Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1876-08-17
MIR. HENDRICKS, LETTER.
INDIANAPoLIs. July "a, 1876

r.a. '' INDIANAPoLIs July "a, 1875.
Gentlemen: have the honor to acknowl.
edge the receipt of your communication, in
which you have formally notified me Of my
nomination, by the National Democratic Con.
vention at St. Louis, as their candidate for
the Office of Vice-President Of the United
States. It is nomination which had Meth.
er expected nor desired, and yet recognise
and appreciate the. high honor done me by
the convention.
The choice of such body, pronounced with
such unusual unanimity, and accompanied
with 80 generous an expression of esteem and
confidence, ought to outweigh all purely per-
sonal desires and preferences of my own. 1t
is with this feeling, and I trust also from
deep sense of public duty, that I now accept
the nomination, and shall abide the judgment
of my countrymen. 1t would have been I'm.
possible for me to accept the nomination, if l
could not heartily endorse the platform Of
the Convention. am grati6ed, therefore, to
be able unequivocally to declare that l agree
in the principles, approve the policies, and
sympathise with the purposes enunciated in
the platform. The institutions of our country
have been sorely tried by the exigencies Of
civil war, and since the peace by selfish and
corrupt management of public affairs, which
has shamed US before civilized mankind by
unwise and partial legislation. Every indus
try and interest of the people have been made
to suffer, and in the executive departments Of
the government dishonesty, rapacity and ve-
nality, have debauched the public service;
men known to be unworthy have been pro-
NOTED, while others have been degraded for
fidelity to official duty; public Office has been
made the means of private profit, and the
country has been offended to see class OF
men, who boast the friendship of the sworn
protectors of the State amassing fortunes by
defrauding the public treasury, and BY cor
rupting the servants of the people. In such
a crisis of the history of the country l Irejoice
that the convention at st. Louis has so nobly
raised the standard of reform. Nothing can
be we'll with US or with our affairs until the
public conscience, shocked by the enormous
evils and abuses which prevail, shall have de-
manded and compelled an unsparing reforma.
ton of our national administration in its head
and in its members. In such reformation
the removal of single officer, even the Pres
ident, is comparatively trifing matter, if the
system which be represents and which has fos-
tered him as he has fostered it is suffered to
remain. The President alone must not be
made the scapegoat for the enormities Of the
system which infests the public service and
threatens the destruction of cur institutions.
In some respects I hold that the present Ex-
ecutive has been the victim rather than the
author of that vicious system. Congressional
and party leaders have been stronger than
the President No one man could have
created it, and the removal one man
can amend it. tt is thorough ppt, and
must be swept remorselessly i the se-
lection Of q government composed elements
entirely new, and pledged to radical reforms
The first work of reform must evidently be
the restoration of the normal operation Of the
Constitution of the United States, with all its
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