The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-08-05
Political affairs.
FIFTH AVENUE CONFEREES.


How Ought Independent Reformers to Vote
Parke Goodwin Reviews the Political Situation
To the Editor Of the Tribune :--SrR,-Ai
one Of the Executive Committee of the Con
ference held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in
May last, desire to say word to its mem.
bers and constituents. an led TO it by the
fact that several of my colleagues have al
ready expressed opinions of the political sit
uation with which ! cannot agree. But a
more powerful motive with me is the belief
that while the action Of the Conference has
had no little influence in shaping recent
events, its adherents may do an infnity Of
greater good if they will continue to act in
the spirit which brought them together, and
which is seen in the manly words Of their ad
dress to the people.
THE SPIRIT OF THE CONFERENCE.
The call for that assembly, it may be re
membered, was sent to men of all parties wht
were interested enough in the correction Of
acknowledged abuses to cast off their party
trammels and to act in body us reformers
Mr.. Carl Schurz who initiated its proceeding.
by a brief speech, said that, in issuing tn,
invitations, "no inquiry had been made as ia
any mans party connections, and only as to
the sincerity of his faith" 1t was accord
ingly formed of no professed politicians, but
of gentlemen of distinction in the various
walks of life, who preferred country to party,
and whose single aim was to rebuke and to
remove that fearful decay of civic virtue
which had come partly out of the war, but
mainly from an utter perversion of politics,
both in theory and practice. President
Woolsey, on taking the chair, remarked that
''for the last ten years the country had been
growing politically worse, and that those who
had acted with the dominant party had fire..
quently had reason to blush with shame for
its leaders," An address subsequently, adop.
ted by the Conference, as the declaration of
its thought, more largely described the pain.
full condition of things in these words;
A national election is approaching under
circumstances of peculiar significance. Never
before in our history has the public mind been
so profoundly agitated by an apprehension of
the dangers arising from the prevalence of
corrupt tendencies and practices in our poit.
zeal life, and never has there been greater
reason for it. We will not display here in
detail the distressing catalogue of the disclos.
ures which for several years have followed
one another in rapid succession, and seem to
have left scarcely u single sphere Of our pc.
litical life untouched. The records of courts,
of State Legislatures, and of the National
Congress, speak with terrible plainness, and
still they are adding to the scandalous exhi.
bition. Our republic, but a century old, and
just issued from the only great civil conflict
we have had to deplore, is so strong in re-
sources and organization that it stands in the
foremost rank of the great powers of the
earth, and yet, with all these splendid results
on record, 1t cannot be denied that at no pc.
riod during the century now behind us the
American people have been less satisfied with
and that the centennial anniver.
sary of the Declaration of independence, in
so many respects to all Americans u day Of
sincerest pride and rejoicing, is felt to be in
other respects not without self-reproach and
humiliation. OF this the corruption revealed
in our political life is the cause.
THE EVILS CONTAINED OF.
The thoughtful and conscientious men who
gave utterauce to this description had long
observed the growing indifference to sound
principles and the growing degeneracy in
practice, and they asked themselves, What is
to be done? They had seen, only few years
ago, in the metropolis of the continent,
horde of bandits possessing themselves of al.
most absolute power by the mere force of
party machinery, and after gorging themselves
with plumber to the amount Of fifteen or TWEEN.
ty millions of dollars, fastening their own
creatures upon legislatures, courts, and the
Executive chair. They had seen the Judi.
ciary bench occupied by vulgar and venal
who gave away their decisions as
favors to. accomplices or flatterers, or who
sold them more or less openly for gold. They
had seen large number of the representa-.
lives Of the people in the National Legisla
ture, many of them prominent leaders, accept.
ing gratuities in the shape of stock from the
gigantic moneyed corporations to which they
had voted, or might be called upon to vote,
subsidies out of the public lands
a Vice.President of the United States falling
into disgrace because ofhis completely. They
had seen those same members of Congress,
with others, at time when the nation was
groaning under an excessive taxation, voting
themselves salaries for services which they
had never rendered from $4,000 to $1,000
each, and only giving them back, when they
were given back at all, with reluctance
sometimes in ambiguous ways that would
admit of future recovery, and at the rebuke
ofan outraged opinion and an indignant press.
They had seen the Southern States, recently
in revolt, seized upon by rapacious plumber.
ars, who, on the pretext Of protecting the
rights of the freedmen, outraged all the rights
and all the decencies Of civilized society, and
hose once hourishing communities, now
to recover their lost prosperity,
subjected to the degradations of an Eastern
satrapy. They had seen the District of Co.
umbia surrendered by the National Legisla.
lure to conclave of REGULATORS, who made
themselves rich at the expense of the people
by heaping debt and taxation upon the PEG.
Pile, through shameless perversion of all
The duties of Office. They had seen wide.
spread conspiracy for defrauding the revenue,
with its principal agents in the revenue de.
partments and its accessories in the White
House arrested with difficulty by the courts,
because OF the intimate relations of the Grim.
mails with high political personages. They
had seen an ambassador Of the Republic, an
intimate personal friend of the President,
his name as patron with swim.
ding mining company, and SO lost to q sense
Of common decency, not to speak of personal
and national honor, as to justify his conduct
until rebuked by vote of the House of Re.
presentatives. They had seen Speaker of
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