The Placer herald., 1872-03-30
Letter from the Hon. Jacob Brinkerh0T,
late Chief Justice of Ohio.
MANSFIELD. Ohio. Feb. 6. 1872.
Hon. j. b. SrALLo, Cincinnati

My DEAR SR:--l have observed with
pleasure the card of Messrs. Coz, Mathews,
lIoadey and yourself, published in the Com-
mercial of the 3d inst, approving the call of
the late Missouri Convention for a national
mass convention of Liberal Republicans at
Cincinnati ON the 1st of May next. Being
with you in sentiment and opinion, will en-
deavor to be with YOU in person.
II seems to be foregone conclusion that
General Grant is to be The nominee of the
Republican Convention, to be held in Phila-
delpha in June next. Considering the vast
official patronage pertaining to the Office of
President, and the manner in which that pat
ronage has been employed, this foregone con-
cluson is not matter of wonder, though it
is to me, and doubt not to thousands of 9th
ers, hitherto members of the Republican par
ty, matter of deep regret and dissatisfaction.
As for me, whatever else | may have been,
| have not been, nor do | intend to become,
the slave of any political organization. Born,
so TO speak, a member af the old Democratic
party, | continued to act with it until
thought, and still think, that it had degener-
ated into mere subserviency to slavelolding
interests and ASPIRATIONS. For this reason,
and this only, and failing to find any ndica-
ton of reformation in this respect, left the
party-thereby, as to myself abandonins
every hope and prospect of political prefer
ment in the future; and thohceforward | CO.
operated with the Freesoil party, until it was
merged, or the basis Of its o,cn principles,
in the Republican party, and with that |
zealously acted until after the inauguration
Of Gen. Grant and up to the developments
of his personal and political administration,
which are the foundation of my objection to
both.
Under a Republican Government atten-
ton to politics in the higher and proper sense
Of the word, is personal duty; and every
citizen if he would work effectively in politics,
must work through the medium of parties.
But parties are made for men, not men for
parties. They are instrumentalties-n
dictators. On no other ground than this
can political parties be justified; and the man
who adhercs to party when it ceases, in
the main to represent, or has become antag-
onistic to his own convictions as to what is
Just and wise, abandons alike lis freedom
and his duty, and voluntarily assumes the
condition of Il slave
AS to the personal administration of Grant,
do not like his acceptance, prior to his in
auguration, of muulcicnt presents from men
distinguished for nothing but their wealth,
and then appointing those same men to Of
flee. ! do not like his shameful and shame
less nepotism; his apparently intimate and
continuous association with stock jobbers;
his project for the purchase of San Domingo;
bis ostracsm of such men as Sumner, Hoar
and Cox, and the substitution, as bis conf
dental advisers, of men in whose ability and
political purity discriminating public has
far less confidence. do not like his official
professions in favor of civil service reform
when contrasted with the fact that he made
the places of the only members Of his cabinet
who seemed to be heartily and practically in
favor of such reform, too hot for them; nor
do | like the revelations recently made,
through the medium of a reluctant commit
ty, as to the character of the administration
of the New York Custom House nor his
fulsome Endorsement of its late chief.
Nor is the legislative policy of those who
assume to be the special friends of the Presi
dent more acceptable to me. ! do not like
a tariff of duties on imports which, while it
takes money from one mans pocket and puts
it into the pocket Of another, brings little or
no revenue into the public treasury, and
which, while it ostensibly adds TO the wages
of some manufacturing laborers, takes more
than that increase from all laborers by means
of the increased cost Of living Nor do like
the apparent effort and disposition toward
the assumption by the general government
of powers and functions properly appertaining
to the States.
If there ever was party formed with an
honest view to the realization Of a system of
just legislation and purity of executive ad
ministraton, it was the Republican party;
and it is grinding to the sensibilities of those
who participated in its formation to find so
many men who had no sympathy with the
principles on which it was based, but who
jumped aboard of it when they saw that its
voyage was likely to be a successful one,
now assuming the Office of captain and the
responsible labors of the hemsman. The
disruption of long accustomed political asso-
Citations is always painful, and it was not
for such results as we now see that such
men as Tod and Brough, among the dead,
and Mathews and Hoadey, and thousands
of others among the living, stepped out of
from the ranks of old affiliations and fell into
line with the cohorts of Republcanism.
The great battle against slave-holding dom
ination and rebellion having been fought and
won, and the fruits of victory ngrafted into
the National Constitution, we have leisure
to consider other questions-less vital, doubt
less, but still of immense importance to
the public interests; and the people of the
United States can never afford to abdicate
their own sovereignty in favor of any set of
self constituted leaders.
Believe me, dear sir, very truly yours,
JAcos BRINKERuoFF.
HoRNs.-A Kansas paper says the beef
of the average Texan, if the bones are taken