Independence In Voting

I observe that most of tilo pribli dinctissious turn iipon the antecedente, tbe acta, and rúe characters of the one and the other party. Tltose eonsiderations have no foroe at all for my miiid. 1 ko my neighbor. Ono of thon) is a Itepublican by habit, and Uie óllwí a Democrat by habit, and neither of them can defino hie party name. When, therefore, I read th doecriptions that party uewapapers and party orators glve of tho opposite party, I look aíouud mb for the demons who seek the na' tional ruin, ana I do nrt fin'í them. I fiud neightors, some of whom are uncloí orie banner and dome under the other, bat in their general tone and will and intentiona tboao of one party are just as good and jnst as bad aa those of the other. Kapeeially when I remember that thp social distribution of the two partiea i" tHo Rorthern #tates '8 esactly oppasite to what ít iá iii tíio PoítthWí 8taen it aoenis to me that the uational partios are teiy e'j.iaUy adjuatod in regard to the social, intellectual and moral elementa whieh they contain. Now, an historian or a foreigner, reading the accounts whioh the parties give of each other, must infer eithef that these accounts are all fslae, and thaf they sifltply conatitute a depraved method ot elWtiodesflog vhich obacurca the issue and prevents the pecpla f rom really.tysiflg sound judgmeut, or elae that thoy are aii triiö, in hieh ésse the people of the United States are so unpatrloiio, eonrtpt, disloyal. unjnet. murderona and venal that it makes little dtfforcnce what ia the reault of anv politioal struggle. i regard thé good aense, sound patriotiam and eorreol'. lntention of tbe masses of the peopie lu Sithor party aH aubatanUaUy equal. I regaid the eü elementa in the parties as snbstantially equal, and I turíi fíwm ai g-ounds of jndgmont to the consideration tfhioh I think gonuine, I ftnd these in men. I cannot trust a party. I can trust a man. I cannot hold a party responsible. I can hold a man reapouaible. I pannot get an expression of opinión which ia singlé aud simple írom a party. I can onty get that írom a man. A party cannot have charácter, or coneeieuce, or repittation. It csr-.not ropentí nor endure pnniahment or disgraoe. I knoí? veiy well tnat tro are in the habit of predicating aíl those things of pdrties, but I ahould thinl; our experienee had ofered the fnllest proof tha; we cannot properly predícate any of these things of a party, exoept in a üalf-motaphoriaL aense, luidei which all the sharpnesa and efïïcienfr'y neíessry to practical politics are lost. Tho proaf is, at any rste, aitiafactory to me. I have no information other than what the newapapers have giren, us all. From their efto'y ï (}o not see how any one can feel respect for the iiatdidatufre of Oov. Hayes. It appears that Mr. Camerdn-was pitlued beoause some members of his delegation vioiatdd ftaared political tradition and did not throw the Stflie vote a unit, and he tberefore refused to give the State vote as a unit for their candidato at the desieive moment. The Senatorial aap'rants eou'ld iiot eee tha priKo go to either one of their owji number, and agr'eed only that it tihoiüa not go to Blaine. These two things Combine'! gave it to Have. I, at the time, expresaed the opinión that thia course of evento, when one reüected that the business in hand was the selection of a chief magistrato of the nation, was a "farce." I did not Uien, and do not now deny the possibility that Hayea may be the man for the crisis. I cannot deny the poseibility that, if you ahake up the ñames of 8,000,000 votefa in abox,anddrawonebylot, you may get the ono oüt of the 8,000,000 who is best fitted for the ProeiuenCy, but yun are asaumed to be rational beinga, making a nelee tiou on rational grounds, and I think we did onraelvca little credit on that occasion in that point of view. Some of the gentlemen thore came homo rejoicing and triumphhig over the party machine. They defoated the machine in lts first inteution, but it doubled upon theiii with its well-known suppleneas and activity. Mr. Hayea seems to be tho creatuie of the machine, and to have do other public claim to the Presidency. He must feel that his aelection ia arbitrary, that he has everything yet to do to juatify public confldence, that ho is the recipiënt of an "honor." He cannot act with tbe aesured independence of a man who ha advanoed by well-earned eteps, to whom the ! Preaideucy comea as the highest trust at the end of a career, to whom ie ís leas an honor than a recognitio and a conceseion. Mr. Tilden's nomination wae opposed by all the worat elementa of his party, and was supported by as heneot, pure, and intelligent men as over led in auy politicial conveution in this country. They were many of tbem youug men, representing the hope, strength, f aith, and purpose of the yonngor half of this generation, to which I tumed long ago with all my confidenee for the national future. The queation of the cnrrency, to me, stands bof ore any othor. It appears to me that Mr. Tilden ha showu a more correct, dctailed, statosmanliko kuowledge of the evil, the remcdy and the procesa of cure than any other public man who is eligióle. I am, of course, utterly oppoaed to the repeal of the Besumption act or any part of it,and I diaapprovo of any coucesBion on that point, in form or subatance, by Mr. Tilden or anybody else I know that the soft-money Demócrata havo claimed that Mr. Tilden has surrendered on the cnrrency question, and the Republicana have hastened to accept their autbority as conclusivo on that point. Mr. Tilden's opiuiona on this point are not new, nor were they first placed before the public in his letter, but if he does not in that document lay down hard-mouey doclrinea, then language iias no meaning, and I could not expres hard-money doctrines myself. The soft-monoy raen havo, within a year or two, begun to use eome hard-money phraeoa in forced, artiöcial, and imposoiblo applications. They find those phraaea in Mr. Tilden'a letter, and that i the gronnd on which they claim hia Bnrrendor. Mr. Hayfta has made a very distinct avowal that be will resist the rpeal of the Bosumption act unlena aomething bettor ia put in ita place, aud if he is electsd I shall oertaiuly await witli generous confidenee a fulfillment of thatpledgo. The ditijculty ia jiiat the one which eeenis to me radical in his candidature. Between two osndidatca, one of whom ia reoommended to me ou the opinión of hisfrienda, tho other of whom has a record of action and achievoment, under my knowledge and inapection my most rational oxpectation of auch a performance as I desire attaches to the latter. I put next in this canvaes the matter of adminitrative reform. Mr. Tilden has beon Governor of tho State which has led in the demoralizifion of our politics since the beginning of the century. He haa had the hardeat posltion for beginning roform, porhaps, which there ia in the Uaion. He has made tho only positivo and auccoaaful stepa toward it, at the risk of Iiíb own liolitical fortunes, which I know of in the country. XIiü u..:v.-papor oxpoaurea of the Tweed riiigwould have made no more improsaion on that body thau the pattering of rain on tho hide of a rbiöoceroB, aud tho membera of tho ling wonld to-day havo been flaunting their atolen wcalth in the face of the public if Mr. Tilden had uot reduced thoir guilt to an aritïimetical demonetration, aviilable in a court of law. Tne canal ring light is kuown to everybody. I have in mind, however, uot ouly those "reform" effort, but also administrativo reform. I will takeaaingb case which floated in a paragraph through the newspapers, occaHioniug. so far aa I over eaw, very little attention, but wliich had an immense effect on my mind, auil which I havo often urgod in private conversation. It was BtsUd that tho politiciaus of the Sonthern tier of coniitita üf New York were bitUTly hoHtilo to Gov. Tilden. Tho reasons were two in number: 1. Mr. Tilden had roiused to remove the KepnbUcaa Superintondput of the asyluin at Klmira in order to appoiut a Deniocrat. 2. Mr. Tilden had romoved. for cause, the Corporation Counsel of Hlmira, wbo was a Democrat, alt'ioagh the Oommon Couucil of that oity waa Hepiblican, aud could elcct a Ropulilicau succosHor. Theae were g"cd roimcit for tlio oi)?ositiou o( tho "politiviana, " but thoy wcra an imperativo demand on mo, if I was au '' independent," and meant what I had boen talkiug abont foryears, to give bim my full, hearty and efficiënt support if it ever cinio in my way. That Mr. Tilden is politicisn encugh to be availablo ia only an advautage, since we cannot got an angel with a flaming sword, and I think that wo independent have cast orse rpprocb upoii ouwolvuá than uur most saroastiooiitics, einoa we have f.ii'el to ssizo upon a ohsnoe wU;i;li offroditwolf tooiir domaud. aud Iibvo Wig.'