Year: 1876

WASHINGTON, March Is, 1876.


DEAR SIR: have your letter re.


questiug for publication the views ex-


pressed by me in a recent conversation


with respect to the pending Presiden-
tlai contest. The sum of them was
as we began in 1872, when we ageeed


to fOrego all other issues save that oil


reform In the administration of the


Government The adversary then


struggled and still strives, with the


help of the Hon. Ben. Hill to keep


alive issues of the war for the purpose


of prolonging abuses which, however


great, go unchecked while sectional


strife holds the public mind. We did


not carry the elections in 1872, because


we were not fully successful In max


ing the issue of reforln But we made
such beginning that the victory of


our adversaries has proven a barren


one. We so far succeeded that show
of investigation had to be made. The
Credit HIobilier fraud, which, though


we'll known before to all public men,
could not command public attention,
now absorbs it. Spoliation was
checked. Jay Cooke & Co., who had


largely advanced the money to carry
the elections, could not be reimbursed
by Congressional Endorsement of the
Northern Pacific Railroad bonds, and
therefore failed. The so-called inves-
tigation committees, organized not to
convict, were experts in finding out
how not to do it, and the Departments
helped them assiduously; but the In-
dependent Press did the work so ef-
fectually that a large Democratic ma
jority was returned to tho present
House of Representatives. Unfortu-
natcly this tide of success, which as
sured the reform of the Govern
ment, this year has been arrested and
turned back by the intrusion into the
canvass last fall of another issue, of
which the Radicals have eagerly and
successfully availed themselves. And
their effort is to hold on to that issue,
and make the Presidential election
turn on the question of resumption,
upon which they have won, instead of
upon the question of reform, upon
which they have lost the day. lfthey
succeed in this the result will invaria-
bly, be unfortunate for us. Our friends
having been beaten on this issue last
fall, where anti-resumption was strong
est, our vote in New York, even with
out which success for us would be
hopeless, having been largely affected
by the attitude of our friends in those
States, no rational mind can fail to see
that such an issue would defeat us.


1t is plain from this brief statement
of the situation, that our success de-
pends upon our ability to reinstate the
issue of reform as the issue of the can
Vass, and it is equally plain that this
is not to be done by resolution, but by
such action as will not only proclaim
it, but will of itself verify it as the is I
sue to all men.


The nomination of T lden will of |
itself force this issue, and make the
election turn upon it. The friends of
other candidates object to the nOml-
nation of citizen of New York and |
claim the nomination for the West. |
But jackson was not selected because |
he was citizen of Tennessee, or JEFF
ferson because he was citizen of
Virginia, or Grant because he was for |
a short time in Illinois. Selection on
such ground has no political signi6-
cance, and ignores altogether the only |
consideration upon which q candidate
ought to be selected, viz, as the repre-
sentative of the idea sought to be ad-
vanced. My preference for Tilden is
only because his nomination would of
itself force on the issue of reform,
which is our sure card in the pending
canvass. | do not doubt that the
other gentlemen spoken Of would
prove vigorous reformers, and have
no personal preference for Tilden
over any one of them; but neither of
them is so identified with reform" in
the public mind as Tilden. They
have either not had the opportunity,
or have not availed themselves of it,
to manifest the resolute purpose he
has shown to purge the State of fraud
and iobbing They have not joined
hands with political adversaries TO
overthrow and arraign aud convict as
criminals the master spirits of their
own party whilst they seemed to be
impregnably intrenched in the control
of its organization, and have not by
such conduct been lifted into power
by the support of large bodies of po-
litical opponents, even against q re-
publican whose integrity was not
questioned, but who had not mani
tested the same zeal in the cause of
reform. Nor have they, after reaching
power, so signalized their administra-
ton by unsparing war on jobbery.


By this course Tilden has made
more than any other man of
our day, the representative man Of
the idea to which the Democratic
party so emphatically pledged itself
in 1872, and his nomination would be
accepted, not only by the Liberal Re-
publicans, who then acted, with US,
but by thousands who then held back,
as sure guarantee that the pledge
would be faithfully redeemed; and
his war record and his financial views
would effectually prevent diversion by
false issues.


The active enmity which Tilden has
in his own party serves only
to attest his fitness for the occasion.
No man ever drove more men out of
the Democratic party than Jackson
but no man ever recruited it so rapidly
from the true men in the ranks of els
at the same time. And
this vitalizing process must be re-
newed. The curse of the Democratic
party has been its Tweeds. The
strength of its opponents, who use the
for class ACCOMPLISHMENT,
is derived from vast expenditure, by
by corrupting the people in one form
or another with their own money, and
by misleading them with false issues.
But Old Bullion never said anything
more true than that "the democratic
party, to be strong, must be clean"


Tilden is the type of the men who
were honored by the party in the days
of its strength, and his nomination be-
ing a sure bond for a return to their
policy, will insure its return to power.


Yours truly,


MONTGOMERY BLAIR.


To Samuel NJ, Shaw.