St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-07-13

which fol a time was often in the pres
ident's mouth, that his policy was ex-
perimental, tentative, and if it did
no work well it could be abandoned
and reversed. Was ever before such
transparent folly and hypocrisy pre-
scented to this people as a serious argu-
ment 1t was manifestly put forth TO
deceive and beguile until the deed was
accomplished. Doubtless it served its
purpose. 1t has already been abandon
ed No step taken by the president can
be reversed. No ground surrendered
can be recovered. Henceforth South
Carolina and Louisiana are as firmly
linked with the solid South, in all its po-
litical fortunes, as Kentucky or Georgia"
The speaker next took up the pleas
that Hayes was justified in his policy
because Grant had failed in another,
protested that Grants success or failure
had nothing to do with Hayes's duty,
declared that he couldn't tell what
Grants policy was, so different was his
course at different times, but held that
whenever during his eight years of
service President Grant firmly executed
the laws and upheld the lawful govern
ments of the southern states, political
success was the result. Whenever, as
in Mississippi, malign influences caused
him to shrink from his duty, defeat,
lasting, complete defeat, was the result"
Senator MOrton's defense of the pres
ident, that defeat was inevitable, if any
other policy was adopted, was then
taken up. "If the presidents action
and policy are wrong in principle-and
no man has shown this more clearly
than Senator MOrtOn-shall the republic
can party be told, or shall it be persuad-
ed, even by Senator Morton, that it
must save its life by the sacrifice of its
principles Sir, this is sucicide. There
are defeats that are victories, and there
are victories that are defeats. A victory
won at the expense of principles is an
iIretrievable defeat. If it be true-and
| do not for moment believe it--that
the cowardly spirit of commerce, or
WEAKNESS with the southern question,
had made it certain that the firm dis
charge of the presidents constitutional
duty toward South Carolina and LOuisi-
ana would have overwhelmed the party
with defeat, what man shall teach us
that such IA defeat is not better than this
success 2"
Gov. Chamberlain concluded as fol-
lows: A political party, fellow-citizens,
which cannot bear defeat in open polit-
zeal warfare has little vitality, little
claim to public confidence. But my
knowledge of political history gives me
no example of Il party strong enough to
long survive either the abandonment of
its principles OF tImid and time serving
aquiescence in the treachery of its lead
ers. Such is the attitude, in my judg-
ment, of the republican party to-day.
Whoever has watched the course of the
present administration has seen the de-
mOralization which always attends the
abandonment of principles spreading
through all the channels and activities
of the government. Look at civil-ser-
vice retorm-a policy vital, fundamen-
tal-a policy which means the absolute
freedom of all the servants of the gov
ernment, except the very few who dis
tinctively and necessarily represent the
political opinions of the party charged
with the administration, from all allie
glance to, or connection with, the politi-
cal fortunes of any party; the selection
of such servants with eyes blind to the
political opinions of those who are to
serve the government. This is the re-
form to which the administration stands
peculiarly pledged. Has it entered up
on it : Has it shown capacity or pur-
pose to execute itP No; the necessities
imposed upon the administration in its
efforts 30 buy the support or silence OPP
position of partisan leaders to the south
ern policy has already detrauded us of
this reform. | affirm, as Il proposition
which rests on accurate observation,
that to this hour offices have been grant
ed or refused, conferred OF taken away,
with as much regard to political ends
by the present administration as by
President Grant during any portion of
his administration and | will not for
bear to add, with far less honorable
motives. Mark the appreciation of the
principles of civil-service reform, when
you hear it announced that eight years
of service gives Il right to the president
to remove the most faithful officer Or
again, when you see the secretary of
the treasury devoting his mind to the
elevated work of removing without re-
gard to other causes, all but one of Il
family
Look next at the relations of this add
mlnistration to the present financial
issues. President Hayes has heretofore
entitled himself to the confidence of
honest men by his course on this ques-
ton. Nothing, sir, but the necessity of
gaining support for his southern policy
could have induced him to contemplate
an alliance with the silver conspiracy
a conspiracy which regards silver with
favor only because it has lost all virtue
as standard OF value, and, as a cur
rency, is cheaper than greenbacks. 1t
is the inherent and unavoidable weak
ness of his present position, the effect of
his wretched southern policy, that he
must cOnciliate an outraged party, so
far as possible, by yielding now to the
demand for the ''spoils," and now to
the demand for "cheap" money.
Again, the republican party, by all
its recent platforms, is pledged to OPP
pose the grant of subsidies to private
corporations. Yet no man, who to-day
knows anything of the currents and in
tuences which are gathering at Wash
ington, is ignorant of the fact that a
vast scheme is steadily maturing, un-
OppOsed-if not favOred-by this ad-
ministratiOn, which aims to take from
our public domain and our public treas
ury untold subsidies to build IL Southern
Pacific railway, a railway for which
there is no present public need, and
from which private capitalists would
shrink with contempt. In the train of
this gigantic effort at public robbery
will come the revival of the defunct
Northern Pacific, the building of levees
on the Mississippi, and kindred schemes
sufficient to again corrupt the morals
and blast the prosperity of the whole
country. And all this is the price which