Litchfield enquirer., 1873-09-18
BUTLER DEFEATED.

The Massachusetts Convention resulted, as We had anticipated. in the defeat of Butler. Ex-Goy. Bullock was chosen pres ident and made the following excellent address, sss-sss.s..s. sss..,
 ADDRESS OF GOV. BULLOCK.
 GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION: You will accept my thanks for the honor you confer upon me, and I accept the office, knowing that in 8 representative conven- tion of Massachusetts, menit should not be difficult duty of the presiding officer to interpret and apply the rules of order and courtesy which spring from the per sonal honor and self-respect of the mem- bers. lrrfrs rE
 My words shall be few. You have as- sembled, the chosen representatives of the Republicans of the State, when dis cussions and events which may be ob- served in the country, admonish wisdom and circumspection here. It is in the year succeeding an election of President that men feel the strings of party loosen ing from their limbs, exercise more freely their own choice and judgment, and or ganize within their own minds ideas as to the persons and policies and administra- tions. What shall happen at the next quadrennial election depends much upon what is promulgated, and more upon what is done in the interval by authoriz- ed and official public agents. While this is in degree true immediately after any inauguration of the President, it is es- pecially and significantly true at this time. The Republican party came out of the last canvass with very large maiorities- partly because of the absence of united and homogeneous opposing patty, in part because of more general belief of their promises of reform than of the same prom ises made by their opponents, partly be- cause of the power of public patronage which has been upduly exercised by every Administration since that of John Quincy Adams, in part because practical and commercial people are slow to change their government in a period of material prosperity, and above all, I apprehend, because of the confidence the country had in the plain, modest, robust charac- ter of the President. The expiration of the present term will complete period of sixteen years of what I may call a con- tinuous administration, which has not once been exceeded, and only once been equaled by Q continuity of administra ton in all the political contests since the days of Washington. It would almost be strange and not according to human na- ture under the condition of American pol itics, after such lapse of time and under a system of government which extends it's patronage, opportunities, and temptations over 0 territory of imperial limits, and among classes that learn only too quickly the ways of official thrift, if scandalous ir- regularities and immoraities had not sprung up ill the public service, at first denied, next connived at, and afterward condoned under the pressure of impend- ing elections If I speak of what might occur, speak as we'll of that which in common belief has occurred. And these things. have gone as far as the good name of any party or the public sense can bear. The fears. of the early founders were spent in the wrong direction; the peril to the purity of the Government lies not in hiah ambitions but in low dishonesties; it comes not from men who s'think of doing great things for glory, but from men who think of doing mean things for profit"
 Our party, then, which is strong in it's recent majorities, strong in the memories of the heroic time so lately passed, strong in many Senator and Representative who bears about him no odor of suspi- cion, and strong in it's President who stands the hard test remarkably we'll, has the weakness which comes from it's pro- longed years, from many of its former is- sues now receding, from vices first nursed unwittingly, and then tolerated unwilling ly from the possibilities of diversions in a general curiosity for new agitations and new departures, from the suspicious cher ished by Q stern and just people that where there is so much smoke of investi- gation there must be some fire of truth And now is the hour, nor one hour too soon, to arrest the tendencies and correct the abuses wherever they may be found. Let us not be found in the same order of time with the great Cardinal, who, after the discovery of his deceptiOns upon his sovereign and his misuse of the public moneys, and after his own downfall, bit terlY exclaimed that corruption wins not more than honesty" -.o - 7 ss's'- '.
 And now, fellow-citizens and Republi- cans, are there no signs of the times from California, from new names and new organizations in the West, from the re- ports which come to us, from our own in- stincts and intuitions as to what is going on in distant fields of canvassing- there no signs visible to the Republicans of this State and of all the States that if we would continue our power for public good we must rise to the exigency of the occasion? allude to no technical method of civil service reform, so called, for in my humble opinion it is but doubtful, certainly only partial, remedy-good enough for political demand by one par ty and political promise by another par ty Ill a Presidential election, good enough for a commission to sit upon, but limited at best, liable to eyasions and inadequate for national disease. It relates to ca- pacity more than to fitness. Education fuanishes capacity, but integrity must be added for fitness. No, the conscience, the determination, the action of the party, must rise to a general and unqualified de- mand for purifcation in all the offices and vice. We must not be behind Germany, i, or France, or Great Britain, in each of which during the year a whole empire has been i'll motion over single instance of accusation of undue pefsonal.gain from public trust. Our necessity is greater than theirs, for the life of republican SOtcIumcAb 1S III 1tS auLu111ASbI8bLOA aC- cording to virtue. The country will scarce ly be satisfied by convention resolutions things which have been and must be. The people of the country, the Republi- cans of the country, will receive the res olutions as they ga forth from one con vention after another, with something like the poet's greeting:
 .''Tis well said agaln,
 And tis kind of good deed to say we'll,
 And yet words are no deeds" sse
 Let us rather inaugarate an era of con duct and action and of persistent insist ence of official singleness and purity of every man connected with the Govern ment, high or low, as far as he can be fol- lowed. The people will enforce the de- mand, and. if they cannot find a way open they will make one. Fortunate the Re- publican party, which is now responsible for the government of this country, if it shall appreciate the situation Felicitous the lot of the President if he shall make the order sound through every depart ment and over every head that sleeps up- on one of his computations. Then he will