2263 
 1876 
 
 (re 
 
 SB 22 7b7 
 
THE REAL ISSUES OF THE CANVASS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 AJST ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 PARKE .GODWIN. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE COOPER UNION, NEW YORK, OCTOBER HTH. 1876.) 
 
 IDOO. i 
 
 Bead this and hand it to your neighbor. Should yon r,?e>(! more, address, statin 
 nutity and Ko. of Document desired, 
 
 NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC C03I3IITTEE, 
 
 Box 3637, N. Y. 
 
 
 
THE REAL ISSUES OF THE CANVASS. 
 
 Felloio Citizens and Friends : 
 
 The Civil War, and the Constitutional Amendments it ren 
 dered necessary, closed a great era in our politics that which 
 grew out of the existence of slavery. The distinction of that 
 era will be, that it determined the perpetuity of the Union ; it 
 emancipated and enfranchised the slaves, and it ordained that 
 the debts incurred in the prosecution of these ends should be 
 for ever sacred, while the debts incurred in resisting them 
 should be for ever invalid. 
 
 This great consummation having been accepted and approved 
 by all parties, the questions it involved are taken out of the 
 list of party questions, and are become landmarks of history. 
 Whether wisely or unwisely settled, they are settled, and the 
 nation passes on to other issues. There would bo no such 
 thing as progress in politics, ii we did not admit what certain 
 English statesmen used to call Finality. If, when a question 
 has been fully debated and decided by the people, it can not 
 be dismissed, our discussions would run, like mill-horses, a 
 sterile and wearisome round, leading in the end to mere idiotic 
 iteration and babble. 
 
 Thus to our war questions, other questions have succeeded 
 which may have originated in the war, but which no longer 
 pertain to the war. That violent commotion was stopped eleven 
 years .since; the structural dislocations it produced are re-ad 
 justed; and our principal concern now is not with its causes or 
 its management, but with its consequences. 
 
 The war left us enormous national debts, oppressive taxa 
 tions, an inconvertible currency, a lax and demoralized civil 
 service, and a vast impoverished population, whose social 
 system was revolutionized from top to bottom. From all 
 these sources, if ill-managed, a deluge of evils threatened us ; 
 and the main problem of statesmanship, from, that time forth 
 
 955677 
 
" tire cliief busiiiesa of practical politics, was, by diminishing 
 unnecessary pressures, and strengthening the requisite supports, 
 to divert the menacing tides, through easy and natural chan 
 nels, into the open fields, where they would freshen and invig 
 orate, and not destroy. 
 
 I. THE DUTY DEVOLVED ON THE PARTY IN POWER. 
 
 The party in possession of the government, at the close of 
 the war epoch, was charged with the conduct of this transi 
 tion from a state of unsettled, and more or less convulsive 
 action, to a state of regularity and order. It was obviously a work 
 for intelligent and cautious statesmanship, and which required 
 for its efficient execution a clear, consistent and definite 
 policy. The finances of a nation, embracing debt, revenue, 
 taxation and expenditure, the currency of a nation, on 
 which the stability and success of all its stupendous inter 
 changes of credit and commerce depend, the methods of the 
 civil service, whether they shall further, or obstruct, thwart and 
 corrupt the general interests, the harmony of localities and 
 classes, the very basis of prosperous intercourse and social 
 order; these are the weightiest subjects of public concern, 
 and the management of them, well or ill, is the real test of com 
 petency, whether in men or parties. 
 
 Now, the dominant party, which was entrusted with these 
 important affairs, has it recognized and discharged the re 
 sponsibility ? Has it seized the real objective point of the 
 position, or only misconceived it ? Has it met and overcome 
 the actual difficulties, or has it failed to discern them, and 
 evaded and trifled with them ? That is the question to be de 
 termined by the present canvass ; it is the leading, if not the 
 sole issue ; and it is to be determined, not by appeals to out 
 worn passions, but by the evidences of reason and the facts. 
 
 Some of these evidences I propose to lay before you here ; 
 and if, in doing so, I shall trespass upon your patience, let the 
 profound importance of the discussion be my excuse. 
 
 II. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS HAD NO POLICY. 
 
 Now, my first remark is, that the Republican Party has had 
 no policy from the beginning. This was not entirely its own 
 fault, for it was originally a war party, and war parties, from 
 their very nature are apt to be heterogeneous in composition, 
 and incoherent in aim and impulse. It was formed by 
 
an amalgamation of several pre-existing parties, on the spur 
 of the moment, and to meet the conditions of an exceptional 
 crisis. Outside the immediate issues of that crisis, its politi 
 cal convictions were diverse and inconsistent, according to 
 the previous affinities of its members. This inherent vice, 
 this incongruity of constitution, it has never been able to orer- 
 come. It has been drawn hither and thither by discrepant 
 and irreconcilable tendencies. It has had no crystallizing 
 idea, no dominant or organizing purpose out of which the ne 
 cessary practical measures could be evolved, and consequent!/, 
 JQO decisive or controlling policy. 
 
 Unfortunately, at the same time, it put forward no man to 
 amend or to compensate the defects of its make up. Webster 
 said of Hamilton, at the close of the Revolution, that " lie 
 smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams 
 of revenue gushed forth ; he touched the dead corpse of publio 
 credit, and it sprang upon its feet." But, at the close of our 
 much greater revolution, no Hamilton appeared no leading 
 mind capable of moulding events, or of inspiring a vast bodj 
 of men with its own thought, and so creating an epoch. The Re 
 publicans, indeed, were so blind, so little sagacious, so eager 
 for an immediate ascendancy at the expense of future mastery, 
 that, at a time when peculiarly, as the poet sings - 
 
 " The soldier s sword 
 
 Should sink its point before the statist s pen, 
 And the calm head replace the violent hand. n 
 
 it selected for its leader one who was utterly ignorant of ciyio 
 duties, and utterly unskilled in civic methods. He was chosen 
 because he was a^oldier, and not because he was a statesman ; 
 and the party, when it most required the aid of high political 
 insight and ability, got no aid in that quarter, but rather in 
 creased embarrassments and difficulties. 
 
 Thus, without definite political plans, and without a com 
 petent head, the Republican party, as I shall show, has been a 
 party of mere promises, without performance, of fluctuating 
 councils and impotent action, of expedients and shifts, and 
 not of principles, and therefore more intent on partisan 
 than patriotic ends ; leaving the good Ship of State to beat 
 about among the rocks and shoals, as the winds shifted, or the 
 currents sucked. 
 
HI. ITS GROSS FINANCIAL FAILURE. 
 
 Its failure appears in every department of public affairs ; but 
 let us begin with the finances : 
 
 (1.) Mmtfie<;fifaPM : <> Debts: We emerged from the war 
 with numerous and complicated debts, incurred under adverse 
 conditions, and at high rates of interest. The first business in 
 regard to them was to consolidate them into a single debt, 
 at low rates, which was practicable, and to fund the interest 
 saved into a means of paying off the principal. Instead of 
 this, the Eepublican financiers thought it a fine thing to 
 begin paying off the debt years before it matured. Their 
 orators and editors extolled it as a grand success and merit. 
 It was in my opinion a grand folly. It was, moreover, a breach 
 of law ; for Congress, in 18G9, had wisely enacted in the inter 
 est of honesty and resumption, that " none of the interest bear 
 ing notes should be redeemed before maturity, unless the demand 
 notes or the legal tenders should be convertible into coin at 
 par." Nevertheless, law or no law, the foolish practice was 
 continued; the jubilations went on, until the convulsion of 
 1873 opened the eyes of more discerning men, and showed that 
 the vacuum created in the investment market by the withdraw 
 al of government securities had been speedily filled by railroad 
 bonds, which enlarged the scope and aggravated the severity, 
 if it did not produce the crisis. All the while, debts actually 
 due from day to day, went to protest by the millions ! 
 
 (2.) Want of Economy and Extravagance. It is no time to 
 pay debts already provided for, when your pockets are empty, 
 your trade stagnant and your labor idle ; but it is a time to 
 stop waste, to check extravagance, and to get rid of parasites 
 and bloodsuckers. Yet the administration scorned these sim 
 ple dictates of prudence and good sense. Its expenditures 
 during its last year are a hundred millions greater than in the 
 first. In 1868-9 it spent $585,133,289; but in 1874-5, $682,- 
 000,885. No less in detail than in the aggregate has its pro 
 fligacy swollen. The civil list has been increased ; the costs of 
 foreign intercourse have risen ; the pensions have grown, 
 though pensioners ought to doorcase ; the navy expenditures 
 have been enormous, though we have no navy to show for it, 
 as Admiral Porter says ; (lie Indian bureau expands while the 
 Indians are supposed every year to be growing fewer, and the 
 mis. * oui<_w, where much 01 the corrupt patronage 
 
comes in, leap from twenty-nine to nearly fifty millions. Read 
 the last reports of the secretaries : not one of them proposed a 
 .single specific retrenchment of any importance. It was all give, 
 give, give ! They asked an expenditure for this year of twenty- 
 five millions more than last year, and fifty millions more than 
 Congress allowed. An actual burden of thirty millions was 
 taken off our shoulders by the House of Representatives, or 
 of $1*20,000 a y> JT for each congressional district ! When 
 everybody else was at his wit s end to live, the gentlemen at 
 Washington seem, to have supposed that their offices were Big 
 Bonanzas, with floors of silver and roofs of gold. 
 
