fact, sir, which I cannot stand upon this tioor and deny, and which every man, woman and child in my Srate knows, that Florida was lost by the Republican party in the late election, arrd that the Democratic Governor, and the Tilden Electors were truly elected." Mr. Purman continued, by saying: " I make this declar.ition under the most sol- emn sense of public duty, and from an irresist- ible feeling of obligation to the people of iny State, who have a right to expect ttrat how- ever partisan their represeuiaiive may be in his political faith, he should at least on ques- tions of public fact be an honest man. But, sir, I would not be understood in making this declaration as laying claim to any unusrral amount of honesty or conscience, but I only assert my knowledjje of the facts. 1 love the pr'irrciples of the Republican party, and for their sake have been singed by the fires of martyrdom, * * * but I cainiot return to my State and look my constituency in the face, if, standing upon this floor and in the presence of the American people, anxiousand entitled to know the whole truth concerning this dangerous presidential issue, I shrink from the responsibility of doing justice to my State, and defendinif her lionest political vic- tory against the willful perversion of a bold, dishonest and unscrupulous State canvassing board. Should my Democratic coUeaj^ue in this House introduce a resolution here declar- ing that the St. John's River had its rise in the southern porti(>n of our State, flowed northward for hundr-eds of miles, and emptied its waters into the Atlantic Ocean, I would be compelled to support the affir-matiori of the resolution, for the reason that I would know the statement to be true, beiirg personally ac- quairrted with the geogr-aphy of that country. Therefore, for like reason, am I compelled to give assent to any declarations wliich have been or may be made upon this floor-, that the Tilden electors were truly elected in Florida, and that only by " ways that are dark," and tricks that iii tliis case have not proved to be in vain, were those electors, and a maiiuiiy of the people of the United States, defrauded out of their fair and lawful victory. But facts plainly expressed carry with them their own just weight, while juggleiy performed with a number of facts only increases the task of ex- planation, without'changiug their character or relative weitihf.'' The dailv Florida Union, of Fr-iday, De- cember ~'iith, IS76, the leading Republican paper in the State of Florida, published the followintf : '• If Marcellus L. Stearns was fairly and honestly defeated in the recent election, then, so far as the electoral vote of Florida is con- cerned, it belongs to Samuel J. Tilden. There is no getting over or around this fact." The Radical bosses have obtained another four years' lease of Federal authority by means that fully justify all that has passed into common speech concerniirg them. And they do say that they are entrenched in nation- al power for a generation ; and so in very truth they are, if the people do not rise and rebuke and overthrow, according as oppor- tunity from this day for-th is vouchsafed. Let us not disguise t'he fact or postpone our efforts. If, during the present and the com- ing year the elections in the various States in the Union do not show an unmistakable vote of censure against the method by which ihis Administration came into ruling position— and show this by an immense aggregate popular majority — it will appear that the bold aird un- scrupulous men who have seated a fraudulent President did not make a false estimate of the intelligence and sense of justice in the breasts of the masses of our people. There is a stand-point for morning reflec- tions from which one may be disposed to doubt the possibility of such a future success as the Radical managers profess to expect ; notwithstanding the chances supposed to be slumbering in a " policy " that may sacrifice all of consistency, all of former " principles," THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. 15 and sometliing of their former practices, to gain or recover favor with the people. A inil- lion majority in the wiiite vote, a plurality against the Returning Board candidate of ^50,0011 ballois, and an absolute majority over all for the Democratic nominee of not less than 160,000 votes, would seem, under any heavens but ihose of brii,ss, to leave no linger- ing shadow of a sliade of a color of prospect for another national success in behalf of the Conspirators. We see plainly already that some of their strong reliances are on a lavish expenditure of money for jobbers, who are couiing from the four quarters of the countiy with a pur- pose, under the name of " internal improve- ments in the South," to rake the National Treasury ; and on tempting offers of official stations to influential men in the Southern States who have up to date been identified with the Democratic party. But I think and submit, that before all, and above all, the Con- spirators place confidence, for their outlook, on the disheartenuient of incorruptible, lead- ing men tbrougliout the Union, and the su- pineness of multitudes who, without any par- ticular self-consciousuess of discouragement, are yet undera spell of indifl'erence, — as though they were on the fabled enchanted ground of the Leopards, where the victims could neither cry out nor muster faculties of will to offer resistiince. The parlur and cloak-ioom and kitchen cabinet counsellois of his fi audulency hope that these classes of men will refuse or neglect, 00 in money — came through a sift- ing investigation witliout a cent of ascertain- ed deficit. He was twice elected a member of the House of Representatives : and one of his colleagues, of the opposite party, speaks of him as the public, man who was " preemi- nently fitted for the post of Secretary of War" ; the enumerated list of his q^ualifica- tions exhibiting those characteristics and 22 THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. points of ability for which the Belknaps and Caraerons imve not been distinguished. Robert Smith, of Maryland, was appointed Secretary of the Navy. l)y Thomas Jetfersou. The President said that he made tliis appoint- ment witli a hi^rh appreciation of the fact that no man in the country knew more about a ship than Robert Smith, of Maryland :— a manifested respect for pi'actical knowledge adapting him to his department which would naturally excite some merriment in the coun- cils of Grant and liis fraudulent successor ; for Ulysses appointed