Year: 1876

Montgomery Blair's Letter.


By special request we publish on the
first page of the Transcript letter
from Hon. Montgomery Blair on the
presidential outlook and the necessity
for reform in the administration Of the
national government. That such re-
form is needed, nay is imperatively
demanded at the present time, when
corruption in Office and venality in high
positions are more fragrant and glaring
than ever before in all the history of
the nation, no one, not even the most
violent partisan Of President Grants
administration, will deny. The means
to be employed in the accomplishment
Of this much desired object will form
the one, and the only, subject Of dis
pute. On this point we can cheerfully
and heartily endorse the sentiments of
Mr.. Blair. 1t would be but blind
policy to again trust the government in
the hands Of the party which has SO
grossly abused its trust, expecting the
wrongdoers and those who placed them
in positions to enable them to commit
the wrong, to become the reformers of
their own misdeeds. The only hope of
the country for redemption from the
evils under which she now suffers is in
the success of the Democratic party.
The much needed "Civil Service Re-
form" will not be made by the Republi-
can party. Despite its numerous and
loud vaunting promises made previous
to. and during, the election campaign
of1872 no such reform was made until
the power fell into the hands Of the
Democrats and investigations were be-
gun by them-with what result is
patent to all. The Republicans, when
the refusal Of the people to vote for
Horace Greeley in 1872 permitted the
Administration of the Government to
be continued in their hands, forgot to
keep their good resolutions and signally
failed to accomplish any Of the great
reforms they had promised.


While we do not hesitate to endorse
the sentiments of Mr. Blair on the
necessity for reform and for the success Of
the Democratic party to ensure it, we
cannot agree with him in reference 10
Gov. Tilden. We have not word to say
against Mr.. Tilden, nor do we pretend
to deny or to criticise, his talents, nor
vet his fitness for the Presidency, but
we are not willing to concede that he
is the only, or the strongest. candidate
on whom the Democratic party can rely
for success in the approaching cam
paign. Without denying the claims Of
Governor Tilden, we respectfully SUBJ
NIT that the claims Of Senators Bayard
and Thurman are equally strong. They
are two of the leading statesmen of the
country, men who have been tried and
have stood the test. Though long sub
jected to the annoying and Notifying
position of minority in the Senate,
they have ever come up nobly to their
work and labored unremitsingly in the
cause of right, and though oft defeated
they have as oft renewed the fight and
are acknowladged-even their enemies
being the judges-to be of the ablest as
well as most incorrupt, statesmen Of the
day, and moreover, they are conceded
to be among the very foremost Of the
leaders Of the Democratic party. OF
Senator Thurman We do not propose to
speak. As a Delawarean We give, in
heart and soul, the preference to our
own statesman and senator. Hon. T. F.
Bayard, and coinciding in the argu-
ments of the New York Herald, we
think the claims Of Senator Bayard are
equally as strong as those of Governor
TiIden. The latter has shown himself
faithful 10 one trust, the former in
many. While Senator Bayard has for
several years been one of the most
prominent men Of the country, it is
only within the last very few years
that Governor Tilden has been at all
before the people in such capacity as
to cause him to be regarded as even a
possible candidate for the high honor
which it is now sought to confer upon
him. Only few years ago the New
York World was loud in expressions in
favor of Mr.. Bayard for the Presidency.
and to it, we believe. belongs the
credit of having frst suggested his
name in connection with that Office
Mr.. Bayard is undeniably the favorite
candidate of the Southern States and
would draw an immense number Of
votes both 10 the eastern and western
states. and even New York herself
would, we feel assured, go heavily for
him. as the champion Of "hard money
and reform" But it is not on the