 (3.) Irregular and Excessive Taxation. Excessive expendi 
 ture, of course, means oppressive taxation; but our taxation 
 has been more than onerous. It has been irregular, fitful, 
 unscientific, unjust. Improvised during the war on the rule 
 of the Irishman at Donnybrook, wherever you see a head, 
 hit it, wherever you find anything to tax, tax it, it has 
 gone on in tho same careless, hap -hazard style. In other 
 nations, both customs and excises are raised with some refer 
 ence to the laws of political economy, as they are taught by 
 science, or confirmed by long experience ; but here they are 
 imposed in a way that sets all principle at defiance. They 
 aro not laid on any definite plan, but are simply fired 
 off at us like a French mitrailleuse which shoots a thousand 
 missiles at a time, that explode in a thousand different 
 directions. Tho tariff ought to be a short schedule of 
 duties, selected with a view to the largest returns at the 
 least expense, and with the slightest interference with trade; 
 it is a formidable catalogue of exactions, four or five 
 thousand in kind chosen with no purpose of revenue, but to 
 the detriment of revenue, and solely for the benefit of a few 
 favorites. It is a machine for extortion, which depletes the 
 many to feed fat the few. Like the tourniquet of the elder 
 surgeons, it arrests the circulation of one limb to accelerate that 
 of another; but with this difference, that their instrument was 
 applied ia a state of disease to produce health, while this is 
 used in health to promote disease. In proof, let me ask: 
 Where are our clipper ships, once the admiration of the world 
 and our pride ? Where our tonnage, which was once the second 
 largest in the world, and rapidly advancing to be the largest? 
 Where the grand ocean steamers that once carried the American 
 flag ? Gone ! taxed out of existence. And yet this infernal tariff 
 
8 
 
 straddling our commerce, as the Old Man of the Sea straddled 
 Sinbadtho sailor, remains! Mr. David A. Wells, an eminent 
 statist, was engaged to infuse some degree of simplicity, 
 order, justice and efficiency into the abominable chaos ; but ho 
 was soon cashiered. The probes and correctives of science 
 which he proposed to apply were precisely the things the sys 
 tem needed, but precisely the things the managers would not 
 have. With the brilliant example of France before us, who, 
 at the close of an invasion and a civil war, discharged an 
 indemnity half the amount of our debt within a few years with 
 out deranging her industry, without depreciating her currency, 
 without convulsion or paralysis, we have staggered along for 
 eleven years, and are, in all respects, just where we began. Why 
 the difference ? The French, in their legislation, have acted on 
 the laws of science, but we have preferred the nourish of the 
 Donnybrook shillelah. 
 
 IV. CIRCUMLOCUTION AS TO THE CURRENCY. 
 
 Some of this mischief is due to sheer ignorance, some of ifc 
 to selfish greed ; but both ignorance and greed were 
 combined in the shameless treatment of the currency. Let me 
 give you the whole truth of the case in a sentence which a 
 famous [Republican leader contributed to the Tribune not a 
 month since. "It was in the power of the administration and 
 " congress ten years ago," wrote Mr. Thurlow Weed, " if they 
 " had set themselves diligently and wisely about the task, to 
 " accomplish the resumption of specie payments, without de- 
 "ranging or disturbing, or depressing any class or any 
 " interest ; but unhappily the statesmanship the emergency de- 
 "manded was lacking. The administration and congress have 
 " only been distinguished as circumlocutionists. Their efforts 
 " thus far have been in the direction of how not to do it." 
 That is the truth ; but what perfidy, what dishonor, what dis 
 grace it reflects upon the party which clamorously pretends to 
 be the special friend and advocate of resumption. It was all 
 pretence, as I shall show you by two or three memorable in 
 stances : 
 
 (1.) The acts originally authorizing the issue of legal tender 
 notes provided for their conversion into six per cent, bonds 
 and if that provision had been continued, they would never 
 have become redundant. The moment there had been an ex 
 cess over the regular wants of trade they would have been 
 
9 
 
 invested. But within a year or two of its passage that provi 
 sion of the law was repealed by the Eepublican congress ; the 
 broad sluices of inflation were opened, and they have ever 
 since been kept open. Mr. Spaulding, the author of the law, 
 has said within a week, at Buffalo, "If it had been allowed to 
 " stand as it left my hands, if the right to fund the greenbacks 
 " in gold bonds had not been abrogated, we should have had 
 specie payment in 1868 "eight years ago ; " nothing under 
 " heaven could have prevented it. The country would have 
 " been forced into resumption in spite of itself." Why, then, 
 was not the law allowed to stand? Because the leaders of the 
 party were not in favor of hard money, and the party itself was 
 never decided enough to require it of them. What better 
 proof of this could we have than the fact that its Secretaries 
 of the Treasury of whom we may repeat what was once said 
 of Brougham : " they were men of brilliant incapacity, vast and 
 " varied misinformation, and prodigious moral requirements ;" 
 have never scrupled when hard pressed, to reissue the reserve, 
 which by law ought to have been canceled. Boutwell did it, 
 and snapped his fingers at the law. Eichardson did it, and 
 trampled the law under his feet. 
 
 (2.) Again; in 1869, Senator Morton, who was then a hard 
 money man (for he has boxed the compass of all opinions), 
 proposed a bill, to accumulate gold in the treasury, and, then 
 designate a day on which that gold should be used for the 
 redemption of the greenbacks. The Kepublican Senate treated 
 his effort with scorn ; they spoke against it and voted against 
 it ; and the designation of a particular day was ridiculed and 
 denounced as the supremeut absurdity. But, they offered 
 nothing in its place, and for five years went on debating pro 
 positions of which, Q,sihe Evening Post said, "it was difficult to 
 determine whether they were the products of stolid ignorance 
 or heartless cupidity." These debates, if such they may be 
 called, reminded one always, of that farce of Moliere s, in 
 which a lady having swooned, the anxious father summons in 
 four doctors at once. They straightway fall to wrangling both 
 as to the nature of the attack, and as to its remedies, " The 
 case is one clearly," says the first, "of distemperature of 
 the blood, and requires the lancet." " Not at all," interferes 
 the second, " the humours are disordered, and we must purge." 
 " Purge ? holy heaven !" cries the third, " the patient could 
 " not live ten minutes ; it is an emetic she wants." "An emetic!" 
 
10 
 
 " horror of horrors !" shouts the fourth, " twould be instant 
 " death, and I prescribe an anodyne." So the State doctors 
 had each his own theory of the disease, and each his own 
 specific. But after five years of consultation the collective 
 faculty of the Republican College compromised, concluding 
 that the best cure for a plethora of p;iper money was more 
 money. Both the homcepathic and the allopathic schools 
 were united in their prescription ; for it was homcepathic in 
 principle like cures like yet allopathic in the magnitude of 
 the dose, which was truly heroic. In 1874 a law was passed, 
 authorizing an inflation of $100,000000, which, President 
 Grant, at the last moment, and under influence that have never 
 been explained, put to death, greatly to the annoyance of his 
 principal supporters in Congress. 
 
