Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-06-17

necessary number of States, to assist
and encourage the returning board to
commit these crimes against the peo-
pie. Would he have done this, had
he supposed the principles and prac-
tices of his administration would be re-
pudiated by his successor Would
Don Cameron, then Secretary of War,
have sent his faithful friend and
agent, r. w. Mackey, to Florida to
purchase member of the returning
board to make.a return so foul and
false thatit was repudiated by the Re
publican supreme court of that State
if he had known that he would be dis
missed as Secretary of War, and the
practices which Grant had approved
would no longer be tolerated in the
Cabinet of his successor? No. Then
no doubt existed that "Grantism"
was to be perpetuated, otherwise the
great fraud" would never have been
perpetrated and the peoples choice,
Tilden and Hendricks, would have
been peaceably inaugurated.
But Hayes was not leader. He
was a small man, a weak man, but in.
clined to be honest. He was induced
to take the office to which he knew he
was not elected, because of the good
he was told he could do the country
without destroying the Republican
party. He believed that the reforms
promised should be realized, and that
he could produce them. He had heard
so often during the campaign that
"Grantism" and "Republicanism" were
two different things that he believed
il, and supposed that he was put in
Office by his party to save it from
the corroding and destroying principles
of his predecessor. When he came to
form his Cabinet, he retained none Of
the old members. Some of them, in
cluding Cameron, had to be fairly
kicked out. OF the seven cabinet
ministers appointed, a majority of
them, Evarts, Devens, Schurz and
Key had opposed Grants last election.
Hayes was pledged to "civil service
reform" He soon issued his celebrat-
ed civil service reform order. This
we believe he did in good faith. He
soon learned, however, that the lead
ers of his party never intended that
the reform they had so lavishly prom
ised should be carried out. Had
Hayes, with his principles, been a
strong man." he would have reform
ed the Government in spite of his
party. But being very weak man,
the stalwarts soon had him bound
hand and foot. They, however, had
been deceived and were disappointed.
When Hayes in the formation of
his cabinet ignored the prominent men
who surrounded Grant, they entered
into the great conspiracy to put
Grant back into the Presidency, and
never again to trust to the accident of
an election. Great sums of money were
raised, government vessel was taken,
and Grant was sent to study the despot-
isms of Europe and Asia, civilized,
semi-civilized and barbarous, in order
better to qualify him for the role he
was to play in this country. The time
Of his return, the receptions, his tour
to Cuba and Mexico were all arranged
as part of the machinery by which
his nomination was to be forced upon
the party. That successful, it was de-
termined that votes should not stand
in the way Of his Inauguration.
Thirty-fve electoral votes we're to be
given to him in New York by the
legislature. Emissaries were to be
sent to the South, wherever the negro
population was large, to stir up strife
and to produce collisions between the
black and white races, in order that
the new Secretary of War might have
an excuse for sending troops there TO
prevent an honest election. And If
the worst came to worst, Wheeler, the
Vice President was TO count Grant in,
in return for his having been counted