National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1876-07-24
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

JOHN-THE-BAPTIsT-GODWIN.
Governor Tilden's letter of acceptance
has a foreshadowing in the shape of a five
column letter from Parke Goodwin, which
appeared in the New York Tribune of Sat-
urday. Goodwin was one Of the executive
committee of the Fifth-avenue conference
He makes preterse of reviewing the Gin
ing comparisons between them and the
demands of the conference manifesto
Strange to say, unlike his brother conferees,
he finds in Mr.. Tilden's career as railway
counselor and a coadjutor of Tweed the
precise apostle of reform genuine re-
FORM" whatever that may be--that the
Fifth-avenue conferees were seeking. HE
claims to have been the close personal
friend of TIlden for many years-abOut
forty-and vouches for his refOrmatory
character. On the other hand, he sees in
Hayes only true modern Republican, a fit
representative of the Republican party,
and he founders through five columns of
the Tribune to show that the Democratic
party is the party of his own heart. He is
hard-money man, and he lnterprets the
st. Louis platform, with its opposition to
resumption. to mean a speedy and practical
return to specie payments. He persists
that the Democratic platform means the
very opposite of its professions. In short,
he would have his brother conferees believe
that they are wrong and he is right. He
succeeds most admirably in proving that
he is an out-and-out Tilden Democrat,
while they are Republicans.
Well, there is some comfort in knowing
at last where Mr.. Goodwin stands in this
campaign. He has long been prominent
among those Pharisaical 81 am holier than
thou politicians who have persisted in
clinging as a dead weight to the skirts of
the Republican party during the last five
years. while at the same time dealing it
assassin-like stabs in the dark. 1t is re-
lief to know that henceforth he at least is
to be an open and undisguised enemy. 1t
is somewhat difficult to perceive by what
process of ratiocination such men can fiud
sympathy and congeniality in the ranks of
the Democracy. Their purity is of that
unsullied character which one would sup
pose must seek cOmpapionship with
spirits far away from the purlieus Of Wall
street and TammaDy hall But as We are
told that in revolutions and conspiracies
extremes meet, we are left to suppose that
the holy men of the Republican parry,
who have so long labored in vain to bring
it up to their standard of excellence, free
trade and the defense Of smuggling, and of
whom Mr.. Goodwin is one OF the chiefs,
will now betake themselves TO the Demo,
cratic party, under the leadership of the
most notorious railway swirdler OF the
age, and backed by the roughs, short
hairs, prize fighters and gamblers. In
deed, Mr.. Goodwin cites Mr.. Tildens ser
vices 10 railway mCnOpOlies as one of the
principal reasons for his attachment to
him and his future fortunes. Speaking of
his personal knowledge of Governor Til
den, he says:
professionally, he has taken rank with
Van Buren,, Brady, O'Conor, Graham, Evarts,
Kirkland and other foremost lawyers, aud IN
a peculiar class Of cdSeS-hed'y aud complicated
railroad HigGtiOnS-he is admitted 10 be fdcile
pTincepS. His counsel, tchen important and de-
ciSire action 1rdS inrOlUed, has been DEEMED in
raludbLe. In still higher relations Mr.. Tilden
seems to me to combine, more than any man
now before the public, hardly excepting Mr..
Adams, of Massachusetts, the two great kinds
of quality, theoretic and practical, which form
the true st atesman: profound understand
ing of the philosophic grounds of political
opinion, and the sagacious tact and energy of
the man of business"
The words we have italiclsed in the above
quotation mean that during the last twenty
five years, when a number Of land grant
railways were to be consolidated and res
cued from embarrsssments into which
Wall-street managers had plunged them for
q purpose, Mr.. Tilden was the cunning
lawyer sought TO draw the papers, prescribe
the legislation necessary to be procured,
and, when it was obtained, so to engineer
the contracts and negotiations that the orig
inal stockholders along the lines of the
roads in the West, as well as the town and
county subscriptions, might all be legally
absorbed for the benefit of the Wall street
and European bondholders. The original
local subscribers to the stock of the Galena
and Chicago Union railway and the Rock
River and Union Valley railway, which
now form part of the great Chicago and
Northwestern line, can attest to the "inval-
liable services" of Mr.. Tllden in swindling
them out of their stock with the greatest
bitterness. There are several other lines in
Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota
which bear a like impress of Tilden's brain
and cunning which we will not now mention
in detail. But ii is not improper to state in
this connection that under TIlden's pro-
gramme OF management rates OF freight
were advanced on all these roads seCsnty-
three per cent This is specimen of Til
den's reform % policy. II resulted in the
great Granger movement, that SO stirred
the Northwest two years ago and resulted
in the passage Oi the Potter railway law in
Wisconsin. This reform is what Nj. God
win is pleased to term inc lIuabLe" He
is almost greater mar that MIR. Adams, of
Massachusetts, 10 the estimation of Mr..
Goodwin. Which Adams, pray? Charles
Francis, jr., the railway retOrmer, or
his father, tina; highly respectable candi-
date OF the Sprng tield Relu5ltcan? If Mr..
Goodwin means the former, as one naturally
would suppose from the juxtap0sition Of
the name in connection with railway af-
fairs then Mr. Adsus differs AS widely as
the poles from Mr. Tilden in his views Of
proper railway management. II he is con
trasting him with the senior Adams as
statesman, the latter has forgotten more
than Tilden will ever be able to acquire
Whatever else may be said of the Massa-
chusetts Adamses, they cannot be success