 (3.) Then came one of those regurgitations of opinion, which 
 are called tidal waves, and which threatened to change the 
 political aspect. The Republican leaders took fright. Some 
 thing must be done, they said ; some tub must be thrown to the 
 whale ; and a tub was coopered up in caucus, known as the 
 Sherman sham of January, 1875. It was nominally an act to 
 provide for the resumption of specie payments, but really an act 
 for the evasion of specie payments. In the face of the votes and 
 speeches against Morton s bill, which had designated a day, its 
 main feature was the designation of a day ; but unlike that ifc 
 made no provision of means. Go to! it said "on the 1st of Jan 
 uary, 1879, let us build a tower whose top shall reach to heaven," 
 but not a brick, nor a beam, nor a hodful of mortar was pre 
 pared. The tower was expected to go up like Solomon s tem 
 ple, "without hammer or axe, or the sound of any tool." The 
 more candid of the Republican journals, like the Nation,, de 
 nounced the law as " a cheat." " It is a mere attempt," said 
 the critic " of the Republican leaders to cover up their divi 
 sions/ <: to produce an appearance of union where no union 
 exists, and of doing something where nothing is done." Carl 
 Sclmrz in the Senate demonstrated its hollowness, and predicted 
 its inevitable repeal ; and although ho voted for it, he did so in 
 the hope that the choice of & certain day would be construed as 
 ?i pledge," and would bind the authors of it in conscience. 
 In conscience ! he did not know his colleagues. It was a 
 pretext, a fetch, a buoy to keep them afloat, not a pledge. And 
 the proof of their duplicity is, that as soon as the law had an 
 swered their purposes, it was abandoned. A proposition to ap- 
 
11 
 
 prove it was made at Cincinnati, but instantly voted clown. This 
 " sacred pledge," this " obligation of national honor," this test 
 and shibboleth of party orthodoxy, was ignominiously dismissed 
 to the Limbo of Things not Wanted on Earth. Yet in the face 
 oi this ten years prevarication, the Republican leaders have the 
 audacity to declare " without mitigation or remorse of voice * 
 that they alone are the friends of resumption. It must be in 
 the sense that the hotel-keeper in Maine was in favor of the 
 Liquor Law i. c., in favor of the law, but opposed to its exe 
 cution. 
 
 (4.) The Republican party, whatever its pretensions may be, 
 has steadily defeated resumption ; for with every opportunity 
 to bring it about, there is yet no resumption. "Will any man, in 
 the least familiar with the subject, maintain that resumption is 
 possible without a contraction of the outstanding legal-tenders ? 
 Yet, I read in the Tribune of the 26th only a few days since, 
 an elaborate demonstration, based on a careful array of official 
 figures, that " the currency (issued by the Government) has 
 never been as small in volume as it was in 1867 " - nine years 
 ago, and " that it has since increased with every year." But as 
 the Government currency is the basis of the bank-note cir 
 culation, there has been a still greater increase in that direc 
 tion. In 1868, the year of Grant s election, the whole issue 
 of Legal Tender notes, was $389,435,058 ; of Bank notes $299,- 
 887,675, making a total of $689,322,733 ; whereas, in 1375, 
 the last year for which WG have full returns, the Legal Tender 
 notes amounted to $113,987,581 ; the National Bank notes to 
 $348,216,902 ; or a grand total of $762,204,483. The insrease 
 in seven years has been $72,881,750. How, in the name of 
 logic, are we to get to resumption while the Government is 
 moving the other way ? 
 
 Y. DEBASEMENT or THE CIVIL SERVICE. 
 
 Incompetency and double-dealing, are exhibited in a still 
 more striking light in respect to civil service reform. Two 
 great and deplorable evils have been gradually grafted on our 
 methods of administration ; the one consisting in the usurpa 
 tion of tho executive function of appointment to office by the 
 legislative branch, and the other, in the practice of making these 
 appointments as a reward of mere partisan servility. The 
 former evil was greatly aggravated by the law passed by the 
 Bepublicans, which undertook to fetter the President s power 
 
12 
 
 of removal, and which created the senatorial conclave that has 
 since become so dictatorial and insolent; the latter, prodigiously 
 increased by the circumstances of the war, has grown with the 
 strength and patronage of the government, until, as Mr. Jencks 
 of Rhode Island, said of it in 18G7, "a more vicious system 
 does not exist in any civilized nation on the face of the earth." 
 It is this system, which raises men of no special qualifications 
 to office, who do not discharge their duties at all, or discharge 
 them badly. Mr. Curtis estimated that we lose $100,000,000 
 annually 11 by maladministration. It is this system which greatly 
 augments the number and increases the expense of the office 
 holders. During Grant s administration they have leaped from 
 64,000 to 94,000. Holding their places by an uncertain tenure, 
 they are tempted to corrupt practices to swell their gains. The 
 defalcations under Grant have been over $5,000,000. Owing 
 their appointments to personal favor, not desert, they endeavour 
 to serve those by whom they are appointed, not the public. They 
 are Conkling s men, or Fenton s men, or Elaine s men, 
 or Butler s, and are taken care of by their patrons. And 
 in case of malfeasance the same influences which procured them 
 places will endeavour to shield them from removal. No in 
 ducement to fidelity or vigilance in office, when fidelity and 
 vigilance are not the grounds on which they are chosen or 
 retained. On the other hand, indebted to party services for 
 their places, they combine to hide each other s delinquencies 
 lest their parties should suffer damage from exposure, while at 
 times of election the entire corps is turned into a babd of elec 
 tioneering agents, who render political controversy, that 
 ought to be a contest of principles, or of rival policies, a violent 
 and bitter struggle for loaves and fishes. 
 
 Honorable and patriotic men of all parties have, since 1864, 
 demanded the correction of these abuses. Bill after bill to 
 suppress them has been presented arid defeated in Congress. 
 At length, in 1871, a law was enacted in compliance with aa 
 overwhelming popular sentiment, authorizing the President to 
 prescribe rules and regulations for promoting the greater efficacy 
 of tho civil service. He instituted a commission to carry it 
 into effect, Mr. G. W. Curtis being at the head. With what 
 result? A loud proclamation of purposes, followed by a 
 pompous par --de, and nothing done. The active politicians uu 
 uding morton, Butler, Cameron and Chandler, laughed 
 fch puny effort to scorn. Mr. Curtis, disgusted, retired 
 from tha field* amid a gentle ripple of smiles: his for- 
 
13 
 
 lorn successor, Mr. Eaton, goes about bleating long-winded 
 laments : and the Beform lias shared the fate of those ancient 
 victims, who were decorated with ribbons and garlands as 
 they were led to the sacrificial altar. 
 
 How could it have been otherwise ? Why, the chief of the 
 whole concern, the President himself, set the example of treat 
 ing his patronage as a personal possession, which he was at 
 liberty to dispense, as he pleased, among his relatives and 
 favorites. It is openly alleged that some of his principal assist 
 ants were chosen because they had contributed money to his 
 election or made him presents. His kith and kin to the third 
 and fourth remove were all enriched with lucrative sinecures. 
 One or two of them obtained roving commissions that enabled 
 them to levy tribute on contractors and applicants wherever 
 they might be found. His boon companions were granted rich 
 farmings of the revenues which they exploited, as the French 
 say, as they would have used a plantation on lease. Is it 
 strange that subordinates caught the infection, or that takers 
 of toll stood in the vestibules of the bureaus, to sell their re 
 puted " influence " over chiefs with whom they were, or were 
 suspected to be in partnership ? 
 
 Or, again, were the congressional managers likely to sur 
 render a patronage on which so much of their own importance 
 and power depended ? Indeed, how were they to set up as reform 
 ers who themselves needed to be reformed ? Some of them took 
 salaries they had not earned : others accepted railroad shares for 
 which they had legislated : nearly all would pocket the public 
 stationery and penknives. Said Mr. Hoar, in his impeachment 
 speech, " I have seen the chairman of the Committee on 
 Military Affairs in the House, rise in his place and demand the 
 expulsion of four of his associates for making sale cf their 
 official privilege of selecting the youth to be educated at our 
 great military school. When the greatest railroad in the world, 
 binding together the continent and uniting the two great seas 
 which wash our shores, was finished, I have seen our national 
 triumph and exultation turned to bitterness and shame by tho 
 unanimous report of three committees of Congress, two of the 
 House and one of the Senate that every step of that mighty 
 enterprise had been taken in fraud. I havo heard in highest 
 places the shameless doctrine avowed by men grown old in public 
 office," and who have grown old in office, but Republicans ? 
 " that the true way by which power should be gained in the re 
 public is to bribe the people with the offices created for their 
 
14 
 
 service, and the true end for which it should be used when 
 gained is the promotion of selfish ambition and the gratification 
 of personal revenge." 
 
 VI. PERVADING CORRUPTION OF THE DOMINANT PARTY. 
 
 Could any cleanliness come of such styes ? In 
 creased dirt and degradation rather! Four years ago 
 already, Mr. Stanley Matthews, a high republican, de 
 clared, " Our party is rotten from rind to core." Ho 
 was thinking, doubtless, of the Chorpenning and Secor swindles, 
 which then looked monstrous, though they have since dwindled 
 into dwarfs, amid their fouler companions. Four years ago, 
 Mr. Sumner, one of the founders of the party, denounced the 
 negotiations with St. Domingo as a venal and perfidious job, 
 disguised under the name of a treaty. Four years ago, Mr. 
 Carl Schurz described the sale of arms to France as a base 
 and shabby trick, which dishonored us in the eyes of the civ 
 ilized nations. Four years ago, Mr. Jacob D. Cox was 
 shouldered out of the Interior Department because he would 
 not allow the trading politicians to assess Iris clerks and run 
 the office as a party machine. 
 
