The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-02-28
to treat them with injustice and ig-
nOminv.

movements, had said, in somewha
mixed metaphor, that it would b,
'either a farce or tornado" The
present canvass gave promise on dit
ferent grounds of similar alternatives
Gen. Grant had been tried, and witt
him the country knew what TO expect
Mr.. Greeley had not been tried. anC
though the best known man i'm his
own field of journalism, he was the
least known and most doubted in the
field of governmental administration
No other candidate could have pre-.
sented such an antithesis of strength
and of weakness. He was the ablest
polemic this country has ever pro-
duced. His command of strong, idi.
omatic, controversial English was un-
rivaled. His faculty of lucid statement
and compact reasoning has never been
surpassed. Without the graces of fancy
or the arts of rhetoric, he was incom-
parable in direct, pungent, forceful
discussion. A keen observer and an
omnivorous reader, he had acquired
an immense fund of varied knowledge
and he marshalled facts with singular
skill and aptness.
TILDEN's DEFEAT.
Regarding the Presidential election
OF 1876 and the result of the Electoral
Commission, Mr.. Blaine gives the fol-
lowing slap in the face TO the Demo-
cratic party:
Two general conclusions NAV safely
be drawn from tho voluminous evi-
dence: First, that the Democratic
agents in the contested States of Flor
ida, South Carolina and Oregon earn
estly and persistently endeavored TO
change the result from Hayes to Tilden
by the use of large sums of money as
brides to official persons to violate
their duty; second, that the nego-
tiations for that purpose do not show
that any member OF any canvassing
board or any Presidential elector ever
contemplated betraying his trust for
such inducements. The interest
throughout the investigation centered
upon Mr.. Tilden, and concerning him
and his course there followed general
discussion angry accusation and
warm defense. There is nothing
in the testimony to contradict the
oath taken by Mr.. Tilden and there
has been no desire to iasten a guilty
responsibility upon him. But the sim
pie fact remains that President
ial canvass which began with
n ponderous manifesto in favor
of reform in every depart
ment of the government, and
which accused those who had been in
trusted with power for sixteen wears
of every form of dishonesty and cor
ruption, ended with a persistent and
shameless effort to bride the electors
OF three States!
WAR SHIPS AND MERCHANT SHIPS.
Regarding the decadence of our mer-
camille marine and the ineficiency of
our navy, Mr.. Blaine says:
Every intelligent man knows that it
is impossible to maintain navy unless
there be commercial marine for the
education of sailors. The American
marine preceding 1861 was so large
that it could furnish 10000 sailors to
maintain a blockading squadron on
the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
The value of this school for seamen as
one of the arms for national defense
could not have been more strikinglv
illustrated or more completely proved.
The lesson should have been needed.
1t is a familiar adage requiring no en-
forcement of argument that navies do
not grow at the top. They grow from
and out of . commercial marine that
alI1aofnC ia,
government of the United States,
since the close of the wag, expended
annually upoIf the mercantile marine
one-fifth of the amount that has been
expended upon the navy, our ships
would have covered every sea, and the
navy would have grown of itself. In
stead of that, we have been construct
ing the navy as an exotic, forcing it to
grow without favoring atmosphere,
establishing it with officers and not
with men, educating cadets ON land
and not educating soldiers on the
ocean.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
The following is the authors state
ment regarding civil service relnm:
-Np iNlOl III III lllt NlNll SCINltt Will
be valuable that does not release men,
bers of Congress from the care and the
embarrassment of appointments and
no boon so great could be conferred
upon Senators and Representatives as
to relieve them from the worry, the
and the responsibility
which time and habit have fixed upon
them in connection with the dispens-
ing of patronage, all of which belongs, |
under the constitution, to the EKecu- |
tive. On the other hand, the evil of !
which President Harrison spoke the
employment of the patronage by the |
Executive to influence legislation-is
far the greatest abuse to which the |
civil service has ever been perverted. |
To separate the two great departments |
of the government, to keep each with
in its own, sphere, will be an immeas.
urable advantage, and will enhance |
the character and dignity of both. A
service will be secured |
when Congress shall be left to its legit-
innate functions, when the President
shall not interfere Herewith by the
use of patronage, and when the re-
sponslDlllty otappolntments shall rest |
solely with the department to which
the organic law of the republic as
signs it,
THE SECTIONAL STRUGGLE.
Regarding the sectional struggle Mr..
Blaine says:
The passian and prejudice which in
aUence men who,were defeated in the
war cannot be transmitted to succeed
ing generations. Principle will re as
,ert itself; local and State interest will
a change. The signs even
now are hopetNl. TIE personal rela-
ions between men tOf the South and
nensof the North are more amieable
han they have been for sixty years.
Diversity of employment, the spirit of
Industrial enterprise, the unifcation of
financial interests, will &end more and
more to assimihte the populations,
more and more to enforce an agree
nent, if not as to measures, vet assui-
,dlg aste methods. No man in the
Worth, yaluing the freedom for which
great war was waged, desires to con-
rol the vGte of a single individual in
he South. He only desires hat every