The Osceola times., 1876-10-28
An IMPARTIAL VIEW.
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., on the
Two Presidential Candidates.
Governor Tildcn the Foremost Re
former Of the Time.
Hayes the Creature Of Cameron, Ohand-
Ter and the Gang,

From an Article by Charles Francis Adams Jr., /,
| 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 50 much as an
army whose term of enlistment had ex-
| pircd. 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 a happier smile than this. 1t in
cluded in ten words a phamphletful of
| political insight, and accounted at once
| for that large amount OF individual ac-
ton, which is such an essential feature
in the present canvass. The field is full
of stragglers.
So far as the momentous political issues
of twenty years ago are concerned, little
remains over which to struggle. During
the present Canyass-issues, side issues
and after-issues will, indeed, be manu-
featured 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 means of support.
The continued dwelling upon the last
phases of stale excitement is neither a
philosophical nor an ennobling pursuit.
II is small matter for wonder, therefore,
that the number of those who act indie.
pendently of all party affiliations is con-
tinualy increasing. The wonder rather
is that the majority still cling TO 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 for 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
clements, therefore, in which every cam.
paign discussion may be decomposed-
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 Us their transactions in mules,
their stealing railroads, ,plundering widows
and orphans, "dodging" taxes, issuing
"shinplaster" currency, the number of
watches they owa, and the date at which
they may have purchased pianos. Per-
sonaly all the candidates are respectable
gentlemen. They have passed their
lives before the communities in which
As to the views they may have enter
tanned 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 lS4S 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-
tion or the Darwinian theory of evolu-
tion. No one can deny that the mass OF
trash and rubbish of this description
constituting, as it does, nine-tenths of
the campaign literature--has its in
fluence. Unhappily, mud-flinging is to
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 nconsderable
portion OF the community now does, and
ior 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 il
is apparent that this country has passed
through two, and the more momentum,
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 a. soon as South Caro-
lima and Louisiana are permitted {,
reach the position of rest toward which
they are irresistably tending. That tim,
can not long be deferred.
THE ADVANTAGE OF THE DEMOCRATS.
1t is hardly better worth while t
waste time over empty political formali
ties than over unadulterated rubbish
Passing on, then, to the essence of tn,
campaign, the candidates are first to b,
considered.
In this respect unquestionably tn,
prima facia advantage is with the demo
Gratis. If there is one thing wholly op
posed TO the spirit of our institutions an,
the earlier and better usages of the cour
e try It is the political trick of nominatin
unknswn and untried men, on the groun