 (1.) The revolt of 1872. In short, four years ago, the mis 
 rule and abuses of the administration had become so flagrant 
 that sensitive, self-respecting men were compelled to abandon 
 it. Messrs. Adams, Sumner, Trumbull, Schurz, Cox, Tipton, 
 Greeley , and hundreds of thousands of others, combined for its 
 overthrow, and, under the name of Independent Republicans, 
 sought an alliance with the democratic opposition, in order to 
 oust it from power. What was their complaint ? In an address 
 to the people they alleged : 
 
 1st. That the administration had openly trampled upon the 
 law. 2d. That it had used its public functions for mere per 
 sonal ends. 3d. That it had rewarded the givers of presents 
 (or masked bribes) with honors and emoluments. 4th. That it 
 had stood in the way of the investigation, and prevented the 
 correction of abuses. 5th. That it had kept alive the re 
 sentments of the war, and instead of restoring the rights of 
 the South had resorted to unconstitutional means for its op 
 pression ; and, 6th. That the Republican party upheld and 
 justified these unscrupulous acti of corruption and despotism. 
 
 (2.) Rapid and widespread demoralization. This was four 
 
15 
 
 years ago, jet the party was then an angel of light com 
 pared with the dark and siliister form it has since assumed. 
 It is since then that the Moiety Contract farmed the collec 
 tion of certain revenues to a kennel of sleuth-hounds who 
 harried respectable merchants as they used to harry fugitive 
 negroes in the Southern swamps, and whose insolences, extor 
 tions and robberies became so outrageous that the House of 
 Representatives, without a division, adopted the report of the 
 Committee of "Ways and Means, which declared that " the 
 Secretary of the Treasury, the Assistant Secretary and the 
 Solicitor deserved severe condemnation for the manner in which 
 they had permitted the law to be enforced." It is since then that 
 the federal army was sent into an independent and fully organ 
 ized State to uphold the ascendancy of a band of adventurers 
 from other States, who employed the money of the Custom House 
 to secure spurious returns of elections, and the bayonets of our 
 troops to overturn a government erected by the people. It is 
 since then that Mr. William M. Evarts, Mr. W. C. Bryant, Mr. 
 W. E. Dodge, Peter Cooper, Governor Saloman, and other good 
 republicans, characterised the act, in a public meeting in New 
 York, as " a revolutionary violence," as " an usurpation of the 
 Jaw," as "an outrage on legislative independence," and as "a 
 teaching to persons receiving their first lessons in citizenship, 
 that political problems are to be solved by arbitrary processes 
 and displays of physical force." It is since then that a large num 
 ber of prominent republican leaders have been convicted in public 
 opinion of having taken gifts of stock from a great railroad 
 corporation, on whose interests they had legislated or might 
 be called again to legislate, a Vice-President, among others, 
 sinking into a remediless disgrace. It is since then that 
 a Speaker of the House has shown, by his own letters, 
 that he was a jobber in contracts, and the ally and cor 
 respondent of jobbers, whose favors he solicited on the ground 
 of his rulings, and whose stocks he peddled among his ad 
 herents. It is since then that the holder of an embassy to 
 an ancient and fastidious court, was rebuked by the House of 
 Representatives for lending his name and his credit to a mining 
 speculation which has taken its rank in history as among the 
 most prodigious of frauds. It is since then that a vast con- 
 gpiraey between the makers of whiskey and the revenue agents, 
 which defrauded the Government of hundreds of millions of dol 
 lars and elected and controlled members of both Houses of 
 Congress, has been traced to tho higher departments, and even. 
 
16 
 
 to the official household of the President. It is since then that 
 the official instruments who exposed these enormous frauds 
 have been frozen out or dismissed from their places, and 
 the atmosphere which they vainly endeavored to cleanse is 
 once more made unpleasant, not to rogues, but to the prosecu 
 tors of rogues. It is since then, finally, that we have witnessed 
 the meanest display of venality known to our annals, that of a 
 Secretary of War, who, as he confessed, shared in the proceeds 
 of extortion wrung by griping post-traders from the poor 
 soldiers of the frontier, and who, when he was impeached, 
 allowed his counsel to defend "him on the plea that the taking 
 of gifts by public men was so common that it could not be con 
 sidered blameworthy or corrupt. 
 
 (3.) A Corruption without parallel. I might add to this 
 painful exhibition from the disclosures made by committees of 
 the late Democratic House of Eepresentatives, but I refrain. 
 Not that I distrust the evidence, for I hold it to be substanti 
 ally true, but lest it be said that I recur to partisan sources. 
 It is, however, before you, and you can judge for yourselves. 
 Fraud rises upon fraud, until, with Indian frauds, pension 
 frauds, navy frauds, printing frauds, building frauds, contract 
 frauds, post-office frauds, custom house frauds, and frauds 
 upon the very grave-stones of our sacred dead the air grows 
 thick with malarious and suffocating vapors. As we read the 
 dismal record, and Kings upon Kings, and Eings within Kings, 
 are unfolded before us, we recall the dread vision of the great 
 Italian poet, whose Infernal Regions were composed of suc 
 cessive circles of scoundrels and malefactors, each more dole 
 ful than the other, and stretching out into ever widening, ever 
 deepening gloom. 
 
 (4.) These Crimes Confessed by Republicans. I rely, for 
 my argument, I say, solely upon facts admitted by Republicans 
 themselves. I rely upon the facts which induced Presi 
 dent Woolsey to lament that " for the past ten years the 
 " country had been growing politically worse, and that those 
 " who had acted with the dominant party had reason to blusk 
 "with sharno for its leaders." I rely upon the facts which 
 prompted Mr. Carl Schurz, in May past, to exclaim "that never 
 before, in our history, has the public mind been so profoundly 
 agitated by apprehensions of danger arising from corrupt 
 practices and combinations, and never was there more reason 
 for them." I rely upon the facts which caused the liberal Be- 
 
17 
 
 publicans of this State, only last year, to " condemn the na 
 tional administration for its illegal and oppressive acts," and 
 " total disregard of law and public opinion." I -rely upon the 
 facts which led the Union League Club, of New York, to de 
 mand the emancipation of the party from the control of its 
 habitual managers. I rely upon the facts that brought about 
 the organization of numerous societies for " Beform within the 
 Party," which, though a delusive hope, was none the less a con 
 fession of deplorable rottenness. I rely upon the facts which 
 forced presidents of colleges, professors, clergymen, editors, and 
 merchants who, not politicians, represented the highest in 
 tellectual and moral worth of the commonwealth to assemble in 
 conference at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and to consult as to what 
 could be done to arrest the almost universal political decay. I 
 rely upon the facts which impelled them to proclaim their de 
 termination not to support any presidential candidate connected 
 with or conniving at corruption, and who was not in character 
 and by record, capable of striking down " the enormous abuses 
 intrenched behind established custom." 
 
 VI. THE EFFORT TO DISGUISE AND EVADE EESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 " But," say a class of meek-eyed Republicans, adopting the 
 phrase of Moliere s mock-doctor, when some one insisted, con 
 trary to his saying, that the heart was on the left side of the 
 body, nous avons change tout cela, we have changed all that! 
 What you describe, they say, what all these indignant classes 
 protest against, is Grantism not Republicanism ! Alas ! the 
 distinction, is like that of the bishop who had fallen into 
 the vice of profane swearing, and who excused himself for 
 the fault on the ground that he swore as a man and not as a 
 bishop. " But when the man is damned for it," asked a by 
 stander, " what will become of the bishop?" What will be 
 come of Republicanism, when Grantism goes below ? I am not 
 at all surprised at the desire to get rid of the connection. 
 Nobody likes to go about with an ill-smelling companion a 
 dead dog, or a consumer of garlic. Nevertheless everybody ought 
 to be held to the consequences of his acts. Party government 
 means that parties, not persons, are the responsible instruments 
 of power. No doubt it would be convenient to make a scape 
 goat of Grant, and, after putticg the sins of a whole community 
 of rascals on his shoulders, send him into the wilderness. But 
 that vicarious ceremony would not change the real state of tho 
 facts. Grant has been the incarnation of his party. 
 
18 
 
 (1.) Grant never Renounced, but always Approved. Has 
 he ever been renounced? If so, when and where? A few 
 bold speakers and writers, now and then, have dared to 
 criticise his management, but they were at once excommuni 
 cated, like Suinner, Schurz, Trumbull and others. The mass 
 of the party has clung to him. It was only a year or twe since 
 it was doubtful whether he would not be proposed for a third 
 term. His friends say still that he would poll more Republi 
 can votes than any man named as a candidate at Cincinnati. 
 Certainly the party, when acting as a party, has never lost an 
 occasion for approving his management. State conventions 
 are commonly considered the exponents of party sentiment t 
 Well, how has it been with them ? I have taken pains to con 
 sult the records for the past year, and I find that not a single 
 one of them ventured to breathe a word of reproach. 
 
