Year: 1876

! the present so-called liberal party grew that
it was made at an unpropitious time. 1t
started on tide too feeble to carry it over
the shoal places. 1t originated in good inn
pulses, but had no perception of political
methods as apart from political science.
There were few capable men who saw
clearly the abyss toward which Grantism
was carrying the republican party; and they
never stopped to consider that the people
! did not see the case so clearly They acted,
! therefore without attending to the fact that
the people are the important element.
In their wisdom they denounced what
they saw; but the people did not
see either the corruption or the danger,
and looked upon the original liberals
as they would look upon some ghost
seer raving at the counterfeit presentments
of disordered mind. BY their earlier per-
ceptions and by their precipitate action the
honest men of the liberal party only sue
ceeded in separating themselves from other
republicans, and so losing the influence they
had previously in their party. With that
influence gone and the people not secured
the movement was lost. Furthermore, it
was joined by hordes of mere soreheads, and
J So from having been merely hopeless, be-
! came contemplate.


But now the whole nation sees face to face
what was seen far away by those earlier
| opponents of the Presidents ''policy." Now
| he who runs may read 1t needs no pro-
phetic vision, no capacity to peer into the
future, for the people TO see the conse-
! quences of such perversions of the authority
/, of his Office as have been systematically
practised by General Grant. Belknap
at the threshold of prison; the
Presidents private secretary only saved
from q felon's cell by the intimidation
of witnesses undenied and specific charges
of malfeasance made against five Cabinet
officers nepotism, peculation, bribery
! every known political vice shamelessly prac-
tised the air reeking with stories of corrup-
tion the worst imagination unable in the
| invention of scandals to outrun the evidence
that comes to prove them the President
himself not merely failing to control and re-
press the evil tendencies, but encouraging
them not rebuking public robbers, but de-
claring his confidence in them and giving
them certificates of good character; never
sympathizing with the law, with justice,
| with the interests of the nation, but always
assuming that every attempt to punish
scoundrel is an act he must oppose. All
this is what the people see in the centennial
year of the nations existence. And the con-
slant comparison is made, consciously and
unconsciously, of these times with the old
kl~A
ident, whose honesty was actually never
tried, because his dignity alone-that
strong outpost of great nature
defended him from the approach of even
an improper suggestion. They remem-
Der John Adams, Thomas jefferson, James
Madison, James Monroe and these gentle
men, with whose names even the bitter hos
tility of party detraction has not associated
any mean or sordid vice. are put into COM
parison with him who now occupies the place
they held, to the shame and degradation of
the age in which he fourishes.


Public scorn for the men who have so
| abused the trusts reposed in them, and in
dignaton for the shame in which the nation
and republican government are involved by





will occupy the mind of the nation for
time as the scandalous disclosures continue;
but the case will not rest there. Other
considerations will inevitably follow
practical considerations and the main
points of this further consideration
will be what elements of our society are
responsible, and what is the remedy-how
| ho11 tl,a f,,rf of
evils that threaten to rot out the vitality of
our political system? Out of thoughts like
these, dwelt upon in every city home and
in every farmhouse-from the mind of the
farmer behind his plough, who wonders
what he can do to save from the Belknaps
that Republic which he fought to save from
an armed enemy; from the reflections of
every citizen in every sphere of life, will
come the noiseless, steady currents of
| opinion that united must constitute the
sweeping torrent of public purpose the
| great determination of the people to
| put down relentlessly the official thieves
to purge the national Offices of every
scoundrel who believes that he holds
one, not to perform q duty, but to
fill his pockets to take the country out
of the hands of adventurers, contractors
forgers, traders, bribe takers to so clear
the moral atmosphere that it will only be
necessary to find out that man is q rogue
in order to secure not merely his exclusion
| from Office but his incarceration in Jail. Here
! will be the tide on whose flood it will be pos
sible to purify and reconstruct our political
! administration.


very clearly in this respect, and their acts, as
usual, have regard strictly to their own rela-