Year: 1876

The forrWpffoatsfs' control OF fhs


Republican Purity.


The election of Hayes would be tn,


approval by the highest authority pos


sible, the people, Of all the blunder,


and all the crimes of the Republican


party. 1t would ratify and confirm
the extravaganza and corruption which


are confessed aud bewailed by honest


Republicans themselves. II would
prevent honest Republicans from ever
reforming their party from within.
This they doubtless desire to do for the
masses OF all parties are honest. But
while It's best men control and are nom
mated by the Democratic party, cor
rupt and selfish leaders have got the
control of the Republican party away
from the hands Of its founders and best
men. They possess its organization
and use its power for their own benefit
Should the people, by their ballots,
give majorities to the Republican party
now. they would not merely prevent
the Democratic party from etiecting
reform in the character of the govern
ment, from driving out the thieves and
cutting down taxes TO living rates,
they would also prevent honest Repub-
licans from ever obtaining control of
the Republican party.


One proof Of the control of the Re-
publican party by its worst men, was
their effort to nominate Blaine for
President. Blaine is a corruptionist.
A man of a ility he doubtless is, but
he is knave beyond all manner of
doubt. This does not rest on do btful
evidence; this is not the prejudice of
partisans. Blaine is a corrupt rascal,
who should be horsewhipped out of our
political life. If the Senate were now
the Senate of Webster, Clay and Cal.
houn, he would be denied the privilege
of taking the seat in that body to
which he was elected when he found
the House of Representatives too hot
for him and about to expose and prob.
ably expel him. The proof of his
rascality exists in his own letters, pub
lished during the last session of Con.
gress. Those letters exhibited him, in
the language Of the st. Louis plat
form, as marketing his rulings as n
presiding officer" He sought payment
and profit for his decisions as Speaker.
This alone should drive him into pri-
vate life. His jobbery has long been
notorious while a mere member. He
has amassed large forture while
receiving no known income except his
salary as Congressman. But his
crowning infamy was the marketing
of his rulings as presiding officer"
In this he degraded and dishonored the
party which promoted him, and the
country whose trust he betrayed. Yet
this very man, this branded corrup-
tionist, came within an ace of being
nominated for the Presidency by the
Republican party, so completely is it
now controlled by the public plunderers
whom Blaine precisely suited for
chief.


Another proof Of the same control
was their nomination OF Hayes, a
merely negative politician, when they
failed to nominate Blaine. None of
the Republican statesmen stood the
ghost of chance. Conkling was as far
from being chosen as Tilden. Frel-
inghuysen had no more hope of the
than Hendricks. Fish was
no more thought Of than the man in
the moon, though Fish's Alabama
treaty is the one honorable achievement
Of Grants administration. The cor
wanted not statesmen but
a man of wax, if they could not get
man after their own hearts, and so
they nominated Hayes.