 (a.) By the State Conventions. From Maine to Oregon ex 
 pressions of approval followed each other like a fan dejoie of 
 musketry. Massachusetts said, "the President is entitled to 
 our gratitude for his independence, courage and good sense.** 
 Kentucky professed "unabated confidence in his devotion 
 to Republican principles." Connecticut repeated its " undi- 
 minished confidence in his integrity and patriotism;" and 
 Ohio was sure that " he is an able and judicious statesman, 
 entitled to our gratitude." Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, 
 Arkansas all avowed " a hearty approval," while far California 
 " joined her political brethren of the Union in their cordial and 
 earnest support of the administration." But Pennsylvania 
 capped the climax, proclaiming "the achievements of the ad 
 ministration the most brilliant in our annals." Well ; they 
 are the most brilliant, but the brilliancy was that which came 
 from putrescence ! 
 
 (&.) By the National Convention. When the National Con 
 vention assembled at Cincinnati, only three months since, 
 this chorus of peans ngain assaulted the patient heavens. 
 All the leading men of the party were there; and was 
 anything said, either in the speeches or resolutions, to dispar 
 age Grantism ? Was it proposed, even by implication to dis 
 card its spirit and its methods ? Did any one so much as 
 hint as to the necessity or tho propriety of great and search 
 ing reforms? Was reform mentioned at all? Not a word! 
 The administration was again Braised to the top of the gamut. 
 Eor all that was said, Babcock was an unborn babe of innocence, 
 
19 
 
 and Belknap s ghost, which must have stalked among them, 
 stalked nnrebukecl. It was conceded, it is true, that the pub 
 lic conscience was somewhat aroused, and that if malfeasance 
 and crime should, perchance, be discovered, they ought to 
 be punished, but as to the streams of feculence which, had 
 poured for the last ten years through all the public orifices 
 they were as dumb as driven cattle. The cry for reform, that 
 has been gathering strength from day to day, and from hour to 
 hour, until it had almost swollen to the might and majesty of a 
 tempest, beat and roared around the edifice where the col 
 lective wisdom of Eepublicanism was assembled but in vain ; 
 its pleading voices were drowned in the howl of the placemen 
 over their endangered provender. What ! reform in a conven 
 tion, where a man fearfully shattered by his own letters, came 
 within twenty-five votes of the Presidential nomination, while 
 the man who had earnestly labored to put down corruption 
 received no more than 126 out of a total of 756 votes ! 
 
 (2.) The same Managers and the same Machinery employed. 
 Grantism discarded ! Look you ; the most devoted henchmen of 
 the administration the notorious Senatorial Ring which has 
 defended its every act are still the leading managers! 
 Cameron, Conkling, Morton, Logan, to whom Blame has 
 recently been added, are the Ajax Telernons of this cam 
 paign. Chandler, Grant s Secretary of the Interior, a 
 weather-beaten trickster, who has come down to us from 
 former generations, is the chosen center of the machine, and 
 turns the crank. Every placeman, from the highest bureaucrat 
 to the lowest tide-waiter, has joined the hunt, and " harks 
 forward " the pack, which, according to the Bepublican re 
 formers, must turn him out of his hole? Would every 
 scoundrel from Coif ax to Schenck, every suspected pilferer 
 whom the late inquiries have branded, fling up his cap for the 
 regeneration of a party, which, if regenerated, must forever ex 
 clude him from its embrace ? Would the whole " bread and 
 butter brigade " of office holders turn out as "Boys in Blue," 
 though some of them were infants in arms, not soldiers in 
 arms, during the war if they expected the besom of 
 reform to sweep their ranks ? The mere supposition- is absurd. 
 In ancient times, when a man got possessed of the devil, they 
 cast the devil out ; but now the practice is to get rid of the 
 evil spirit by keeping him in ! Is it reform to employ the 
 very men who have debauched and debased a party to plead 
 
20 
 
 its cause before the people ? Is it reform to go about making 
 speeches which touch upon every other topic but reform ? 
 Bead the campaign orators ! Their whole talk is a war whoap ! 
 They go back sixteen years to dig up issues from the decay of 
 the grave ; they go forward indefinitely into the future to invent 
 issues, like the " rebel claims " which are conjectural and pre 
 posterous ; bat existing abuses they avoid, as the proverb says, 
 the devil does holy water. The only abuse they handle is the 
 abuse of personal character, in which they display a prodi 
 gality of resource that might fill all Billingsgate with envy. 
 
 (3.) The Republican Reformers Impotent. There is no doubt 
 a small but highly respectable minority of the Republicans, the 
 "better element" it is called (though Mr. Conkling lately said 
 they were " only theorists or critics, or professional reformers, 
 or vainglorious pretenders to supreme wisdom"), which really 
 desires to wash away the sins of the party, which believes in 
 reform within the party, and has labored diligently to that 
 end. All honor to its efforts ! But thus far, I say, its mem 
 bers have fought a losing fight. They were twice defeated 
 in this State ; they have been defeated in every other State 
 where they have tried it on, save one ; and they were defeated 
 in the National Convention, when they were compelled to ac 
 cept a candidate who was not their choice. They took him, not be 
 cause he was the man they wanted, but because they supposed he 
 might turn out better than others whom they did not want. 
 They achieved no triumph of principle ; they simply submitted 
 to a party stratagem. I doubt, in fact, whether the reform 
 of a party which has fallen into bad ways because of its long 
 possession of power be morally possible from within. History 
 would seem to demonstrate that in all ages, or in ninety-nine 
 cases out of a hundred, reformers are compelled to be come- 
 outers. They must abandon the organization, which they desire 
 to purify, if they would make their blows effective. Within it 
 they are crushed by its force, or defeated by its cunning ; and 
 the same influences, the same temptations, which have caused 
 its degeneracy will baffle their effort s. It will go on festering 
 in its iniquity. It will go on deteriorating till adversity over 
 takes it, and shakes it out of its routine, and drives away the 
 ill-omened birds who have fouled it with their droppings. 
 In this view, Mr. Schurz, in 1872, contended that the Kepnb- 
 lican party was so pervaded and subjugated by the spirit of 
 corruption that the reformation of it was not be to expected.. 
 
21 
 
 * A political party," he said, "which fails to recognize, 
 " abuses, as such, has lost the moral ability to correct them. 
 " Its very ascendancy will thenceforward stand in the way of 
 " reform. And thus it is that the 
 
 " great name, the great authority of the Republican party 
 " is being used this very moment to uphold the most atrocious 
 " system of government which this country ever saw. A 
 " party which cannot live and prosper unless it be supported 
 " by corruption ; a party that cannot prosper unless it be sup- 
 " ported by a revival of the old war feeling, and by tearing 
 " open again the wounds from which the people of the United 
 " States have bled so long ; such a party, when it has come to 
 " that, does not deserve to live." 
 
 VII. ME. HAYES is ONLY A MAKESHIFT. 
 Mr. Hayes, the new leader, whom all the factions unite in sup 
 porting, may or may not be the Hercules, destined to cleanse 
 their Augean stable who can tell? He is quite unknown, 
 and the auguries are not favorable. He was not, in the first 
 place, chosen in the way that reformers are commonly chosen, 
 i. e. 9 because of their prominence as reformers. His name had 
 never been, in the slightest degree, identified with the move 
 ment for the amelioration of Republican politics. All through 
 the outbreak and revolt of the "better element" which is 
 spoken of, he never so much as whimpered. During the whole 
 misuse of power, which the reformers complain of, not a word 
 of dissatisfaction, not even a lisp of criticism, escaped his lips. 
 
 (1) The Mode of his Selection. Neither inside nor outside 
 the nominating convention was he spoken of as the repre 
 sentative or the ally of those who desired a change. Those 
 who were on the outside, in a public address, had ex 
 pressly excluded men of his calibre from their lists of 
 possible choice ; those on the inside had previously de 
 scribed and deprecated the very course of proceeding by which 
 he was selected. Mr. Curtis, a leader of the latter sort, had 
 (in Harper s Weekly), some weeks before the convention, di 
 rected attention to the peculiar mode in which the Pennsyl 
 vania delegation was constituted ; it was pledged to vote as a 
 unit for Hartrarift, who had no chance, and that meant, he 
 said, that they should keep Hartranft as a dummy in the fore 
 ground, until the time should arrive for springing another, but 
 no less serviceable name. l\ T ow the very procedure which Mr. 
 Curtis predicted and feared was the procedure which the dele- 
 
22 
 
 gation followed. Hartranft was voted for till the opportune 
 moment came, when ho was thrust into the bag, and Mr. Hajes 
 was pulled out of it. At once all tho trading members rushed 
 to the rescue. They all gave cry, as young dogs at fault when 
 the} 7 hear the yelp of some older hound. Strange to say, tho 
 reformers joined in, and with Cameron on the lead, Cameron, 
 a name identified with the dirtiest tricks of politics in tho dirtiest 
 of the gangs yelped as loudly as the others. It may be possible, 
 as a wit has said, that by setting a fresh hen on a nest of rotten 
 eggs, you are going to hatch out a fine brood of chickens, but 
 that is not the way of nature. 
 
