Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1881-12-31
Supplement to the Saturday Press, December 81 1881

examination and courre during his short term
ul loHH than two months that his life was spared
inter his inauguration. Tint short term gave
proneo of a wiec administration, II his life had
boon spared.
Buchanan the fifteenth President, CFillmurc
the fourteenth, wAs another accidental " WINS
forced upon the country 10y the slave power, which
IN lWB, had become 80 consolidated and strength.
uned 10y the dough face democracy of the North
ns to make HIS aucccss of onsy achievement Ills
subaorvicucy 10 the HlnVc power, and their control
of him. paved the way for tho war of the rebellion
mud moods no elaboration Ia thia discuasiou Call
the power which controlled him u ring or clique
II you please, and make tho most Of IT. More
good than evil came out of IT, though the evil was
tremendous and heart rendering.
IL ~ almost a proclamation To- pretend that Lin
coin, the sXtocnth President, was clique cnndi-
date, or II ring President. He WIS nominated at
Chicago, not being ~ first u candidate, after II
was domuntratod that neither of the fogulnr can
didntes could got majority of the votes of the
Convention. seward Chase and Cameron were
voted for great many times. for two or three
dnyH--( {" all OF which | snw and n part of which |
wna") and finally Lincoln WIS started and went
through tho Convention with u rush. II may be
ind that each of the candidates for nomination
Seward Chase and Cameron uotorou1ly the lat
ter-whS IN u sense ring candidate but mari,
again, neither Of MfW, II they were such. tds
nominated o. elected. 1t III not easy to conceive
TINT II Lincoln had gono into the canvas. M n
ring candidate, or i'll any Selsc been ring Prusi-
dent, lie would have selected his three competitors
for nomination., Hs members of his first Cabinet.
Notoriouay the welfare of his country was tho
passion and principal that controlled Abraham
Lincoln.
Grant. the eighteenth President, johnson, the
seventh, was also An accidental ~ was elected.
M every one knows, MS the hero aud condueror in
the civil war. The clique or ring TINT chose him.
WAS almost the universal people of the country IL
IS true that, especially in the last term of his
administration he was controlled to I, GRE At extent
by personal influences, notably in the selection OF
personal friends and faVOrtes for office. But he
was not nominated or elected by any clique much
short of the entire voice Of the country, Though
not, on the whole, u greHt Admrcr of Grant ms Il
civilian the writer of this, here wishes to render
him great praise for an honest endoavOr to correct
several abuses, especially the wretched and wicked
policy that hitherto controlled in the arrangement
of the Indian Department of the Government.
That he was not entirely successful, was owing to
the immense extent and power of the rings that
controlled the arrangement of Indian Affairs. He
mid to those who undertook to inaugurate what is
dcnominated " civil service reform "a great need
of the country.
Hayes the nineteenth President was not Mt first
a candidate before the Convention at Cincinnati
that nominated him. Az ut Chicago, i'll 1860, he
WAS sprung upon the Convention after great
many balotings showed that neither of the regular
candidates could be nominated Blaine, Cameron
and Conklin We're their, supported by their cliques
especially the two latter. But mark it again.
those ring candidates ICcfe ~ rejected, and Hayes
who was scarcely candidate, and had no party
fixed upon, because he was Il good man. and
could surely carry Ohio, then II doubtful and the
shown by an administration as pure and as far
above reproach any that the country has ever
enjoyed. So far from being ring President i'll
any sense, the first prominent acts of his admin
istration brought him III direct contact with the
carpet-bag rings of the South, and the custom
house rings of New York.
OF Garfield, the twentieth President scarcely
need speak at this day, while the universal mourn
ing for him is not yet over. But il is significant
in this connection, that ut the Convention at Chi
cago which nominated him, Blaine was hand
with great political and moral strength and
Grant. supported for third term by the powerful
rings OF Conkling, Cameron and Logan. Aud yet,
mark once more, ring candidate conh he HO",iHd-
TED, but Garfield was taken up and triumphantly
elected, as the very best man i'll the nation for
President. His contact with the ring powers at
the very commencement, ANA his fall, more or less
directly through their influence is sufficient refu-
tation of any pretence that he was in any sense Il
ring candidate 0r President
The foregoing is not an attempt to show that
ciques or rings have not existed in the political
parties of the United States but that such ciques
and rings have not always, or generally, been sus-
tanned by the people, as alleged III the speech
reviewed. Ii the facts enumerated, believed by
the writer to be candid and ncontrovertible afford
any consolation To the sanderer of the American
people, he is more than welcome to it.
AMERICAN.