The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1872-01-19


the following letter in reply to COM
mittee of Democrats of Wooster, o.,
who invited him to attend their cele-
bration of the anniversary of the battle
of New Orleans. His points against the
corruption of the administration and its
centralized military chara ctor, as also
his opinion of the passive policy and of
the duty of the dissatisfied Republicans
to organize an opposition against Grant
in cooperation with the Democrats, will
be received with the attentionthey de-
serve.
CINCINNATI, December 30, 1871.
MeSSrs. EShelmen, FtriStoRe, Baughman,
Committee Of Mvtation
GENTLEMEN L regret that | cannot
accept your invitation to be present at
the next annual celebration OF the Sth
of January. IL would have given me
great pleasure to meet and take counsel
of those who are so well grounded in
the faith and the practice of Democracy
as the men of Wayne County, and with
them TO recall the principles and exam
pie of the founders of our party.
L W. Slt&b utillSCtS ILlDttll lItc III
stitutions under the policy of the party
now in power. The spirit of centralized
military government attacks every
where the Constitution, and corruption
in Office destroys the civil administra.
tiOn. | do not speak merely or chiefly of
special defalcatlOns however startling,
but of the general degradation of the
standard Of official integrity until the
offices in both the civil and military
service seem to be considered the prop
erty of the party, to be dispensed and
administered primarily for party ag-
grandizement or personal profit.
These dangers grow out of and are
inseparable from the present organizi-
tion of the Republican party. Its fouD-
dation, its philosophy, its history, and
its leaders recognize military power and
the corrupting use of money by official
patronage as legitimate forces in ordin
ary civil administration, and now more
than ever are they brought into active
exercise. The Democratic party con-
fronts this theory and denounce5 these
practices.
Founded upon the idea of local
government, jealous of powers granted
to authority, taught that simplicity and
economy are essential to the honesty
necessary in Republican institutions, ii
maintains with more determined pur.
pose that the military must be subordi-
nate to the civil authority, and that
offices are trust for the people, not
spoils for the victors.
Its powerful organization enters evey
village in the land, and numbers among
its adherents nearly one.half the people
as intellectual, as pure, as patriotic, as
unseltsh as any of their fellow citizens.
They are too numerous to be cowardly.
They are too patriotic to be lukewarm.
They are too sincere in their purposes
and convictions to be dliven to despon-
dency by ten years of rererses. They
have shown constancy in defeat as
well as wisdom in victory. If under
stand their feelings they will neither
diSband their organization lor flee the
field before the contest commences.
Either course, they believe, would give
undisputed sway TO the present admin
istration, which could then give undi-
vided attention to the deserters from its
ranks.
An advancing army, with the enemy
either dispersed or in flight, never loses
divisions or regiments, or even COM
panies, and is generally able to pick of
or to pick up treacherou5 or thoughtless
stragglers.
If there be, as is claimed, many mem
bers of the Republican party who dis
approve the ideas which dominate the
administration of President Grant, and
are prepared to oppose his reelection,
they should declare their purposes, or
ganize their party, develop and mani
fest their strength, and if may predict
the future, they will have no just cause,
even the most sensitive and timid
among them, for refusing to cooperate
with the Democratic party. When its
authorized convention shall speak il
will remind its adherents that the ulti-
mate and highest purpose Of its eXis-
tence is to secure the greatest prosperity,
in its best sense, of every human being
in the land that principles of govern
ment are true or untrue, as they con-
tribute to this result; that parties and
politics and Offices are but means to
this end: that principles are of differ
ent application, and questions lose their
importance in the ever.shifting changes
of human affairs, and discarding all
narrow ideas, abandoning the considera-
tion of all questions which have been
decided or buried by the events whi ch
haye passed recognizing the accom-.
plished facts of the present, and ap-
preciating the dangers Of the future, it
will invite, both by words and by
deeds, both by resolutions and by
nominations, the Jealous, hearty co.
operation of ali men who believe that
the Constitution is a better system of
government than martial law, and
that reform in the civil service is a
higher duty than rewarding prospec
tive partisan effort by distributing
spoils.
By this course the party, l should
hope, would attain success. If it should
once more fail, as an honest, faithful,
patriotic minority, it will hold an
important position and exert an i'm
mense moral power over the majority (;
and it may well wait with faith the
inevitable hour which will crown its
fidelity and patience with the success
which it will have deserved.
/ am, very respectfully, your obedient
servant, GEORGE III. PENDLEToN.