a Secretary of tlie Navy who confessed that be did not know the difference between a back-stay and a be- laying-pin ; and Rutherford has cliosen for the same office a man who is reputed to be fully as ignorant respecting the make of a sea- going vessel, — whose life has been spent in an inland valley, a thousand miles from sea- shore, by the side of a creek, wliere a sliip was never seen, where a schooner was never built, and where for months in every year the tad-pole and the Wabash cat-tish divide the Iionors of the navigation. Gideon Granger, of Connecticut, was ap- pointed Post-Master General by Thomas Jef- ferson. His familiarity with" the details of his otHce were as close and clear as is the ac- quaintance of the most tin ro igh man of busi- ness with all the particulars of his private trade. There were ingenious attempts even in those days to rob the treasury through the postal department ; but contemporaneous tes- timony is given by members of the opposing party, that Gideon Granger never allowed a contractor to impose upon him by false bid- ding or inefficieui service. Read the life of Thomas Jefferson. Read the history of his administration. I proclaim that it will refresh you and stimulate you as patriots ; and rising above the contemplation of the present, it will make you proud of the past and hopeful of the future ot your coun- try. It deserves your resolution to study it. Young men of El Dorado County. It is the history that fits with pungent and searching emphasis the present juncture of our national affairs. Read it ! Begin as far back, at least, as the time when Jefferson compiled his manual of parliamentary proceedings; where- in these woids stand forth in capital letters : " When the private interests of a member are concerned in a bill oi- question, he is to withdraw." A rule which still remains as law in the estimation of gentlemen in the two Houses of Congi'ess ; but which has notori- ously been abrogated so far as Ben Butler and Colfax and Sargent and Jim Blaine and Mor- ton are concerned ; and which, it now ap- pears by undisputed testimony, never had any application to the Representative whom the fraudulent President specially desires for his "leader" on the floor of Congress — him of the hard-shell sect and flabby countenance— him of the fancy jieriods and solid bribe- money — G irfield, of Ohio. Read the biography of Thomas Jefferson ! Liberty had a new era. Freedom had a won- derful growth during the administration of Thomas Jefferson ! And as I speak these words, an hundred illustrations come up abreast for sketching. Let one be heard to-night. In former years a man of the highest scien- tific attainments, a clergyman of unexcept- ionable character, was driven from his parish in England by superstitious neighbors. Dur- ing his absence from home liis house was set on fire, and a vast amount of labor in mathe- matical calculations and reviews in physical science was brought to nothing by the con- flagration. The rabble that surrounded his dwelling and applied the torch to its doors, threatened the life of this worthy man and eminent philosopher. His naineis high on the ineffaceable roll of practical scholars and beneficent discoverers. In his experiments, he had made the discovery of oxygen gas. In his independent study of law and human rights, he had become a thorough republican, in the broad political sense, long before he was banished from his native land. I speak of Joseph Priestly. Jefferson attended his churcli in Philadelphia, so longas the national capital was located at that place. Against this man, the bitterest sectarian bigotry of the country had been directed and concen- trated ; and even in this country, in the city of brotherly love, he had been subject to insult on accout of his religious opinions, and threat- ened by numerous anonymous correspond- ents with personal violence, if he dared to remain and persist in preaching after a given day in the same month on which the commu- nications were written. Thomas Jefferson knew these facts. The first letter that he sent from the Presidential mansion, after his in- auguration, was one of invitation and enter- tainment to Josepli Priestly, of Philadelphia! The same spirit was exhibited here that was made prominent in all the articles and correspondence relating to his beloved Uni- versity of Virginia. And in this spirit, with all its exemplifications, Thomas Jefferson's memory is to be hailed as that of the man who is the legitimate father of the Demo- cratic party of to-day.* *In a note in his autobiography Jefferson says, referring to Declaration No. 16 in the V'irginia Bill of ItigUts, adopted June 12th, 1776 : "1 pro- liosed the demolition of tbe Cliurch establish- ment and the freedom nf religion." When that declaration was made Jefferson himself was in Philadelphia, but he communicated his propo- sitions through his friends, Geo. Mason and James Madison. He says that " In giving this account of the laws and declarations of which I myself was the mover and draughtsman, I by no means intend to claim to myself the merit of obtaining their passage." Then speaking of Mason and Madison. When the Virginia Bill of Rights was passed, every other State in the Union or Confederacy had prescriptive religious tests, which were re- tained for manj' years thereafter — some of the original States holding a portion of these tests in their organic law unto this day. Declaration No. 16, (sent by Jeft'erson to Madison, and by the latter i^rescnted to the Virginia House) reads as follows: "That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of dis- charging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence ; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dic- tates of conscience ; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love and charity toward each other." Dr. John W. Kramer, in his ">'ree Church and Free American State," says of this: "It is a remarka- ble Declaration. Here is the key-note of the sepa- ration of Clmrch and State." Having reference, also, to the fact that Madison presented Jeffer- son's Declaration in the Virginia House of Dele- gates, Dr. Kramer says: "Jefferson's Act, adopt- ed in 1777, and whicli became the law in 1785, is very like a father's fondling of a child, at whose birth he was not present." George Ticknor Curtis, in his "History of the Origin, Formation, and Adoption of the Consti- tution of the United States," (Vol. II, p. 479) THE POLITICAL RETROSPECT. 23 The era of perfect religious toleration iu this country bef<5t>iin^1ir0«