The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-13

With the inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes as President of the United States in 1877 the eleven years Reign of Terror in the southern states came to an nd. Violent anarchy. supported by bayonets of the United States troops and utter defiance of law by the Eoveernment at Washington, brought Mir. Hayes to the presidency. Be It said to his everlasting credit that he did despfse the bridge that carried him over and that he restored free govern ment In the states of the South.
 The Hayes inauguration marked the end of the most furiously fought poll teal and politico-legal contest this country has ever seen. To begin with. only eleven years had elapsed since the end of the Civil War, and the Democratic party was accused by every Republican orator of a desire to re- store the dead Confederacy. Against this charge the Democrats pleaded their loyalty to the flag and sent Dem- ocratic Union generals over the country. spell-binding. Fires of parti- nanship burned fiercely, and while they added to the heat of the campaign. other factors decided its outcome.
 The panic of 1873 had plunged the country into financial distress and business depression such as 1t had not. known before. Jay Gould was teach ing Wall Street some tricks that have not been wholly forgotten. The diff ference in value beween the green back and the gold dollar was the basis Of the widest speculation. in which the 'common people" invariably got the worst end of the bargain. Those lhussness conditions caused the people Ito want change for the sake of a lchange The Tilden Democracy promised the resumption of specie pay .nents and an end to business dis fress.
 The scandals of the Grant adminis- tration. which had resulted in the Greeisy defection of 1872. had increas- ed instead of diminished. The famous Whisky Ring had been exposed. and scapegoat or two was on the way to the penitentiary. The Secretary of War, Belknap, was impeached and escaped conviction only by resigning under fire. Said the Democratic plat form, the work of Tilden and Wat terson:
 swhen the annals of the Republic show the disagree and censure of a vice-president; late Speaker of the House of Representatives marketing his rulings as presiding officer; three Senators profiting secretly by their votes as lawmakers; Two chiirmen of the leading committees of the House of Representatives exposed in jobbery: a late Secretary of the Treasury forging balances in the public ac- counts; late Attorney General mis- appropriating public funds; Secre- fary of the Navy enriched or enriching friends by percentages levied off the profits of contractors with his depart ment; an ambassador to BL gland cen- sured in a dtshonorable speculation; the Presidents private secretary barely escaping conviction upon trial for guilty complicity in frauds upon the revenue; Secondary of War impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.- the demonstration is complete that the first step in reform must be the peoples choice of honest men from another party, least the disease of one political organization infect the body polite. and lest. by making no change Of men or parties. we get no change of measures and no real reform"
 Upon this line the Democrats fought their babtle. It is useless, perhaps, to go muck-raking into the past to tell of tbese scandals in particular; let it sufEace to say that neither before nor since in the history of the country has ksie taint of graft been so ;.oisome at the seat of the Federal government
 The Democrats nominated Samuel J. Tflden for president, after sharp but unequal contest in which Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana was his leading opponent Hendricks was named for vice-Dresident. Henry Watterson was temporary chairman of the convention and its guiding spirit. General John A. 11CClCTnaT0 or 1lllnOlS, one OI LuS Democratic Union soldiers, was per- manent chairman. The convention was held at St. Louis, tho first national convention to meet west of the Miss iSsippi River.
 que Republicans net at Cincinnati. James c. Blaine was the general favorite for the nomination, and but for the chicanery of the administra- ton would have been selected. Blaine was already become the popular idol of the Republicans, He was placed in nomination at Cincinnati by the elo- quent Robert G. Ingersoh in the fam ous Speech which gave Blaine the name of "The Plumed Knight" Oliver P. Morton, the war governor of Indiana, Benjamin H. Bristow of Kentucky. still in Grants cabinet al- though fighting Grant and his whole administration, Roscoe Conkling and several other candidates were in the race On the first ballot Rutherford B. Hayes. ex-governor of Ohio. stood fifth. His colorless, although blameless re- cord caused him to be selected as the fayorite dark horse, and he received the nomination on the seventh ballot, although Blaine had more votes then than on any other count. General Grant had gently fiirted with a third term boom, but nothing came of 1t in that year.
 Hayes was held up by the Repub- ucduS do auoOAubSlS PdiO ShN ApASP @ man who would clean the Augean stables at Washington if they needed cleaning which the Republican0 firmly declined to admit.
 Tiiden was presented as true re- former with a reform record. He had broken the rule of the Tweed ring in New York, the most corrupt political machine ever known in the country up to that time, he had run Boss Tweed out of the country, and he was the hero of the good government forces. To the Democrats the slogan Turn the rascals out!' meant just the same as Let Tilden in!'
 There was another factor in the campaign which had it's effect. One of the chief causes of tke Liberal Re- publican bolt of 1872 was the fear that General Grant was too much of a mili- tary man to sympathize with civil government The whole South was ruled with bayonets and the southern peopIe were in a worse condition than vvh.su the war closed. Carpet-baggers wave running the state governments, and with the aid of legislatures com posed of ignorant negroes and un- nrIucipled white men, were hastening the day absolute bankruptcy. By 1878 half of the southern states had re- stored peace and law, but in many the bayonet still held sway and the Federal troops were forcing a corrupt government upon the people. The North did not sympathize with this