Year: 1872

Delivered at Clifton Hall, Friday


Evening, Aug, 2.


FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS
l hardly know what excuse or apology
to make for attempting to address you
this evening, or whether either is
necessary or expected. l have not
come entirely uninvited; nor am | in
sensible to the compliment of such q
call, for it implies the flatteFy of an
opinion that may be able to say
something worth your hearing. And
yet should not have come merely in
response to an invitation; for L have
q reluctance amounting to distaste for
public speaking, not strictly profess
siOnaI but confess that in the pres
| ent instance that reluctance is season.
ed by desire to express some of my
views concerning our national poll
ties.


1 should probably experience less
embarrassment if occupied a public
official position, or were recognized as
an authoritative eXpOunder of q party
| faith; for such leaders of public Opin-
ion are invested with q right aud q
duty to defend their opinions and vim
dictate their public conduct. L am in
no such position. / hold no Office. /
represent no one; speak for myself
alone. / do not, in the usual sense Of
the words, belong to any party or
ganiZatiOn, nor have for many years.
l am not and have not been in the
confidence of any party leaders. l
am simply n private Individual citi-
zen. My opinions have been formed
for my own use, not without Iefiec-
ton, and an anxious desire to be right;
not without a sense of responsibility
to my own conscience, and to an en-
lightened public opinion which ought
to reflect the common conscience of
the community ; not without desire TO
find myself in agreement with wise
and good men, imbued with and led
by disinterested love of the public
good but also, with determination
to think and act for myself, upon such
grounds as should seem convincing,
without regard to personal consequent
ces, and without q surrender of self
respect. Party fidelity-meaniug by
that an adhesion through thick and
thin to party organization, without
regard to the correctness of its princi-
plies, the patriotism of its aims, the
morality of its purposes, the cOnsis-
tency of its course, its ability to
achieve public good-an unreasOning
subserviency to the dictation of 9TH
ers, to accomplish n successful partner
ship of selfish pursuits-has its re-
wards. Public station, official influ-
ence, the dispensing of patronage, or
Of 70 frrrffg nnRn nITu-
ments, the eulOgies of n party press,
the applause of crowds of partisans,
are some of them. But personal in
dependence of thought and action has
rewards of its own. The approval of
conscience and the silent influence OF
n character that many respect who
can not initiate, in the long run, out
weigh the gains of all who sacrifice it
for the bubble reputation, which, how
ever brilliantly it may glow with
iridescent glory for time in the sun
slime, becomes invisible under the
cloud, and with the slightest breath of
opposition bursts and vanishes for
ever.


Upon my sole responsibility as .
private citizen, profound and sacred
as I regard it, 1 have marked out for
myself the path of political duty. My
conclusions have been reached, not
hastily and upon a sudden impulse.
| They have forced themselves upon me
after a serious reflection upon the pO-
litical history of the country for the
| last twelve years, a careful cOnsidera
! ton of the course and causes of public
events during that period and an anX-
| ious survey of the present anOma-
lous condition of parties, with view
to discover the tendencies with which
it is pregnant, to shape the probable
future. Unless it is presumptuous to
have opinions at all, it will not be
considered arrogant to declare them.
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION.
1t seems to have occurred to some
that am bound, by some sort of obli-
CATION, to support the nominations of
| the Cincinnati convention, ,iby reason
/ of having Joined in its call and having
participated in its proceedings.


| L recognize no conclusive obligation
/ Of that description, binding tine con-
science and conduct of citizen in
reference to any political convention.
There are, of course, obligations of
| GOOD faith growing out of all vOlun-
] lehIN IEllLAOll5 DCNh ecu A4GlAT BAAN NAAGg
must always be held subordinate to
the higher obligation which every
man owes to what he believes to be
! the cause of truth and the public good.
Bus even the obligations usually
| recognized in conventions, when
members are representatives of party
| action, do not exist in reference to the
convention held in this city in May.
1t was not the convention of q party ;
it was a voluntary assembly of in
dividuals, each acting for himself and
upon his own responsibility, protesting
to agree in reference to the value OF
certain proposed political reforms, and
called for consultation merely "a to
best methods for their promotion.
The convention itself was n protest
against the evil of party bigOtTy, and
its membership was distinctive of 3
determination TO wear TO party collar
I From the very nature of it's cOnstitu-
ton and Organization, ami Of thC
cause in the interest of which it as
sembled, none of its members could
be held to be bound to govern himself
by its decisions, unless supported anC
sanctioned by the approval of his in
dividIlal Judgment.


The particular measures Of reform
mentioned in the call for this cOnven


ton, in my mind, and that of the gen


tlemen in Cincinnati who united il
responding to it, were subOrdinated tC
the grander and more general reform


which included all that embraced il
q movement intended TO work the dis
integratiOn of both political Organiza


tiOns, which should draw the line dis


tinctly between public and party in
terests, and unite the best men of al
the people, from both parties, agains
the politicians and those followers o


their camps The essential and car
dinal idea of such a movement con
sisted in its being an appeal to tn


whole peopel, ;as. such, TO rid them


selves of the entire system of part.


tyranny and corruption; and TO elec


to the presidency statesman who's


administration should constitute
new party out OF the best of both th


old ones, bestOwing Office as a trus


according to the ability with which


would be administered, and not rs :


reward for diligence and unserupulOus
ness in seeking it.


It's success depended upon the un


selfishness and disinterestedness O


the convection which, called in tn


cause of reform, was bound to set al


example of reform. 1t required tn


hearty and unanimous selection O
a Il. -