The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-06-22
THE REFORMERs AGAINST
HAY ES.

LUG pTctouso suht VAIL SSnS NJ
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS and their con-
feres, with those who concur with the
spirit of the address they issued at the
New York Conference, can support
HAYES, IS absurd. Here is the language
of that address:
1--WE shall support no candidate who,
however favorably judged by his nearest
friends, is not publicly known to possess
those qualities of mind and character
which the stern task of genuine reform
requires; for the American people cannot
now afford to risk the future of the Re-
public IN experiments on merely supposed
virtue, Or rumored ability to be trusted
on the strength of private recommends
tions.
"In one word, at present no candidate
should be held entitled to the support of
patriotic citizens of whom the question
may fairly be asked: is he really the
man to carry through thorough-going
Storm of the government? Can he with
certainty be depended upon to possess the
moral courage and sturdy resolution to
grapple with abuses which have ac-
quired the strength of established custom,
and to this end firmly to resist the pres
sure of even his party friendsT
Whenever there is room for such
question land doubt as to the answer),
the candidate should be considered unfit
for this emergency. This is no time Tor
so. called availability springing from dis
tiuctlon gained on fields of action foreign
to the duties of government; nor for that
far more dangerous sort of availability
which consists in this, that the candidate
be neither so bad as to repel good citi.
zens, nor 90 good as to discourage bad
ones. Passive virtue in the highest
place has too often been known to permit
the growth of active vice below. A man
to be entrusted with the Presidency this
year must have deserved not only the
confidence of honest men, but also the
fear and hatred of thieves. He who
manages to conciliate thieves cannot be
the candidate for honest men.
''Every American citizen who has the
future of the Republic and national
honor sincerely at heart should solemnly
resolve that the country must now have
u President whose name is already q
watchword of reform; whose capacity
and courage for work are matters OF
record rather than of promise; who will
restore the simplicity, independence and
rectitude OF the early administrations.
and whose life will be guaranty of his
fidelity and fitness; a man at the mere
sound of whose name even the most dis.
heartened will take new courage and
all mankind will say, Americans are in
deed in earnest to restore the ancient
purity of their govern ment.
Every line in this pledge is pointed
directly against HAYES. He may possess
passive virtues, which permit the growth
OF active vice; he is "not publicly known
to posses those qualities of mind and
character which the stern task of gen.
uine reform requires'-indeed, he is
known to the officeholders not to possess
them, or they would not have nominated
him. He has not 'ithe moral courage or
sturdy resolution to grapple with re-
torm;" if he had, he could not have sue
ceeded at Cincinnati. BLAINE has cour-
age; if he has not the spirit of the re-
former, he has at least the daring neces-
sary to turn out the present set of office
holders and to put in new ones-hence
he was defeated. HAYES was taken be
cause he could be depended upon to leave
the machine unmolested His "distnc-
ton was gained on fields of action for
eign to the duties of government" he
has 'that far more dangerous sort of
availability which consists in this, that
the candidate be neither so bad as to
repel good citizens, nor so good as to
repel bad ones" HAYES has neither
secured nor repelled the confidence OF
honest men; he certainly has done moth
ing to deserve the fear and hatred Of
thieves" which is the crucial test of Re-
formers in considering the question OF
The man who meets the requirement
,t the times is yet to be placed in nomi-
nation. It sufficient here to show that
HAYES certainly does not.