Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1876-08-12
SAMUEL ]. TILDEN.
Formal Acceptance of the Nomination
for President Of the United States.

ALBANY, uly 01.--TENTLEMEN
When I had the honor to receive tn,
personal delivery of your letter on be
half of the Democratic National Con
vention, held on the 18th of June, Al
st. Louis, advising me of my nomina
tion, as the candidate of the constiu
ency represented by that body, for The
Office Of presidentof the United States
/ answered that at my earliest conven
ience, and in conformity with usage,
would prepare and transmit to you q
| formal acceptance. I now avail myself
| of the first interval in unavoidable oc.
cupations to fulfill that engagement
The convention, before making its
nomination, adopted declaration of
principles which as whole seems to
me a wise presentation of the necessi-
ties of our country, and of the reforms
needed to bring back the governmental to
| its true functions, to restore purity of
administration, and to renew the pros
perity of the people. But some of
these reforms are so urgent that they
claim more than a passing approval.
REFORM IN PuRLIc EXPENDITURES.
The necessity of reform in the
scale of public expense, Federal, State
and municipal, and in the modes of
Federal taxation, justifes all the prom
inenee given to it in the declaration of
the st. Louis convention. The pres
ent depression IN all business and in
dustries of the people, which is de-
priving labor of its employment, and
carrying want into so many homes, has
its principal cause In the excessive gov
ernmental consumption. Under the
illusions of specious prosperity en-
gendered by false policies of the Fed
eral government, a waste of capital
has been going on ever since the peace
of 1865, which could only end in univer-
sal disaster. The Federal taxes of the
last eleven years reach the gigantic sum
of $4,000, 100000. Local taxation has
amounted to tWo-thirds as much more.
The vast aggregate is not less 81 ,500,-
100000. This enormous taxation fol-
lowed civil conflict that had greatly
impaired our aggregate wealth, and had
made prompt reduction of expenses
indispensable. 1t was aggravated by
most unscientifeand ill-adjusted meth
DDS of taxation, that increased the sac
rifces of the people far beyond the re-
ceipts of the Treasury. ItWas aggra-
vated, moreover, by financial policy
which tended to diminish the energy,
skill and economy of production, and
the frugality OF private consumption,
and induced miscalculation in business
and the unremunerative use of capital
and labor. Even in prosperous times
the daily wants ofindustrious commu-
mites press closely on their daily earn
ings. The margin, If possible, of ma
tional savings, is at best small per-
centage of national earnings. Yet now,
for these eleven years, the government
tai consumption has been a larger por-
tion of the national earnings than the
whole people can possibly save, even
in prosperous times, for all new invest
ments. The consequences of the err
rors are now present public calami
ty, but they were never doubtful, never
invisible. They were necessary and
inevitable, and were foreseen and de-
picted when the waves of that fictitious
prosperity ran highest. In a speech
made by me on the 24th of September,
1868, it was said of these taxes
They bear heavily upon every man s
income, upon every industry and every
business In the country, and year by
year they are destined to press still
more heavily, unless we arrest the sys-
tenn that gives rise to them. 1t was
comparatively easy, when values we're
doubling under repeated issues of le-
gal tender money. to pay out of the
growth Of our growing and apparent
wealth these taa Nesi = R1en values re-
cede and sink Wild zheir natural
scale, the tax -gatherer takes from us
not only our income, not only our prof
its, but also portion of our capital.
l do not wish to exaggerate or alarm.
simply say that we can not afford the
costly and ruinous policy of the Radi-
cal majority of Congress. We can
not afford that policy toward the South.
We can not afford the magnificent and
oppressive centralism into which our
Government is being converted. We
can not afford the present magnificent
scale of taxation"
To the secretary of the treasury
said early in 1865:
"There is no royal road for gov
ernment more than for an individual
or corporation. What you want to do |
now is to cut down your expenses and
live within your income. Iwould give |
all the ledgerdemain of finance and
fnanceering, / would give the whole
of it, for the old, homely maxim, LIVE
within your income.
This reform will be resisted at every
step, but it must be pressed persistent
ly. We see to-day the immediate re-
of the people in one
branch of Congress, while struggling |
to reduce expenditures, compelled to
confront the menace of the Senate and |
executive that, unless Objectionable
appropriations be consented to, the |
under shall suffer detriment or cease.
In my judgment an amendment of the
ought to be raised. sepa-
rating into distinct bills appropriations
for the various departments of the |
public service, and excluding from
each bill all appropriations for other
objects, and all independent legisla-
ton. In that way alone can every |
power of each of the two houses and |
of the executive be preserved and ex
empted from the moral duress which |
often compels assent to Objectionable |
rather than stop the
wheels of government.
MIsGovERNMENT OF THE SOUTH.
An accessory cause, enhancing the |
distress in business, is to be found In
the systematic and insupportable gov
ernment imposed on the States of the |
South. Besides the ordinary effect of |
ignorant and dishonest administra-
ton, it has inflicted upon them enor-
nous issues of fraudulent bonds, the |
scanty avails of which were wasted or
stolen, and existence of which is
public discredit, tending to bankruptcy
or reputation. Taxes, generally op-
pressive, in some instances have con-
fscated the entire income of property, |
and totally destroyed its marketable |
value. 1t is impossible that these evils
of the whole country. The nobler |
motives of humanity concur with the
material interests of all in requiring
that every obstacle be removed to a
complete and durable reconciliation
between kindred populations once ua-
naturally estranged, on the basis re-
cognized by the st. Louis platform, of
the Constitution of the United States,
with its amendments, universally ac-
cepted as final settlement of the con-
troversies which engendered the civil
war. But in aid of a result so bene-
ficient the moral influence of every