Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-10-06

I could not express hard money doctrines
myself. The soft-money r1en have, with
in a year or two, begun to use some hard
money phrases in forced, artificial and i'm
possible applications. They find those
phrases in Mr.. Tilden's letter, and that is
the ground on which they claim his sur
render.
Mr.. Hayes has made a very distinct
avowal that he will resist the repeal of the
Resumption Act unless something better
is put in its place, and if he is elected I
shall certainly await with generous conf
dence a fulfllment of that pledge. The
difficulty is just the one which seems
to ne radical in his candidature. Between
two candidates, one of whom is recommen.
ded to me on the opinion of his friends,
the other OF whom has a record of action
and achievement under my knowledge and
inspection, my most rational expectation
of such a performance as [ desire attaches
to the latter.
That Mr.. Tilden is politician enough to
be available is only an advantage, since we
cannot get all angel with u flaming sword,
and [ think that we independents have
cast worse reproach upon ourselves than
our most sarcastic critics, since we have
failed to seize upon chance which offered
itself to our demand, and have chosen to
trust to groundless faith and a rope for
which we cannot give a reason. In this
latter light l must be allowed, without Of
Tense, to regard the support OF Gov. Hayes.
Ireceived letter a while ago from IL
friend of Gov. Hayes, who declared that
Gov. Hayes was a very modest man, whose
modesty prevented him from accepting the
United States Senatnrship. quote it as
all instance of what seems to me wrong
reasoning on these matters. If Gov. Hayes
is Snch man as is now claimed, it seems
to me he is just the man we have sadly
needed in the Senate for the last few years
and, if he refused to go, he turned his
back Oh the call of public duty. l do not
deny his right to refuse, although in gen.
eral hold it sound doctrine that a man
of good health and independent fortune
ought to serve the State when duly and
honerably selected but if Mr.. Hayes was
ever to be candidate for the Presidency,
he ought To have pursued public career
IN the subordinate places which opened to
| him he ought to have ALLOW ed us to see
| him in these places, and he ought to have
made record on which we could form a
| judgment to-day. and not be thrown on
the say-so of his friends. If he is to BE-
elected, shall certainly not prejLdge him
nor allow any prejudice to rise in my mind:
but when look back Oil former cases in
which the campaign enthusiasm has sur
rounded an untried man with a halo which
| has subsequently faded into something
worse than obscurity, my imagination re-
| fuses to act
| Another point in this canvass which
very deeply interests me is the condition
| and future of the South. The campaign
seems to be turning more and more to that
issue after all, and it seems to be found
that distrust Of rebels and the old war
spirit are still so strong as to be the best
available campaign capital. If that is to
be so, then l must take sides against any
further administration of the affairs of the
South by the North acting through the
general Government. [ have had occa-
sion within q year to review the whole
history of reconstruction. The effect up
on my mind has been shame and blame to
myself for the share which /, as Repub-
lican, have had in helping to build up the
worst legislation of the nineteenth ce-t u-
ny. | have been shocked to realize by
what successive stages we have built up
here system of restrictive and coercive
| legislation which very few Northern Re-
publicans know in even its broadcast fea-
lures, and can only recognize in disorder,
riot, misrule, irresponsible official tyranny
| industrial loss, the results which have fol-
| lowed everywhere in history from coercive
| legislation enacted by one community
against another. The Republican candi-
date for the Vice-Presidency devoted his
letter OF acceptance almost exclusively to
the Southern question. He believes that
the Southern States are not civilized up to
! the standard of the Northern States, and
| he wants to bring them up. l agree with
! HIM that they are on q lower grade. but [
! submit that it is not his business nor ours
to civilize them by any political measures.
| l therefore desire now, as regards this
| political question, that the South be left
| to work out its own social problems under
no arbitrary political coercion, but simply
under the cOnStraint Of social and econom-
| ic forces.
| Finally, in regard to another matter
which [ have very, much at heart, but
which is hardly an active issue in the cam
| paign, whatever hope there is for free trade
lies in the election of Tilden.
If, then, a decision is forced upon me, l
simply judge, on all the information pos
| sess, that Mr.. Tilden has more knowledge,
ability, skill and will to do what [ want to
see done in politics than Mr.. Hayes. NeY-
ertheless, am not called upon to bind Or
pledge myself in any way, and [ hold my
self free to take any course which may, up
on further information OF reflection, seem
best. However the election may result,
shall be guided in my relations to the next
administration entirely by the performan-
ces in regard to the matters I have here
discussed
W. G. SUMNER.
New Haven, Sept IL. 1876