Year: 1876

~''NS SSSNvsb -Shs~s'


Whatever may be said for the sake
OF appearance in answer to Iarke
Godwin's letter TO his associates, his
address will remain, we think, virtually
unanswered and unanswerable. When
he speaks In regard to the meaning of
the Fifth Avenue manifesto and the
intentions of those who drafted IL. he
speaks with authority. as he was one
OF the members Of the committee which
reported it. The cause ofthe confer
ence was the widespread corruption of
the public service, and the theory of
those who took part in the conference
was that no candidate in either party
should be supported who had not dis
tinguished himself as the champion of
reform. The Republican party was
responsible for existent evils. but as
most of the members of the conference
we're members of that party, it WAS
held that, although recreant in the
past, it might be considered trustwor-
thy If it nominated some man who
had never consented to the wrongs
that had been committed. who was
strong enough TO redress them. The





loved by the so called independents,
but they proclaimed that it would be
entitled to their support If it presented
candidate whose name was a guaran-
tee of good government. In describ
ing the kinds of men whom the con-
ference would not support, no matter
which party presented them, the fol-
lowing plain language was used after
denunciation of positively bad can.
didatcs, such as Blaine, Morton and
Conkling:


"We shall support no candidate who
however favorably judged by his
nearest friends, is not publicly known
to possess those qualities of mind and
character which the stern task of gen.
uine reform requires; for the Ameri-
can people cannot now afford to risk
the future of the republic in experts
ments on merely supposed virtue or
rumored ability to be trusted on the
strength of private recommendation


''In one word at present no candi-
date should be held entitled to the
support Of patriotic citizens OF whom
the question may fairly be asked: is
he really the man to carry through a
thorough going reform of the Govern
lnentg Can he with certainty be de-
pended upon to possess the moral
courage and sturdy resolution to crap
pie with abuses which have acquired
the strength of established custom, and
TO this end firmly to resist the pressure
even of bis party friendss' Whenever
there is room for such question (and
doubt as to the answer) the candidate
should be considered unfit for this
emergency"


These paragraphs, says MIR. Goodwin,
"were expressly written and under-
stood to cover such mere makeshifts
as Messrs. Hayes and Hartrantt, one
or the other of whom it was feared
might be brought forward at the
last moment as compromise and
for the defeat of the friends of res
FORM" Taking this plain dcclar-
ton of a leading member or the com
mittee in connection with the fact that
MIR. Schurz remarked when he read
the works Just quoted. ."That describes
Hayes" it is clear that no one who
took part in the Fifth Avenue Confer
ence can vote the Republican ticket
| without self qualification. Parke God
win brings home the fact to his incon-
, sistent comrades with relentless sever.
itY. He shows how Hayes was nomi-
nSted by the friends of the Admins.
tration as compromise Candidate,
chosen "because of his comparative
insigni6cance;" how he has never been
leader either as lawyer, politician
or politician or soldier; how he has
gone with his party in all its iniquities
and never lifted his voice in protest;
how there is not single act in his
career which gives guarantee of his
disposition to reform the Republican
party or of his ability to do the work
it he had the disposition. And yet
many of the gentlemen who assembled
at the Fifth Avenue Conference adopt
the work of convention which selec-
ted this neutral candidate and set him
upon q platform of platitudes which
closes with hasty Endorsement of
Grants Administration against which
the conference declared war to the
knife.


Mr.. GoDwIN's argument is that,
inasmuch as the Republicans at Gin
cinnati overthrow Bristow, the champ.
ion of reform within the party; they
SUI WCu diopt6itlOh ~ SohtlhuC III
their evil courses; inasmuch as they
nominated man fitted to be tool of
the present party leaders, instead of a
wise master-builder, they secured the
means of perpetuating Grantism; and
in their platform they give pledge to
pcrpetuate it. In every respect they
failed to meet the requirements of the
conference.


| At st. Louis, on the other hand, the
Democrats seemed to be guided by the
spirit of the manifesto adopted by the
conference of independents. The
essence of the declaration of principles
put forward was the doctrine of reform,
and the candidate nominated was the


foremost statesman in the task of puri.
flying the politics of the country. The


Fifth Avenue manifesto had said:


"Every American citizen who has
tthe future of the republic and the na-
ltional honor sincerely at heart should


solcmnly resolve that the country


mast have President whose name il
already q Watchword of reform. whose