The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1876-07-19
Gov. TiIden'> EkespOnAe to tlRe Conn
nsittee NOTHING him OF llis
Nom m al ton.

GEN. MCCLERNAND AND GENTLE
MEN OF THE COMMITTEE: | shall at
my earliest convenience prepare and
transmit to you formal acceptance Of
the nomination which you now tender to
me in behalf of the Democratic National
Convention, and | do not desire on this
occasion to anticipate any topic which
might be appropriate to that communion
ton. 1t may however, be permitted to
me to say that my nomination was not a
mere personal preference between citizens
and statesmen of this repub ic, who
might Yery we'll have been chosen for so
distinguished an honor and for so august
a duty. 1t was rather a declaration of that
illustrious body in whose behalf you
speak in favor Of administrative reform
with which events had associated me in
the public mind. The strength, the uni
versatility, and the efficiency of the de-
mand for administrative reform in all
government, especially in the admistru-
ton of the Federal Government, with
which the Democratic masses everywhere
were instinct, has led to series of sur
prises in the popular assemblages and
perhaps in the Convention itself. 1t
would be unnatural, gentlemen, il pop
ular movement so genuine and so power
full should stop with $500, 600 Demo
Gratis that it should not extend by con-
tagion to that large mass of independent
voters who stand between parties in our
| country, and even to the moderate Lor-
ton of the party under whose admnistra-
ton the evils to be corrected have grown
up. And perhaps III what we have wit
messed there may be an augury in respect
to what we may witness in the election
about to take place drought our country;
at least let us hope SO and believe 50.
| | am not without experience of the
difficulty of the labor of effecting admin
istrative reform when it requires rev
| olution in policies and III measures long
established in government. Ii I were to
judge by the year and half during
which l have been in the State Govern
mept. you'd say that the routine duties
of the trust | have had imposed upon me
are a small burden compared with that
created by the attempt to change the
| policy of the Government of which |
have been the Executive head. Espec
| tally is this so Were the 4eform is to be
worked out with more or less of opera
| ton ofpublic officers who either have been
tainted with the evils to be redressed, or
who have been inca pacitated by the hab-
! it of liberation of the wrongs to be cor
rected, and to which they haYe been con-
| senting Witnesses. /, 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
a holiday recreation but very much in
that spirit of conservation in which the
soldier enters battle. Applause
But let US believe as DO believe, that
we now see the dawn of better day fol
our country, and that difficult as is the
work to which the Democratic party, with
many allies and former members of other
parties, had addressed itself, the Republic
is surely to be renovated it is to i've il
all the future and to be transmitted Il
succeeding generations as Jefferson con
tributed to form it in his day. and as i
has been ever since, until a recent period,
a blessing to the whole people and hope
to all mankind. Applause.
Gentlemen, [ thank you for the yer,
kind terms in which you have made YOU
communication, and | extend 10 you
collectively ana individually, most cor
dial greeting. Applause.