New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-05-16
THE REFORM CANVASS.
TO THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS OF NEW
YORK.
ADDRESS OF THE STATE COMMITTEE.

the American people, is nevertheless attempting,
through its oice-holders TO prolong its power for
the next four years.
A large portion of the Presidents original sup
| porters, and tho entire remainder of his fellow
countrymen, without distinction of party. survey
this attempt with indignation and alarm.
The history of the Administration is a shadowy
record Of dscreditable sometimes disgracefuD acta
many of them blunders Others, crimes. Ever
since the day after the Presidents Inauguration.
when his first official step, he sought to abrogats
one Of the oldest statutes of the Republic in order
70 put personal friend into Office he has repeatedly
shown himself on the one hand ignorant OF the
laws. and on the other defiant of them.
| He has transcribed the limitations Of the Con-
stitution and done violence to its free spirit by
usurping for himself functions which that nstru-
ment reserves to the States and their citizens
He has UNANIMOUSLY invaded the political assem-
blIes of our own and other free commemorative.
mischievously intruding his Federal influence into
| local affairs.
He has alternately proposed and defeated Civil
Service Reform until Notwithstanding his profess
sions in its favor he has proved himself the chief
| obstacle to its success.
He has, in multitudes of cases. made tenure Of
office to depend, not on good behavior personal
fitness but on mere subserviency to his partisan
| schemes.
| He has put crafty and ambitious parasites at tho
receipt of CUSTOMS where they still continue to fat
ten their private purses on the public funds.
| He said TO nation weary with war, Let us have
peace,' but has kept the word of promise to the
| to break it to the hope-fostering in the North
toward the South temper of bitterness and resent
ment, instead of fraternity and good will
| He has connived at and sustained number OF
| alien and rotten governments in the Southern
| States, some of whose officers have perpetrated
frauds equaIed in magnitude only by those of tho
Tammany Ring.
He has habitually stiled investigation even into
the gravest charges brought against his official
| household.
| He has committed acts of nepotism moro numer-
GUS than are recorded against the entire line Of his
Presidential predecessors from George Washington
to Andrew Johnson.
He has accepted gifts from 1atterers for which he
has rendered dishonorabe equivalents by bestowinS
public emoluments on the obsequious givers.
In short he has administered his high Office, not as
a trust devolved upon him by the whole people, but
as an estate or property owned by himself alOno in
fee simple.
During all this ever-grOwing maladminstration,
the Presidents partsans instead Of rebuking hiI
perverse course have the contrary, and for self
ish ends, gilded it with uDcandid flattery and
defended it with specious logic. They haye put
forth series of hooking pretenses to the effect that
he is paying the public debt; that he has reduced
the taxes that he has collected the revenue; that
he has settled the Alabama claims; that he has
tranquilized the Indians; and that he has recon-
structed the South.
But not one of these allegations is true Challenge
them in detail. Is he paying the debt The PEOPLE.
not the President, are paying it. Has he reduced
the taxesf Congress, not the Executive. has
lightened these burdens of the people. Has
he collected the revenuei Swarms OF his
officers have grown rich by its collection. Has
he settled the Alabama claimsi They never were
SO unsettled as at this hour. Has he made peace
with the Indians The latest intelligence from the
frontier is of massacre and blood provoked by frauds
which his officers have perpetrated on the deceived
and exasperated savages. Has he given prosperity
and contentment to the Soulful The Southern
people, with unexampled unanimity, are demanding
the overthrow of Administration which has
held them in surveillance and treated them with
scorn.
The Presidents ofice-holders vainly put
forth these gterng but false pretenses of the sue
cess of an Administration which three-fourths of
the citizens of the United States are inpatient TO
vote into immediate dissolution.
The recent Liberal Republican Convention at Gin
cnnati-one of the most stately and brilliant parlia-
ments ever assembled in this country-uttered the
fit protest of an aroused people against democrat
lied Govenment-just as the citizens Of the
Empire State, year before, rose in spon-
taneous revolution against q corrupt mu-
nicipal ring. The prompt and brave action
of the Convention has electrified the country.
and sent tremor through the sef-compacent Sc
curity of the powers that be-" The Cincinnati
platform is as morally noble the great Declaration
to which our forefathers pledged their lives.
their fortunes and their sacred honor" It's
principles include the equality of all men
before the law the perpetual union of these States
which nothing now threatens save corruption at
the Federal center; the non-reyiva of all questions.
and the amicable acceptance of all have
been finally and forever settled by the Thirteenth.
Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments;
Universal Amnesty, which is tho most
divine act possible to human govern
ment; the removal of all political disabilities
occasioned by a war whose battle-felds have now
been seven years green with peace; the ever-sacred
and inviolate supremacy of the civil over the mill
tary function of free government; and last, not
least civil service which shall evermore tend to
reform itself through the wholesome regime Of
Presidency expiring by self-limitation with one
term.
In announcing these principles the Cincinnati
Convention gave them living embodlment
in the person of a Presidential candidate
who is an illustrious citizen of our own state;
a statesman whose honored name is a household
word in every cottage in the land whose proverbial
and absolute and ncoruptibe integrity is the best
possible guarantee for honest government in
future; whose prudent and economical views OF
public administration the earnest and
good hope of a safe and thrifty manage
ment of the Executive Office; whose kind
illness of spirit is typical Of the good will
which should hereafter exist between the two sec
I-l.., lnnnr