Year: 1876

office has been made the means of private profit, and the country has been offended to see class Of men who boast the friendship of the sworn protectors of the state, amassing fortunes by de

 frauding tue pss!ic treasury and by corupting tke servants of the people In such a crisis of the country, l rejoice that the con vention at S.. Louis has so nobly raised the standard of reform. Nothing caa be well with us or with our aff,irs until the public conscience, shocked by the enor- nous evils and abuses which pre- vail, shall have been demanded and compelled in an unsparing reformation of our national ad- ministration in it's head and in its members. In such a reformation the removal of single officer, even the president, is compara

 lively a small matter, if the sys- tenn which he represents and which has fostered him as he has fostered it, is suffered to remain. The president alone must not be made the scape goat for the enor- mites of the system which infects the public service and are the means of destruction of our insti- tutions in some respects. l hold that the present executive has been the victim rather than the author of that vicious system congressional and party leaders have been stronger than the pres Ident. No one man could have created it, and the removal of no one man can amend it. It is thoroughly corrupt, and must be swept away remorselessly by the selection of a government compos- ed of clements entirely new and pledged to radical reform. The first work of reform must evident ly be the restoration of the nor mai operation of the constitution of the United States with all it's amendments. The necessities of war cannot be pleaded in time of peace. The right of local self government, as guaranteed by the constitution, must Dc everywhere restored, and the centralized, al most personal imperialism which has been practiced must be dene away with, or the first principles of the republic will be lost.

 Our financial system of expe- dients must be reformed. Gold and silver are the real standards ot value, and our national curren- cy will not be perfect medium of exchange until it shall be con vertible at the pleasure of the holders. As l have heretofore sad, no one desires a return to specie payment more earnestly than I do, but l do not believe that it will be, reached in harmo- ny with the interests of the peo- pie by artificial measures by con traction of the currency any more than 1 believe that wealth or permanent prosperity can be created by an imitation of the cur rency. The laws of finances can not be disrcgarded. The finan- cial policy of the government, if indeed it deserves the name of policy at all, has been in disre- gard of those laws and reform; it has disturbed business confidence, as well as hindercd a return to specie payments. One feature of that policy was the resumption clause of the act of 1875, which has embarrassed the country by the anticipation of compulsory resumption for which no prepara- tion has been made, and without any assurance that it would be practicable. The repeal of that clause is necessary that the natu

 raj operation of financial laws may be restored, that the business of the country may be relieved from its disturbing and depressive in flucnce, and that a return to spe- cie payments may be facilitated by the substitution of wiser and more prudent legislation, and which shall mainly rely on ju- dicious system of public economy and official retrenchment, and, above all, in the promotion oi