The Portland daily press., 1877-09-29
Senator COnkling's Speech.
Future of the Republican Party-ChnPac.
ter Of the Men Who are Cracking the
Whip over RepubIicans-A Plea for
Pence and Unity In the Party.


Whip over RepubIicans-A Plea for
Pence and Unity In the Party.
The following is tbs text of Senator Copk-
ling's speech at the New York Republican
Convention. 1t arrived too late for publication
in the regular telegraphic report Mr.. Conk-
ling, it will be remembered, spoke to the
amendment offered by George William Curtis.
Senator Conklng upon taking the platform
SAID; 1t was womaD,a thoughtful woman, who
| said she always noticed that if she did NOT dia
in February, she lived all through the year /
have noticed that when the Republican party
kes no mistake in convention, it is apt TO 90
safely through canvass. When a convention
Is wise we always proce ed with credit; usually
| with success. Let us make no mistake TODAY
| Let us stand for the integrity of Republican
| principles and for the unity of Republicans
| This is not an Administration convention. nor
an auti-Administrstion convention We are not
| representatives of an Administration nor of an
Administration party. We are Republic
cans We represent great party. That par
| ty has battle to fight in every county district
and town, and our duty is to Republicans and
their candidates in every locality and school
| district in the State. Administrations do NOT
| make parties. Parties make administrations
go before administrations and live after them
The people make parties. The people made the
/ EuDllCdu party duQ the people nave upheld il
| in career of usefulness and achievement snch
| as no other party in history can boast, One of
the resolutions asserts that it has an uncom.
pleted mission. II it be true to itself and equal
| to that mission, it will stand in grandeur and
In power when the piques and pretensions and
rivolries OF to-day are viewed with pity or
forgotten utterly Let the Republican
part be bnt true to its principles
| and it cannot then be false to an
man. This is State convention. It's busipess
| is to nominate candidates for State offices and
! to declare the principles on which these candi-
/ dates shall stand and act if they are chosen.
It's business IS not to hinder but 10 help by the
| wisdom and harmony of its action every csndi-
| date not only in the State at large, but on all
| the tickets which are run in counties, in towns
aud in localities throughout the State. The
Natlona! Administrator is not candidate or
| in question here. Who has a right to saw that
1t wishes to influence our proceedings or to dis
| turb our harmony? If man has authority to
speak for it or bring its views or wishes here he
KNOWS IL, and when we know him we shall
know whose delegate or representative he is /
| will not assume that any man has been in
trusted to introduce matters foreign to our du-
ties and calculated to ferment discord among
those OF the same household of faith. repel
the idea that the National Administration suo-
gests or sanctions any such proceedings. He
who volunteersifor such a service may be found
wanting in the discretion of friendship, if not
IN sincerity also. 1t has been said that other
conventions have sometimes expressed opinions
about national affairs including specific acts of
national officials They have frequently done
| so no doubt County and town Conventions
nave done the same thing. National conven-
tlons nave sometimes expressed opinions about
State concerns, and even about the affairs of
Cities Nobody can deny the rights of each con.
ventlon to decide for itself what it shall say and
t what u VIII not say. Every convention which
has said one thing and omitted or refused to saw
another, has SO decided for itself and did apy
one ever before hear this right or proprieIy
challenged? Many State conventions before
.nis nave oecided to say nothing about particu-
lar topics prominent at the time. Many State
conventions have omitted to refer even to State
officers whose action has been widely discussed
silence IN regard to men and things not re-
curing @ tne yote and action OF convention has
vided opinion, and in cases of untimely at.
tempts to make issue aud obtain commitals
touching occurrences already past and fixed, or
upon analrs not far enough advanced to afford
ground for ultimate and safe judgment To
speak plainly, there are special reasons lust
now iHvltlng the convention to adhere calmly
and nrmly to its own sense of propriety and -
besu sn. All hep9bllea9a. ii29r i2 III menacing
and1a5Sfe and oa@m99Sfee "dictation to declare this
been given of retribution if they dare even to
remain silent. The Marshal of France has
just attempted to degrade and punish French
man for uttering his sentiments. Perhaps he
has succeeded. But Americans are now, 1t
seems, to be chastsed for holding their peace
Not yet Exotic despotism, revised and i'm
proved, will not grow in American soil and
American air. 1t will perish. 1t would be
trodden out if itdid not die out.
