The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1876-04-20
Hon. Montgomery Blair's Letter on the
Presidency.
WASHINGTON, March 1S, 1S


WASHINGTON, March 1S, 1876.
DEAR SIR: have your letter request
ing for publication the views expressed
by me in a recent conversation with re-
spect to the pending Presidential contest.
The sum of them was that we ought to
continue the contest as we began in 1872,
when we agreed to forego all other issues
save that Of reform in the administration
of the government. The adversary then
struggled and still strives, with the help
of the Hon. Ben. Hill, to keep alive the
issues of the war for the purpose of pro-
longing abuses which, however great, 60
unchecked while sectional strife holds the
public mind. We did not carry the cleo
tions in 1872, because we were not fully
successful in making the issue of reform.
But we made such a beginning that the
victory of our adversaries has proved
barren one. We so far succeeded that a
show of investigation had to be made.
The Credit Mobilier fraud, which, though
well known before to all public men,
could not command public attention, now
absorbs it. Spoliation was checked. Jay
Cooke & Co., who had largely advanced
the money to carry the elections, could
not be reimbursed by Congressional in
dorsement of the Northern Pacific bonds,
and therefore failed. The so-called in
yestigating committees, organized not to
convict, were experts in finding out how
not to do it, and the departments helped
them assiduously; but the Independent
Press did the work so effectually that a
large Democratic majority was returned
to the present House of Representatives.
Unfortunately, this tide of success, which
assured the reformers of the government,
this year has been arrested and turned
back by the. intrusion into the canvass
last fall of another issue, of which the
Radicals have eagerly and successfully
ayailed themselves. And their effort is
to hold on to that issue, and make the
Presidential election turn on the question
of resumption, upon which they have
won, instead of upon the question of re-
form, upon which they have lost the day.
If they succeed in this, the result will
invariably be. unfortunate for US. Our
friends having been beaten on this issue
last fall in the States where anti-resump-
ton was strongest, our vote in New York,
even without which success for US would
be hopeless having been largely affected
by the attitude of our friends. in those
States, no rational mind can fail to see
that such an issue would defeat us.
It is plain, from this brief statement
of the situation, that our success depends
upon our ability to reinstate the issue of
reform as the issue of the canvass; and
it is equally plain that this is not to be
done; by resolution, but by such action as
will not only proclaim it, but will of
itself verify it as the issue to all men. ';el
The nomination of Tilden will of itself
force this issue, and make the election
turn upon it. The friends of other can
didates object to the nomination of
citizen of New York and claim the nom-
ination for the West. But Jackson was
not selected because he was citizen of
Tennessee, or Jefferson because he was
citizen Of Virginia, or Grant because he
was for short time in Illinois. Selec-
ton on such ground has no political sig
nifcance, and ignores altogether the only
consideration upon which a candidate
ought to be selected, VIZ: as the repre-
sentative of the idea sought to be ad-
vanced. My preference for Tilden is
only because his nomination would of
itself force on the issue of reform, which
is our sure card in the pending canvass.
do not doubt that the other gentlemen
spoken of would prove vigorous reform
ers, and have no personal preference
for Tilden over any one OF them; but
neither of them is so identified with
reform" in the public mind as Tilden.
They have either not had the opportuni
ty. or not availed themselves of it, to
manifest the resolute purpose he has
shown to purge the State of fraud and
jobbing. They have not Joined hands
with political adversaries to overthrow
and arraign and convict as criminals the
master spirits of their own party whilst
they seemed to be impregnably intrench-
ed in the control of its organization, and
have not by such conduct been lifted into
power by the support of large bodies of
political opponents, even against repub-
lican whose integrity was not questioned,
but who had not manifested the same
zeal in the cause Of reform. Nor have
they, after reaching power, so signalized
their administration by unsparing war on
jobbery. -
By this course Tilden has made him.
self, more than any other man of our
day, the representative man of the idea
to which the Democratic party 80 en-
phatically pledged itself in 1872, and his
nomination would be accepted; not only
by the Liberal Republicans, who then
acted with us, but by thousands who then
held back, as a sure guarantee that the
pledge would be faithfully redeemed;
and his war record and his financial views
would efectually prevent diversion by
false issues.
The active enmity which Tilden has
provoked in his own party serves only to
attest his fitness for the occasion. No
man ever drove more men out OF the
Democratic party than Jackson; but no
man ever recruited it so rapidly from the
true men in the ranks of his opponents
at the same time. And this vitalizing
process must be renewed. The curse OF
the Democratic party has been its Tweeds.
The strength of its opponents, who use
the government for class aggrandizement,
is derived from vast expenditure, by cor
rupting the people in one form or another
with their own money, and by misleading.
them with false issues. But Old Bullion
never said anything more true than that
"the Democratic party, to be strong,
must be Clean"
Tilden is the type of the men who
were honored by the party in the days of
its strength; and his nomination being
sure bond for a return to their policy,
will insure its return to power.
Yours truly,
MONTGOMERY BLAIR.
SAMUEL NJ. SHAW,
Editor Frceman's Jour-, Coopersto'0'', ~. Y.