The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1876-11-03
AN IMPARTIAL VIEW.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr, on the
Two Presidential Candidates.
Governor :Tilden the Foremost Re-
former of the Time.
Hayes the Creature of Cameron, Ohand-
ler and the Gang.

From an Article by Charles Francis Adams Jr., il
/ the North American Review.
/ Just before the first meeting intended
to having hearing on the presidential
nominations for the campaign, now going
on were held, Mr.. w. NJ. Evarts one
| day remarked to Carl Schurz that the re-
publican party in its then condition re-
minded him of nothing so much as an
army whose term of enlistment had ex-
pired. Mr.. Evarts is justly famed for
the witty and incisive way in which ,he
expresses what other people think, but
he has not often had the good fortune TO
hit off happier smile than this. 1t in
cluded in ten words phamphletful of
political insight, and accounted at once
for that large amount of individual ac-
tion, which is such an essential feature
in the present canvass. The field is full
of stragglers.
So far as the momentous political issues
eft twenty years ago are concerned, little
remains over which to struggle. During
the present canvass-issues, side issues
and after-issues will, indeed, be manu-
factured out of it; sometimes by very
honest and very dull men who, having
once learned to talk on certain subject,
have no faculty of speech on any other,
and sometimes by very cunning and un-
scrupulous men, who will work on the
old passions and the old hatreds as long
as they can possibly hope to get them
selves into Office, or to keep themselves
there by so doing. In all this, however,
there is something very uninviting and
even repulsive to men who look upon
politics as anything more than an Occu-
patton, and upon Office holding as any
thing more than a means of support.
The continued dwelling upon the last
phases of a stale excitement is neither
philosophical nor an ennobliDg pursuit.
1t is small matter for wonder, therefore,
that the number of those who act indie
pendently of all party affiliations is con-
tinually increasing. The wonder rather
is that the majority still cling 10 these
ruts.
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES OF THE CAM
PAIGN.
In considering the questions of the day
it is well in the first place to try to get a
perfectly clear perception of the issues
involved in the campaign. That he may
do this it is absolutely necessary fGr an
intelligent being to close his ears to the
discussion generally carried on. In that,
words supply to an altogether inordinate
degree the place of ideas. OF the three
elements, therefore, in which every cam
paign discussion may be dec0mpOsed-
rubbish, formalities and essence-it is
here proposed to devote very few words
except to the last. Under the head of
campaign rubbish may, in the present
case, safely be classed all the rambling
discussions of the war records of the
several candidates, and their opinions
prior to the rebellion or the Mexican
war; also the charges and counter-char-
ges made as their transactions in mules,
their stealing railroads, ,plundering widows
and orphans, "dodging" taxes, issuing
"shinp1aster" currency, the number of
watches they own, and the date at which
they may have purchased pianos. Per
sonally all the candidates are respectable
gentlemen. They have passed their
lives before the communities in which
they live, and been hon0red and trusted,
As to the views they may have enter
tained twenty years ago, it is to be re-
membered the war of the rebellion closed
in the year 1865. The issues at stake
between the years 1S4S and 1860 are now
lust as much settled beyond the perad-
venture of reversal as those involved in
the war of 1912 or the revolution. The
records of Gov. Hayes and Gov. Tilden
anterior to 1861 have, therefore, senti-
ment part, just about as much bearing
on the living issues of this campaign as
their opinions on the Hartford conven-
ton or the Darwinian theory of evolu-
ton. No one can deny that the mass OF
trash and rubbish of this description
constituting, as it does, nine-tenths o
the campaign iterature-has its in
fuence. Unhappily, mud-finging is to
a very large class OF mankind one of the
most enjoyable features of every canvass;
and, as there are said to be German
counties in Pennsylvania, where votes
are regularly at each election cast for
Gen. Jackson, so a not incOnsiderable
portion of the community now does, and
for the next five years will, measure
every candidate, not by his acts of the
day, but by what he said and thought in
1860, or did or did not do during the re-
bellion.
There are three great phases into
which all political movement resolves
itself-the revolutionary, the construc-
tive, and the administrative, and these
three also necessarily succeed each other
in the order in which they have been
named. Within the last sixteen years it
is apparent that this country has passed
through two, and the more momentuous
two, of these phases, and is now entering
upon the third. The period between
1861 and 1865 was one of unquestioned
revolution that since 1865 has been one
Of construction, which, well or i'll done,
will be complete rs soon as South Caro-
lima and Louisiana are permitted to
reach the position of rest toward which
they are irresistably tending. That time
can not long be deferred.
THE ADVANTAGE OF THE DEMOCRATS.
1t is hardly better worth while to
waste time over empty political fOrmali-
ties than over unadulterated rubbish.
Passing on, then, to the essence of the
campaign, the candidates are first to be
considered.
In this respect unquestionably the
prima facia advantage is with the demo-
Gratis. If there is one thing wholly OPP
posed to the spirit of our institutions and
| the earlier and better usages of the coun-
try it is the political trick of nominating
unknown and untried men, on the ground
| that being unknown and untrled they
have no record to defend. Every voter
is thus left free to imagine what he
pleases, and, of course, On1ne ignOtuna, etc.
! In such a matter as this it is best per
haps to try to see ourselves as we would
see Others, and as others must see us. AS
practical men, priding ourselves on our
capacity for selfgovernment, what would
we Americans say if we saw, for instance
the liberal party of England on defeat
of the Disraeli minister and dissolution
70 parliament, select as their candidate:
for premier, not Gladstone, not Foster
not any well known or experienced
leader, but some unknown, untried lord
lieutenant of Canada, who had been &
colonel in the Sepoy insurrection, and 8
silent member during one short parlia
ment? In the days of Washington ant
Jefferson and Madison we should have
smiled, not without just pride, and re
marked that republicans though VIZ
were, we at least did not make farce o
our government. Yet this is exactly
what was done by the republican part!