CRACKING THE WHIP.
Who are these men who in newspapers and
elsewhere are cracking the whip over Repub-
licans now and playing schoolmaster to the Re-
publican party and its conscience and cOnvic-
tions? Some of them are the man milliners,
the diAetdRte and carpet knights Of politics,
men whose efforts have been expended in de-
uouncing and rdculng and accusing honest
men who, in 1storm and sunshine, in war and
peace, have clung to the Republican flag and
defended it against those who tried to trail and
trample it in the dust. Some of them are men
who, ,whenithey could work themselves into con-
ventions, have attempted to belitte and befoul
Republican administrations, and to parade
their own thin veneerng of purity. Some of
them are men who, by insisting that it is cor
rupt and bad for men in Office to take part in
politics, are striving now to prove that the Re-
publican party has been unclean and vicious all
its life, and that the last campaign was venal
and wrong and fraudulent, not in some of the
states, but in all the states, North aud South,
for it is no secret that in all the states office
holders, in committees, in organizations and
everywhere, did all that men could fairly do
to uphold the candidates of our party, and that
they were encouraged and urged to do So Some
of these worthless masquerade as reformers
Their vocation and ministry is to lament the
sins Of other people Their stock in trade is
rancid, fiat seif-rghteousness. They are wolves
in sleeps clothing Their real object is Office
and plunder. When DR.. johnson defined pat
riotism as the last resource of scoundrel, he
was unconscious of the then undeveloped ca
pabilities and uses Of the word reform"
Some of them sat but yesterday in Democratic
conventions. Some have sought nominations
at the hands of Democrats in recent years, and
some with the zeal of neophites and the bitter
nessaCfEapostates, have done more than self
respecting Democrats would do, TO vilify and
slander their government and their country
men. Grant and all who stood by that upright,
fearless magistrate have been the objects CT the
bitter, truthless aspersions OF these men. And
now, opposed or laggard IN the battles of the
past, they leap forward to the feast. They for
get that parties are not built up by department,
or by ladies' magazines. or by gush. 1t used to
be said of certain Democrats in Massachusetts,
that they wanted, by their obnoxious officious-
ness, to keep the party in that state as small
they could in order to make the stockholders
as few and the dividends as large as possible.
hope these new-hedged dictatOrs re not aim
ing at the same thing in New York. The
grasshoppers in ths corner of a fence, even
without newspaper to be heard in, sometimes
make more noise than the flocks and herds that
Craze upon thousand hills A Chinese war
of noises has been set up in the state and be-
yond the state to drive this convention and its
members to contend and divide over certain
dogmas, but it is for the convention to say
what its judgment indicates as suitable and
wlse An important election is at hand-im-
portant in counties, in Assembly districts and
IN towns-and we are told that we must not
keep within our sphere of duty, but must find
bones of contention to carry schism and dis
cord down into every locality, to distract and
weaken our party everywhere. The wisdom of
| these somewhat peremptory directions is the
| question before us The propriety of denounc-
| ing and carpng at administrative acts on every
| small occasion has not been without advocates.
RIGHTS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
| This doctrine, as sometimes maintained. L
believe to be unjust to public officials. 1t
| seems TO public officers are entitled to pre-
sumptions in their favor and ought never to be
| condemned until they and their acts have been
| fairly tried, and then only on clear evidence.
For extreme license in criticism of admi1istra-
uons and of everybody connected with them,
broad arguments can no doubt be found.
Many might be louud in the files of the journal
made famous by the pencil Of Mast; but a COZ
| vention may not deem itself chartered liber-
! tine of oracular and pedantic con,eits. 1t may