 (2.) Mr. Hayes s Serviceable Qualities. Mr. Hayes is only 
 a new hen ; the nest is the same, and the eggs are the 
 same. I shall, however, say nothing against Mr. Hayes, for 
 the reason that some one gave for not righting a duel with 
 the lank John Randolph there was not enough of him to 
 shoot. I have just read his biography, put forth by admiring 
 friends, and I find it a labored canonization of the merest me 
 diocrity. He had the merit some years ago, common to about 
 five hundred thousand of our fellow citizens, of serving honor 
 ably in the war ; but he served with no particular distinction. 
 He was four years in Congress, where his name was heard only 
 when the clerk called the roll. No measure of his devising 
 is now remembered ; not a speech even remains ; not so much 
 as a report on any subject, save a resolution w r hich he got in from 
 the most insignificant of committees, that on the Library. It 
 was a proposal to give away a considerable number of books 
 to the members themselves, which Elihu Washburne snubbed 
 by the remark that if they wanted the property of the people 
 they ought to pay for it, and not endeavor to pocket it by a 
 sneaking appropriation ! Hayes simply voted with his party, 
 which means that he voted for all the gigantic subsidies to the 
 Pacific Railroads, for many bad jobs, and for the several meas 
 ures which looked to an inflation of the currency. Mr. Hayes has 
 also been a Governor of Ohio for several years ; it is a clerical 
 office, calling for the exercise of no marked ability, but, such 
 as it is, his management of it does not seem to have 
 been resplendent. The Boston Daily Advertiser, a Repub 
 lican sheet, describing his career, said : " He has been 
 " Governor for two terms, but there never was any danger that 
 " he would institute any reform to hurt. He is a man of fair 
 " ability, good-natured, correct in his personal habits, honest^ 
 
23 
 
 " sound in the Republican faith, but of no force or independ- 
 " ence." That, I suspect, is a correct description ; it is what 
 those who know him in his own State have written me, and it 
 was the opinion of Mr. Carl Schurz expressed to me not long 
 ago. Mr. Hayes never has been a leader in the true sense of 
 the term. Ho always has been a follower, and very likely al 
 ways will be. 
 
 (3.) Poor Material for a Reformer. Now, you will confess 
 that this is poor timber for a reforming Hercules. Certainly, 
 it is not what the Fifth avenue conference demanded, when, 
 in terms which they again and again emphasized, they asked 
 for a candidate who should be something more than " an avail 
 ability ;" a candidate who was uot to bo trusted merely " on the 
 " strength of private recommendations," or upon " supposed 
 virtue and rumored ability." They demanded " a candidate 
 " who might be depended upon to possess the moral courage 
 " and sturdy resolution to grapple with abuses that have ac- 
 " quired the strength of established custom." These very 
 words were written and uttered, as I know, to prevent the 
 candidacy which some of their writers and utterers now pro 
 fess to regard as satisfactory. Politics, like time, has its 
 whirligigs, and no gyratory display will, in the end, prove more 
 remarkable than that which loudly clamored for a reform, and 
 quietly accepted a succession. 
 
 VI. THE ATTITUDE OF THE DEMOCRATIC REFOEMEES. 
 
 Thus far you have seen the shortcomings, the blunders, the 
 deceits and the rascalities of the ruling party ; you have seen 
 the depth and extent of its official degradation as depicted by 
 its own members ; but you will ask whether the Democratic 
 reformers are likely to do any better ? That is a pertinent and 
 a decisive question, and I am going to answer it frankly. But 
 before answering it, permit me to make two preliminary ob 
 servations. The first is, that if there is to bo any change 
 at all in the political situation, it must be through the only 
 organized political force capable of the task ; that is the 
 Democratic party. The Republican party, will not, as we 
 assume, cleanse itself ; a third party is impracticable, and there 
 fore, unless you are willing to grant an eternal lease, an 
 eternal monopoly, to tho party in possession, you must make 
 use of the only remaining weapon of resistance. In the second 
 place, that part of tho republican party which calls itself 
 
24 
 
 Xiiberal cannot object to a co-operation with the Democratic 
 party. It cannot, because it is estopped by its own example. 
 In 1872 its journals, with the Tribune at their head, teemed with 
 appeals to the people to take that party to their embraces, 
 Its most; distinguished leader, Mr. Greeley, traversed the land 
 commending it, in speeches of remarkable power, to general 
 confidence. Mr. Carl Schurz went so far as to say that its 
 willingness to ally itself with the Independents, in spite of its 
 dislike for Mr. Greeley, atoned for all its past misconduct, 
 and evinced a nobleness of self-surrender that was itself a 
 pledge of its future virtue. In a word, the liberal revolters be 
 sought it alliance, and were willing and eager to trust it with all 
 the responsibilities of power. Were these gentlemen sincere 
 then? what was the ground of their faith? Are they sincere 
 now? what is the ground of their distrust? There was then, or 
 there is now, some prevarication, and I leave them to choose 
 the horn of the dilemma on which they wish to be impaled. 
 Certainly, the Democratic party has not degenerated in the 
 interval ; but, on the contrary, as I am about to show, it has 
 greatly improved. 
 
 (I.) The Democratic Declaration of Principles. Its remarkable 
 declaration of principles, made at St. Louis the most pene 
 trating, clear and comprehensive creed yet uttered by any of 
 our political parties shows that it has a thorough conception 
 of the existing evils, and of the remedies by which they are to be 
 reached. Accepting in unreserved and emphatic- terms the con 
 stitutional and social changes wrought by the war, it proposes 
 as the basis of all future legislation, both State and national, 
 the perfect equality of citizens before the law. It denounces 
 as an invasion of this fundamental tenet those paternal and 
 fostering theories of the functions of government, which have 
 always been the fruitful sources of injustice and tyranny. 
 In this condemnation it includes that spirit of petty interfer 
 ence with the concerns of society, which ultimates in sump 
 tuary and inquisitorial legislation, whose peculiar sphere is 
 the kneading trough and the bed-chamber. In a word, it re 
 turns to those grand principles of human rights and human 
 freedom which identify Democracy with Christianity, and, on 
 the strength of these, it demands a searching, smiting, unspar 
 ing reformation of specified abuses, in finance, in taxa 
 tion, in currency, and the civil service. Every word is full of 
 meaning, and breathes alone of amelioration and progress. 
 
25 
 
 It seems to me impossible for any ear to mistake their ring of 
 sound and sonorous metal. The great aims on which we re 
 formers of old date have fixed our eyes decentralization, hard 
 money, free trade, impartial legislation, are here made the 
 rallying cry of a vast and powerful body of men, and for us to 
 reject the overture would be as foolish as it would be for the 
 General of a forlorn hope to turn away a mighty reinforcement, 
 and go over to the foe on the very eve of victory. 
 
 (2.) Sincerity of its Purposes. It will be said, I am aware, 
 that the Democrats are not sincere in this avowal of their 
 faith ; and some of them are not ; for parties, like drag nets, 
 catch up many queer fish ; but I find it impossible to believe 
 that a body embracing one-half the people of the United States, 
 at least, is insincere. As for the authors of that platform, I 
 know them to be terribly in earnest. Of the Democratic Party 
 itself, it should be remembered, that separated for years from 
 official responsibility, it has been an inchoate and desultory op 
 position rather than a compact organization. It has suffered the 
 fate of most oppositions ; nearly all the unswept rubbish of dis 
 content has been shot into its bosom ; nearly all the extravagance 
 and vagary that accredited authorities musf? repulse has assumed 
 its name, while its own impatience of misrule has fermented 
 into sour eructations, or caused it to fling out before and be 
 hind in a wild w r ay that has often damaged itself more than its 
 enemy. It has, however, none the less profited by its own 
 follies and mistakes, and I look upon its remarkable action at 
 St. Louis as a most hopeful recovery from its past errors. I 
 see its earlier and better traditions forgotten for a time in the 
 giddy whirl of a tempest, there revived ; I recognize there its 
 old instinct of justice, its old popular sympathy, its old aspira 
 tion for freedom and progress, and I believe that now re 
 cruited by many of the soundest heads and noblest hearts of 
 the other camp, by Adamses, Trumbulls, Palmers, Curtins, 
 Blairs, Hoadleys, Welleses and Bartletts. who have been driven 
 forth by its corruptions and, infused with the fresh, ardent, 
 uncontaminated blood of the young men, such as I have be 
 fore me it is destined to resume the vigor and splendor of its 
 prime. 
 
