The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-12-14

.a..a
Governor Seymour Speaks.
At a meeting Of the Electoral College,
of New York, Ex- Governor Horatio Sey-
mour was elected to preside, and, upon
assuming, the chair, made the following
able and exhaustive address:
The grave duty of giving in behalf of
this great State its votes for the men its
citizens wish to place in the high office
of President and Vice President of these
United States. has impressed itself upon
the mind of each elector. We feel still
more the Importance Of our action as this
centennial year recalls the first acts in
the struggle which made: us free people
and the events which led to the forma-
ton of our Union and the adoption of its
constitution. Our action at this time is
one of the transactions necessary to the
life of our government; one without
which it would fall into anarchy and
ruin. This day also reminds us of the
growth of New York. We represent
more millions of people than lived in our
country when our fathers fought the bat.
ties of the revolution, or formed the gov
ernment of our Union. The ceremonies
of the year have excited pride in our
country, its history and its government.
But none of these have filled our minds
with such deep sense Of the dignity of
American citizenship as the political ac-
ton of the last month. Upon given
day more than 5000, 900 of men, moving
simultaneously in all parts of this vast
country, went to the ballot boxes, and
gave the votes which told their will as to
the men who should fill the highest
Offices in our government. When ma
iority of more than 100000, represented
by the proper number of electoral votes,
declared their choice, all strife ceased
and all cheerfully yielded to the will of
the people. Business began to resume
its activity, public confidence grew still
more strong as we thus happily rounded
out the century of our existence as peo-
pie. By this grand exhibition of this
faultless working of the mechanism of
our government we proudly challenged
the admiration of the world.
A GRAVE PROBLEM.
We find ourselves confronted at the
beginning of the second century of our
political existence with problems as grave
as those which faced our fathers at the
outset of our government. Have we
their wisdom, patriotism and virtue ?
This is great crisis in our public affairs.
Upon the conduct Of our people the
world will decide with regard to the
character of American citizens and
American patriotism.
The events of this day will be recited
through the centuries. We are making
chapter in history, which will teach
either good or evil to those who will
come after US. If we have the patriotism
to rise above party interests and passions
and to do what honesty demands, we
shall lift our people to a higher point in
the eyes of the world and in our own re.
gard than we have ever yet reached.
If we fail, when the lessons of this cen
tennial year should teach US virtue; when
the varied interests of labor, of arts, of
commerce and of capital all urge US to a
line Of conduct which will inspire the
world with confidence and ourselves with
the highest sentiments of honor, then
our failure will be long step toward
national decay and degradation.
THE oFFIcE-HoLDER's CAMPAIGN.
There is darker phase of the last cleo
ton. The administration sent out a
Cabinet officer to take charge of the can
vass on behalf of the Republican party.
His very position at the head Of its man
aging committee made forced loan upon
nearly 100000 official dependents. 1t
proclaimed to them in louder tones than
words. "You must work. You must vote.
You must pay to aid the election of a
candidate who declares himself in favor
of civil service reform" 1t told them
that if, believing and acting upon his as
surance, they followed their own convic-
tions and voted for his opponents, they
would be punished by the loss of their
positions. They were forced in thousands
of cases to submit to extortion with smil-
ing faces, but with heavy hearts. If
a like, intimidation had been used in a
Southern State it would have been seized
upon by the administration as reason
for declaring martial law, for arresting
and imprisoning every suspected citizen.
It is due to the best class of the leaders
and journals of the Republican party to
say that they protested against this inde-
cency. But such acts Gid not stop with
mere improprieties. They ripened into a
violation ofthe spirit of the law. In its
resolutions, journals, and in its speeches,
that party has declared its detestation of
such abuses and its purposes to reform
them. At the last session of Congress it
made it a crime, punishable with impris-
onment and deprivation of Office, to levy
assessments upon ofice-holders for polit-
ical purposes. It limited the punish
ments to one class Of officials, because.
under the constitution, those holding
their positions by the appointment Of the
President and Senate could not constitu-
tionally be removed from their Offices by
such an enactment. But it is a higher
moral offence in higher officials, punisha-
BILE by the more impressive process of i'm
peachment. Here no technical difficult
ties can hinder the. punishment ofthis
crime against political morals or public
welfare. No one doubts or denies that
such assessments were made with the
knowledge and consent of the committee.
THE GRAVITY OF THE OFFENCE
is made more gross by the fact that at
the last session Of Congress, when it WAS
proposed to reduce the pay of officials, in
order to relieve the industry of the coun-
try from the burden OF taxation, it was
resisted by the Republicans upon the
ground that this could not be done with
out injury to the public service. Yet we
see National Republican Committee re-
ducing their pay by assessments for par
tisan purposes, and diverting the money
paid to them from the public Treasury to
enable them to serve the people faithful
ly, and thus, as declared by the solemn
action of Congress, disabling them from
doing their duty to the Republic: About
these facts there is no dispute. The pub