.u tu tititil Ui h grouuillo! iail!) aud r ! hope for trbiob we cannot give a reason. In this lattcr light I mnsl bo allowcd, without offonse, to regard the support of Gov. Hayo. I received a letter a whilo aso from a friend of Gov. Ha}-es. who declared that Gov. Hayos was a very modest man, whose modonty prevont(i;.liira froru accepting the Uuited Htates Semtorship. I quote it au an itmUnce of whdt seerrts to me wrons? reaaoning on these matters. If Oov. Hayes is such a man as in now elaimed, it soems to poe ho in just the man we bvre eadly needed in ilie Seuate for the laat few years. and, if ho refuaea to go, he turnea his back on the cali of public duty. I do not dony his right to refino, although in general I hold it sound doctrine that a man of good hoalth and independent fortttuo oH(jht to serve the State when dnly and honorahly selected i but if Mr. Hayes was ever to be a candidato for the Vreeidencj', eo ottght tojhave pürsúed a public career in the hubordinate plas irtiiwh oponed to him ; he onght to have allowed üs to ee him in thoso places, and he onght to have madé a record on which we eonld form a judginent to-day, and not be thrown on the say-so of his friends. If he ia to be elocted, I uhall cortainly not prejudge him, not allow any prejudice to rixe in my minti bilt wheh I look back on former cases in which the oarrtpaign entbnsiasm has üurrounded an untrieu rúen tfith a halo which has eubsequently faded into somethnig vrorso than obscurity, my imagination refuscs to act. Anothcr point ín this canvasa which vory deeply iiitorostü me is tho coudition and futuro of tho Bonth. The campaign seems to be turning more aiid moro to thatiue aftel' all, and it eems to be fonucl that diotriiüt of rebolu and the old war apirit are stül eo strong as to be the best av&Ilablt camfmign capital. If that is to be bo, then I must tako iiles againnt any furtuer administration of the affairs of the South by the North aetiog throngh the Qeneral Oovernment. j hv'e ha4 occasion within a year to review the whoíe itótory of reconstruction. The effect npon my mind h9 b#n hame and blame to myself for the share whichl, aa a )epublican, have had in helping to build np the wort legilation of the ninoteenth ceutury. I have boeii sliocke tp realisw by what BUCceBive atsges we have hüiít líp hí'e a syatem of rostrictive and coercive leginlatitin rrhich very few Northern Republicana know in eVeö sta broadest feature, and I eau only recogui.e in disorder, riot, miarule, irresponsiblo oflicial tyratiny, industrial los, the resulte of which hare followed everywhere in history from coercivs legislation enacted by one community against aiiothef. Tlie Hepublican candidate for the Vice I'resldencj devotod his letter of aoceptance almost cxclusively to fho Bonthein question. Hebelieves that the Southern States are not civilized up to the Standard of the Northern States, and he wants to tering tuem up. I agree with him that they aro on a lower gratie, but I sulaait that it is not his business nor oHra to iTíüe them by any poliiical measuros. I therefore desire now, as Wifafde this political question, that the South be left to work out its own social problem under no arbitrary political coerción, bat simply under the constraint of social and economie forcea. Finaily, in regard to another matter which I have very mucb at heart, but which is hardly an active issue in the campaign, whatever hope there is for free trade lies in the election of Tildoii. If, then, i decfeioö is forcea niou rao, I simply judpe, ou aíí th information I possje, that Mr. Tilden bas more kuowtedge, ability, skill and wül todo what I want tö se done in politics than Mr. Hayos. Nevertheless, I n not called upon to bind or pledgo myself in any way, and I hold myself free to take any fourso which may, upon further information or refiection, seem best. Itwever the election may result, 1 ehall be guided ín my relatious tothe next admmistfatlon entirely by the performances in regard to tho matters I bave here discussed. W. G. BmoCOL New Haven, Sept. 11, 1870.