 (3.) The Democratic Candidate. Its choice of a leader rein 
 forces this faith and confirms this confidence. Mr. Tiklen is, 
 of all men living, one of the best fitted to the position and the 
 times. We of this city, at least, know who and what he is. 
 
26 
 
 He has gone in and out before us for forty years, and our eyes 
 are our witnesses. He has gone in and oufc before us, as the 
 respected private citizen, as the eminent lawyer, as the adroit 
 but upright politician, as the reformer whose brows are gashed 
 with tokens of old wars, yet wreathed with the laurels of as 
 many victories, and as the experienced statesman, whose work, 
 as far back as ISiG, had been incorporated into our constitution 
 and our history. 
 
 (a.) Partisan misrepresentations. Yet, singular to say, a ran 
 corous partisan press, which combines the manners of the bravo 
 with those of the fishwife, has declared that we are mistaken in 
 these experiences of forty years, and that Mr. Tildeii is not 
 only not what he pretends to be, or whal we believe him to be 
 but something far different. It has found as many bad names 
 for him as Coleridge found oi bad smells in Cologne. 
 He is a drunkard, a liar, a cheat a counterfeiter, a per 
 jurer and a swindler, whose pretensions as a reformer 
 are put on only to hide his companionship with thieves ; 
 and whose fortune has been won, not by the honorable 
 use of a rare and exceptional talent, but in low intrigue 
 and fraudulent devices. The dirty hounds! If what they yelp 
 at his heels were true ho would still be purer than many in 
 power at Washington, but, none the less, he ought to be in 
 Sing Sing, not, the Governor of the largest state of the Union. 
 
 But, unhappily for their authors, these are bald, atrocious, 
 unpardonable falsehoods ; the spawn of reckless brains and 
 malignant hearts. I sometimes shudder at the dark fog-bank 
 of calumny which an electioneering heat engenders; and yet I 
 cannot think that the pupil and friend of Silas Wright, Michael 
 Hoffman and Azariah Flagg, New York s traditional syno- 
 nymns for public probity, that the friend and companion of 
 Cutting, Kent, Sedgwick, Bryant, O Conor and Robinson ; that 
 the leader whom forty thousand Democrats of this city fol 
 lowed in his relentless charge upon the banditti of the City 
 Hall, whom the people of the State, for that service, chose 
 their Governor by a majority of fifty-four thousand over the 
 once amiable but now gory-minded General Dix ; whom his 
 very opponents lately delighted to praise ; I say I have greatly 
 mistaken the character of the American people if such a man 
 with such a career, is to be injured by whole simooms of slan 
 der, however foul or violent. 
 
 (fij Confessions of his opporients. The very fabricators of 
 
27 
 
 these libels wero Mr. Tilden s eulogists not two years since. 
 He is, said the Times, " a high-toned Democrat," " a man of un- 
 snlliecl honor, public and private," "a gallant, conscientious, 
 efficient foe to corruption ;" "of an honesty beyond all ques 
 tion," and "deserving the greatest credit for the good work he 
 has done and the evil work he has frustrated." Need I add the 
 testimony of the Tribune., the Evening Post, the Nation, and 
 Harper s Weekly? Take one only the last. You all know 
 and admire my accomplished friend, Mr. G. W. Curtis too 
 much of a partisan, perhaps, but a gentleman and a scholar, 
 What said he hardly a year ago ? " In opposing his election 
 " (for Governor) we were careful never to question his ability, 
 " or his integrity. When he took hold of the Reform movement 
 " against Tweed, he did so with a vigor, a tenacity an.d a SUCCESS 
 " that every good citizen could most sincerely commend. Tilden is 
 " a man of great political experience and sagacity. He knew 
 " that in his efforts he had necessarily alarmed the immense 
 " venal element of his party, and that he must count upon 
 " its constant and relentless hostility. No man knew better 
 " than he the power, the secresy, the resources and the methods 
 " of that conspiracy for plunder and fraud known as the Ring. 
 " Happily his instincts and his experience assured him that 
 " the people are not corrupt, and that a bold, radical and 
 " thoroughly intelligent assault upon entrenched and enormous 
 " abuses is sure of public sympathy and support." "In the 
 " course that Governor Tilden has taken in defying, exposing 
 " and routing the Canal Ring ho will bo supported by all 
 " honest citizens." 
 
 (c.j The very man for the Crisis then? Why then, my 
 excellent and eloquent friend, should ho not bo sup 
 ported by all honest; citizens in the course that ho pro 
 poses to take "for defying, exposing and routing" the much 
 larger and more damaging rings that encircle and fetter every 
 limb of the Federal administration? Ho has the "instinct" 
 you allege ; he has "the ability"; lie has " the integrity "; ho 
 has " the courage "; ho has "the experience"; ho has every 
 quality for a " bold, radical and intelligent assault upon en 
 trenched abuses," jyad is ho not then the very man ? With 
 his exceptional knowledge of finance and kindred subjects of 
 political economy; with his rare talent for business, which is 
 universally conceded by capitalists and business men ; and 
 with his definite Convictions as to the problems which perplex 
 
28 
 
 our statesmanship ; with all these added to the qualities which 
 Mr. Curtis ascribes to him, the answer leaps to the eyes, the 
 "Hour and the Man" have met. 
 
 (3.) Consequences of Mr. TiWen s Success. Yes ; let Gov 
 ernor Tilclen be elected to the Chief Magistracy, and I should 
 look with as much confidence, as it is possible to contem 
 plate events that are future, to these grand and desirable 
 results ; I should expect a rigid retrenchment of the pub 
 lic expenditures and new economies introduced into every 
 "branch of public business ; 1 should expect the introduction of 
 that systematic method of taxation that science and experience 
 alike approve ; I should expect a regeneration of the civil ser 
 vice, according to the luminous view of the Letter of 
 Acceptance, which would comprise (a) the elevation of the 
 standard of appointment ; (b) conscientious fidelity in the 
 -exercise of the power to remove ; (c) the abolition of unneces 
 sary and parasitic functions ; (d) and the organization of a 
 system, in which competence, integrity and diligence not as 
 now, mercenary, personal and partisan services should be the 
 sole test of eligibility. I should expect the restoration of our 
 finances, including the currency, by a series of clear-sighted, 
 wisely-devised, nicely graduated measures, that would bring us 
 to a normal condition, without convulsion or injury to trade, 
 and yet with an assurance of movement to which every interest 
 might easily be adapted and conformed ; and, finally, I should 
 expect a conciliation of the entire South by a firm protection 
 of the rights of all, which, while it would take away the heavy 
 arm of interference, would open the channels through which 
 our stagnant Northern capital would flow in fertilizing streams 
 over its parched and barren deserts, and the hands now raised 
 against each other in menace would be toojbusy for any work 
 -but that of peaceful, useful labor. 
 
 VI. THE EX-CONFEDEEATE SPECTKE. 
 
 The South ! aye, that is it ! " Prythee ! see there ! look ! be 
 hold !" the Ex-Confederates ! I look, and see large squads of 
 placemen, raising a cry of alarm to divert the gaze of the public 
 from their own peculations and frauds. jBehind them I see a 
 crowd of credulous and long-eared followers, who people 
 the vacancy with phantoms that exist only inj their own fears. 
 As I approach more nearly, the embodied Awe, the incarnate 
 Dread, the mysterious Gorgon, resolves into aVscooped pump- 
 
29 
 
 tin with a candle in it, shining through the mist. What, in 
 the name of all the stuffed and ragged scarecrows that ever 
 fluttered, are these Ex-Confederates going to do? What can 
 they do? " Re-enslave the freedmen !" stammers one ; yes I 
 answer, when the instinct of justice is stifled in every American 
 heart, and the demon of despotism sits triumphant on the ruins 
 of our most cherished institutions. " Recognize the rebel debt," 
 whispers another ; yes, when it is carried through by two-thirds 
 of each House of Congress and three-fourths of all the States, 
 which will be when Bismarck is cannonized by the College of 
 Cardinals, or Sitting Bull appointed to the place of General 
 Sherman. " Pile up claims for losses incurred in the Rebellion, 1 
 mutters a third ; yes ; and the higher they are piled the more 
 Bure they are to topple, and surest of all under the Democratic 
 policy of economy and retrenchment. Pshaw ! these are the 
 shallow devices of electioneering zeal, and no more worthy of 
 heed than the cry of the fellow who halloed fire in the midst of 
 the deluge. 
 
