The New York herald., 1876-08-01
Is This the Way to wins

Governor Tilden has honored n corre-
spondent of the Cincinnati Enquirer with an
expression of his views upon the canvass.
The summing up of the conversation is in
these words :-"There is one thing all of us
as good democrats can do. We can unite in
vigorous campaign against our common
enemy. We can all agree in our determina-
ton to root out the fraud and corruption and
dishonesty which we see daily exemplifed
in that party. We may have our different
views on matters of policy or finance and the
like. You people out in Ohio may believe
one way and we people here in New York
another One is as honest in his belief as
the other. But the thing for us all to do now
is to unite and make our battle on grounds
on which we can all agree, and then, after we
have won our victory over common enemy,
is time enough to settle our differences
among ourselves" In other words, the Gov
ernor will avoid every issue upon which the
country has any feeling and ask the people
to vote upon an issue that is imaginary.
Reform is very well in its way, but we have
little confidence that Mr.. Tilden would do
any better than Washington, whose Secre-
tary of the Treasury was denounced as q
"corruptionist" by the early reformers; or
jefferson, who was arraigned as Corrupt"
for his Louisiana purchase; or John Quincy
Adams, who made corrupt" bargain with
Clay; or Andrew jackson, who "corruptly"
removed every Cabinet officer who would not
accept as social equal Undertakes widow;
or Martin Van Buren,, who was the father of the
corrupt" Albany Regency; or John Tyler.
who sought to corrupt" the whig party by
patronage; or Franklin Pierce, who aimed
by corrupt" means to force slavery on Kan
SOS; or James Buchanan, whose "corrup-
tions" were the basis of the Covode Commit
tees report; or Andrew Johnson, who had
as close relations with corrupt" whiskey
people as Grant We soy We have no conf
dence that Mr.. Tilden will do any better
than Washington, for instance; but we have
no doubt he will do the best he can. In or
der to inspire confidence in his willingness
and ability he should make his political pro-
fession of faith specific and plain. Instead
of the vague, misty generalization, addressed
to an Ohio reporter, let him say:-''If elected
President l will remove no man from Office
except for cause, and appoint no one except
for fitness. will ignore party associations
in making appointments, except to the high
places, where will need the counsel Of
party friends. will not accept nomina-
ton for second term. will deal with ne
gro killers in the South as I dealt with Do
Ian. l will veto any measure that interferes
with the public credit" This is real reform,
and if the Governor presents his views in
this definite, ineligible manner the coun-
try will understand them.
But this holding up the one word ''re-
form" without clearly showing what it
means and asking people to vote for it is
like the charlatan at the county fair with
his medicines that will 'cure everything for
a dollar" The cure-everything- -for-a-dollar
policy will never win. No doubt the Gov
ernor was mystifying the Ohio reporter and
reserving his real ideas for his letter.