Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-07-22
Governor Tildcn's Accordance.

When the committee appointed by tho
Democratic national convention waited
upon Gov. Nlden, at Albany, and mott
fed him Of his nomination, the governor
replied as follows:
shall at the earliest convenience prepare
and transmit to you formal acceptance
OF the nomination which you now tender
to me in behalf Of the Democratic ma.
tional convention, and l do not desire
on this occasion to anticipate any topic
which might be appropriate to that COM
munication. It may, however, be per-
mitted to me to say that my nomination
WAS not mere personal preference be.
tween citizens and statesmen OF this re-
public, who might very we'll have been
chosen for 20 distinguished an honor and
for so august duty. It was rather
declaration of that illustrious body in
whose behalf you speak, in favor OF i'd
ministrative reform, with which events
had associated mo in the public mind.
The strength, the universally and the
efficiency of the demand for admins
trative reform in all governments, and
especially in the administration of the
Federal government, with which the
Democratic masses everywhere were in.
stinct, have led to series of surprises
in the popular assemblages, and per-
haps in the convention itself. 1t would
DO unnatural, gentlemen, il q popular
movement so genuine and so powerful
should stop with three and one. half mil
lions of Democrats; that it should not
extend by contagion to that large mass
of independent voters who stand be.
tween perties in our own country and to
Q portion of the party under whose ad.
ministration the evils to be corrected
have grown up. And perhaps in what
VIC have witnessed there may be an
augury in respect to what we may wit
ness in the election about to take
place throughout our country, at least
let us hope and believe so.
I am not without experience of the
difficulty and the labor Of effecting nd
ministrative reform when it requires a
revolution in policies and in measures
long established in government. If I
were to judge by the year and half in
which I have been in the State govern
ment, I should say that the routine du-
ties of the trust have had imposed on
me are a small burden compared
with that created by the attempt to
change the policy of the government of
which I have been the executive head.
Especially is this so where the reform is
to be worked out with more or less OF
the cooperation of public officers, who
either have been tainted with the evils
to be redressed, or who have been inca
pacitated by habit or liberation of the
wrongs to be corrected, to which they
have been consenting witnesses.
I, therefore, if your choice should be
ratified by the people at the election,
should enter upon the great duties which
would fall upon me, not as holiday rec
reation, but very much in that spirit of
conservation in which the soldier enters
battle. But let us believe, as do be-
lieve, that we now see the dawn of bet
ter day for our country, and that, diff
cult as the work to which the Democratic
party, with many of the allies and former
members of other parties, has addressed
itself, the republic is yet to be renovated
to live in all the future and to be trans
mitted to future generations as Jefferson
contributed to form it in his day, and
in which it has been ever since, until
recent period, blessing to the whole
peOnla