 (1.) A Creation of Guilty Consciences. I, however, do 
 not wonder that the South, like Banquo s ghost, should fill 
 the Republican leaders with alarm. When she rises before 
 them pale, dishevelled and broken their guilty consciences, 
 if they have any, must sting and tremble. Of all the mis 
 deeds of partisan greed and malignity, there is none more 
 foul and atrocious than that which has tried to enforce a 
 foreign and corrupt despotism upon the Southern people. 
 For a parallel to it we must look to the doings of Austria 
 in Italy, or of Great Britain, aforetime, in Ireland The 
 South came out of the war prostrate and benumbed ; her 
 capital was gone ; her labor annihilated ; her social system up- 
 ruoted and^destroyed. She had fought for a false idea fought 
 bravely, fought desperately frantically and cruelly sometimes; 
 but she had fought in vain. Her cause was lost and lost for 
 ever. It was lost, not as a fact merely, but as an illusion. Every 
 discerning mind saw that for her nothing was left but to gather 
 up the wreck, restore the waste places, and to re-knit the broken 
 ties. A few lingering rancors, born of the contest, flickered 
 here and there, impotent as they were foolish, but the deeper 
 antagonisms were all crushed. For us, as for them, the single 
 duty of the hour, imposed by a regard to the common prosperity, 
 as well as by a sentiment of kindliness, was, in the fine lan 
 guage of Governor Andrew, "to prosecute peace as vigorously 
 as we had prosecuted war." So that, where oncu <iil day " the 
 
30 
 
 noise of battle roller!," should be heard again the melodies 
 of joy and concord, ringing like a chorus of birds when the 
 black storm clouds are past. 
 
 The South was, peculiarly, repentant and placable. General 
 Grant himself, in a report made soon after the war, bore evi 
 dence of the universal desire of the people for the resumption 
 of friendly relations. General Dix, Henry J. Raymond, and a 
 hundred other Republicans, assembled at Philadelphia to pro 
 mote a fraternal feeling, said : " The concurrent testimony of 
 " those best acquainted with the condition of society and the 
 " state of public sentiment in the South, establishes the fact 
 " that the great mass of the Southern people accept, with as 
 " fall and sincere submission as do the people of the other 
 " States, the re-established supremacy of the national authority, 
 " and are prepared in the most loyal spirit and with a zeal 
 " quickened alike by their interest and pride, to co-operate 
 " with other States in whatever may be necessary to defend 
 " the rights, maintain the issues, and promote the welfare of 
 ct the common country." 
 
 Such the promises of the dawn after a dark and stormy night ; 
 full of hope and cheer and brightness ; but ere long base clouds 
 and rack and rotten smoke thickened the air and stained the 
 skies. "Whence the change ? You know its history ; I shall not 
 repeat it ; Professor Sumner, in his able and impressive letter, 
 has said all that needs to be said ; there stands the salient facts | 
 You know how miscreant adventurers the scum and offscouring 
 of the North sowed the seeds of division among the races ; 
 you know how successive flights of these birds of prey, " with 
 appetites continually renewing for food continually wanting," 
 consumed the little substance which Avar had spared; and 
 you know that once in power they turned every agency of 
 government into a means of robbery and spoliation. The un 
 happy States they sequestered became like provinces of the 
 Indian Empire, in the time of a Hastings or a Olive, saving 
 that this record of vulgar rapacity was unbroken by one mark 
 of high ability or one act of generous forbearance. What is 
 V7orse, this ascendency of conspiring scoundrels, which insulted 
 and exiled the whites, " the natural leaders of society," . 
 which debauched and misled the blacks, and which for ten 
 years has kept open a seething cauldron of turbulence, blood 
 and anarchy, was sustained by the Federal Government with 
 our money and our arms. Oh ! the cruelty of it ; oh ! the 
 shame of it. Once ifc was our boast that a handful of Ameri 
 cans, chance thrown upon a desert coast, or meeting by acci- 
 
31 
 
 dent in a wilderness, would improvise a fabric of stable and 
 orderly government ; but here wo have a powerful party, with 
 every means and appliance at its control, utterly impotent to 
 maintain a decent order in societies long inured to freedom 
 and self-management ; and proclaiming, at the end of ten years 
 of trial, through the mouth of its Boutwell, that it sees no 
 remedy but in military force, or in remanding those States to 
 the condition of Territories ; while its President, on tho hun 
 dredth anniversary of our popular institutions, tells the assem 
 bled world that free elections are possible, in half of tho Union, 
 only under a menace of bayonets. 
 
 (2.) The South not to be Feared. Now, I have no fears of 
 the South ; on the contrary, I have every reasonable confi 
 dence in the South. Is there, indeed, any longer a South in 
 any distinctive sense? The only cause of sectional division 
 that ever existed slavery is gone, and the shadow of it hardly 
 remains. "We are united now, in interest, in feeling, in nation 
 ality, and in civilization, as we were never before united. We 
 are all Americans, without regard to locality ; wo are all citizens, 
 without regard to condition ; and if the States once disaffected 
 are returned to that freedom of self rule which obtains in the 
 other States, their unhappy color divisions which have been 
 factitiously excited and fostered will melt into the simple poli 
 tical divisions of our own peaceful communities. They will 
 engage in the same discussions, follow tho banners of the same 
 parties ; and whites and blacks, sharing in the same rights and 
 interests, will go marching forward, side by side, to the same 
 great national ends. Or, if there should be a difference, it 
 would bo perhaps in this their superior warmth of devotion 
 to tho cause of equal laws and impartial legislation. They 
 have felt with peculiar anguish they have borne with peculiat 
 patience the miseries of a long misrule ; and will they not 
 value with peculiar affection tho needs of peace, and the 
 blessings of upright government ? Where tho blood of Wash 
 ington, Jefferson, Madison and Marshall still circulates where 
 the intellects of Lowndes, Gaston and Pettigru are still revered, 
 the civic virtues, which are the salvation and the ornament of 
 Slates, can not wholly be extinguished. 
 
 Away, then, with that culture of distrust and hatred, which, 
 like a malarious swamp, can nourish no seeds of good, can dif 
 fuse only the germs of blight and death ! The late Mr. Sum- 
 ner, whose devotion to his cause was like tho zeal of a lover 
 was yet unwilling that trophies of victory won by citizeii over 
 citizen should be preserved among the national archives ; and 
 
32 
 
 shall we, less magnanimous than that great soul, insist, like 
 pagan conquerors, upon dragging our victims, lashed to the 
 wheels of our triumphal chariots, amid the jeers of a rabble ? 
 Or, baser still, in the dark fanaticism of the middle ages, turn 
 their skins into drums whereon to beat the tattoo of hellish 
 partisan rallies ? Are we Christians ? Are we patriots ? Are 
 we men ? Or, do the vestiges of the brute and the savage, 
 from which, according to modern theories, we are evolved, still 
 survive in our veins ? 
 
 (4.) A Coll for Centennial Concord and Peace. No ; our 
 Democratic civilization, illustrated by many a heroic deed, has 
 none more noble than the closing scenes of the war, when 
 on the one side, a vast and victorious army, dispersed to its 
 peaceful avocations, like mists of night melting in the sun 
 rise ; and, on the other side, a gallant, but stricken foe, re 
 sumed their allegiance to a polity which brought with it the 
 most tremendous social and political change ever wrought in 
 any human society. The sublimity, the magnificence, the glory 
 of that great conclusion can never be lessened ; but as the 
 French proverb has it, noblesse oblige, and our nobility now 
 obliges us to add to this antecedent the greater triumph of 
 a complete and heartfelt reconciliation, Civil war, everywhere 
 and always, proverbial for the inveteracy of its venom, often 
 passing from generation to generation with the blood, shall here 
 become a savor of life unto life, not of death unto death. By 
 the blessing of God and the magnanimity of the people, its bale 
 ful fires shall not smoulder in their ashes, but be extinguished 
 by their ashes. By the blessing of God and the magnamity of 
 the people, this centennial year, this hundredth birthday of the 
 time which saw the self-sacrifice and devotion of the fathers 
 shall seal the bond of on indissoluble unity among the child 
 ren. It shall be a year not of enmity and alienation, but of 
 sweet renewals and generous affections. The g?nius of harmony 
 shall inspire it, and a loving concord shall bless it ! Amen I 
 Amen ! and again I say, Amen ! From the dark mounds where 
 our common parents lie buried, corne ten thousand hallowed 
 voices which cry to us, Amen ! In the future, too, I see the 
 form of the Republic, still young and beautiful and strong, and 
 I hear the immortal music of her lips as they send back, 
 Amen ! Let every American heart, then, repeat the solemn 
 adjuration, till it fills every valley and echoes from every hill 
 top, and rises like a majestic anthem of the people, to meet 
 the responses of the choiring Heavens : Amen ! 
 
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