Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1876-08-30
Parke GOdwin's Review of the
Political Situation from an
independent StandDOint.

Hhuepeuueut StuHNDOlnt.
To the Editor of the New York Tribune:
SIR-As one of the executiy
committee of the conference hel
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in Ma
last, | desire to say a word to il
member and constituents. am lie
| to it by the fact that several of m
. colleagues have already expresse
opinions of the political situatio
with which cannot agree. But
more powerful motive with me
the belief that while the action O
the conference has had no little in
fluence in shaping recent events
its adherents may do an infinity O
greater good if they will continu
to act in the spirit which brough
them together, and which is seen il
the manly words of their address t,
the people.
The call for that assembly, il may
be remembered, was sent to men o
all parties who were interested
enough in the correction of ac
knowledge abuses to cast off theil
party tramels and to act in body
as reformers. Mr.. Carl Schurz
who initiated its proceedings by {
brief speech, said that in issuing
its invitations, "no inquiry had beer
made as to any mans party connec.
tions, and only as to the sincerity
of his faith" 1t was accordingly
formed of no professed politicians
but of gentlemen of distinction in
the various walks of life, who pre-.
ferred country to party, and whose
single aim was to rebuke and to
remove that fearful decay of civic
virtue which had come partly out
Of the war, but mainly from an ut
ter perversion of politics, both in
theory and practice. President
Woolsey, on taking the chair, re-
marked that 'for the last ten years
the country had been growing po-
liticially y worse, and that those who
had acted with the dominant party
had frequently had reason to blush
with shame for its leaders" An adj
dress subsequently adopted by the
conference, as the declaration of its
thought, more largely described the
painful condition of things in these
words:
3 Anational election is approaching
under circumstances of peculiar
significance. Never before in our
history has the public mind been
so profoundly agitated by an APP
prehension of the dangers arising
from the prevalence of corrupt ten
dencies and practices in our politi-
cal life, and never has there been
greater reason for it. We will not
here In detail the distress
ing catalogue of the disclosures
which for several years have follow
ed one another in rapid succession,
and seem to have left scarcely a
single sphere of our political life
untouched. The records of courts,
Of State Legislatures, and Of the
National Congress, speak with ter
'ihle plainness, and still they are !
adding to the scandalous exhibition.
DUR republic, but a century old,
ind just issued from the only great
;ivil conflict we-have bad to de-
,lore, is so strong in resources and
organization that it stands in the
'oremostrank of the great powers
If the earth; and yet with all these
splendid results on record, it can
rot be denied that at no period
Turing the century now behind us
he American people have been less
with themselves and that
he centennial anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence, in so
many respects 10 all Americans q
ay of sincerest pride and rejoic- I
ng, is felt to be in other respects I
ot without self-reproach and hui s
Of this the corruption
evealed in our political life is the I
ause. .e I
The thoughtful and conscientious :
len who gave utterance to this de- {
rription had long observed the G
Indifference to sound prin- ]
iples and the growing degeneracy {
, practice, and they asked them
lives, What is to be done They {
ad seen, only a few years rago, 10 j
,e metropolis of the continent, r
orde of bandits possessing them a
slyesof almost absolute power by o
,e mere force of party machinery, a
nd after gorging themselves with s
under to the amount of fifteen or a
venty millions of dollars, fastening r
leir own creatures upon Legisla-
Tres, courts and the Executive n
lair. They had seen the judiciary %
'nch occupied by vulgar and ven- v
scoundrels, who gave away their il
Unions as favors to accomplices O
ilatters, or who sold them more O
less openly for gold. They had
en- large number of the repre- n
natives Of the people In the Ma il
NAL Legislature, many of them il