Year: 1877

Thus 1877 rounds out, completes, and vim
diCates 1872. A weary night of waiting has.
intervcncd. But the men who then tried to
make the Republican party better now hail
with Joy the news from Washington, and
acknowledge with pleasure that the party is
regcnelatcd more completely than they had
dared to expect The very reforms which they
proposed III the platform of 1872 are now the
controlling principles of Republican Presi-
dent. A man has been found who not only
accepted every essential point OF that platform,
and yet retained the confidence of his party,
but who has been elected; and who has
not only been elected to the Presidency, but
adheres after the election to tie very prin-
ciples which he announced when a candidate.
So complete is the change that conspicuous
leaders of the movement of $50 are cordially
Invited to take part in the Administration, and
do so without question of their consist
ency, while at the head of the Cabinet is
found the abest and most honored of
the statesmen who, though not active
in that movement, gave it sincere SYM
pathy. But this is not all, nor the
best These changes in the avOwed aims, III
the practical workings, and in the personnel
of the Administration take place with The most
hearty approval from the great body of Repub-
licans. When resistance was threatened, the
answer from every part of the land warned
men that the country was ripe for the change,
and that resistance would have been disastrous
only to those attempting it. Not since Fort
Sumter fell has the country blazed up more
promptly or with more earnest determination.
1t is much to have the leaders right. But 1t is
thn ,iYi., t1,n
body of Republicans has been lifted to the
identical position which those took, at some
risk and cost, who appealed to the country for
reform four years ago.


1t matters not now whether they were too
soon OF others too late. Enough that at last
the country sees the need of reform and is
determined to have it. Rejoicing that at length
the better day has dawHcd, we need not qucs-
ton the motives or the wisdom of those who
believed that il could not or should not be
FASTENED. But word may be spoken in JUS
tice to the dead In this hour OF general re-
ioicng let us not forget those who did not
live to see the full fruitiOn of their hopes
whose last days were clouded by some mis-
construction of their motives, whose heroic
faith in the final Justice of the American peo-
pie did not falter in any trial, but who are
not here to share in the joy of this vindca-
ton of their honesty of purpose and of the
integrity of American character. Horace Gree
lev and Charles Sumner, had they lived to
this day, would be not less full of joy than
any of those who send their thanks and con-
eratuations to President Hayes. That their
aims were honest, wise. and patriotic, the
whole Republican party now feels. If they
were too early, if their work was done and
their life spent before the time was ripe for
the change desired, still the glad result is not
the less honorable to them. Not in all climates
can Spring wheat be raised. But the golden
grains which lie hidden in the ground through
a long and dreary Winter bring forth not the
less richly when the glad Springti comes,
and contribute also according to their kind to
supply the needs of the world.


The Spring has come. All about us the