The Presidential Policy

[Associated Press Beport.) During the past jear we have ecen here and everywhere thro'ighout the country small but activo squads of politic&l inquisitors busy vrith the work of assisting the Ropublican party iu gathoring into hallowed garners all those who avow thetngelves supporters of the Presidentas policy, and pouring unquenehable fire upon all the rest. Toles have been set up at all ci-obsroads ; flaga iuseribcü witü the President's policy have been suspended from them, and self-appointed inquisitors have lurked in convcnient jungles to detect who did and who did not uncover under the flag. It has happened to uie to be advertised quite beyond the pale of my own modest secking as an oppouent of the President' policy. To the doctors of tho inquisition it aeems no longer a question of moment whether ono be a Repubiican or a Democrat. The absorbing quexiion is, "Does ho snpport the Presideiit's policy or does henotV" Sir, I have no wish to conceal any opinión of mino which the public is interested to know. Nevertheless, I have not hitherto answered to this accuaation. I did not like to picad gnilty, for I hopcd I was innocent, and I did nöt like to plead not guilty, for I feared I might be guilty. I had wíthheld no honest effort to elect Mr. Hayes. It must of necessity pain me to bo found not in aceord with his views, and it must pain me still more to find he was not in accord vrith mine. My uncertainty arose not from the fact that I was doubtf ui of my own policy, but because I was not sure I understood his. My own policy is a very simple one, and may be briefiy státed : Toward the States of the South my policy has been identical with the poliey I have heid toward tho i States of tho North. I demand only that every legally-qualified elector in every State, South or North, Democrat or Republican, black or white, shall be permitted, undisturled by forco and unawed by fear, to vote at all elections and at the placo prescribed by law, and nowhere else, j ust once, and no more than onco that every vote so cast shall be honestly counted, and that person chosen by such votes to any office shail be freely inducted into it. That is my Southern poücy, and the whole of it. Tho very head and front of my offending against the South hath this extent, no more. Concerning the civil service, my policy is not a bit more complicated. I would have that service administered by the best men attainable, and I beliovo a Kepublicau President ahould select Republican8 for all those places wheve the harmony and vigor of the administration reqnire its policy to be representod. I believe, as the President declared in his inaugural address, that, onco commisaioned, the offieer I 8hould be secure in his tenuro as lone as his i - -- - - - - w t - ■ - ■ i ■ tr - - - ' L iKb ■ a. personal character reiuains untarnished and the performance of his duty satisfactory. Some things havo happened finco the President' inauguration noat all in harmony with i the policies I have iiidicated. He has selected ! for his Cabinet ono who was not a Rcpublícan, but a Democrat. Btill, the individual Tras so well known to me, and I believed so implicitly intlie moderatiün of his opinione, in the justness of his sentiments, and tho integrity of his character, that if I could not have advised his 8election I could not and did not complain of it. Ho had selecled one otier who, although not a Democrat, was yet not a Republican, who was equally at homo with all partios and in all places. By turns ho has been overywhere and has espoused and deserted overy party. He spoko like an oracle, and his facile speech could be ütted to the vicissitudes of parties as readily as a double-faced satín can be turned to hide the accidents of society. His critiques npon lus political associatea gave him popnlarity with his political oppononts, and ho rescmblod própliets in never being without honor excapt where hu happened to reside. Iuconstant in everything else, ho has been constant to his trade, that of politics. Ho entered upou that before ho was of age, and he has pursued it since without variauleness or shadow of turaing. His ürsi entorprie was to rtívolutionize the Governmeut Uüder which ho was born. That failed, and ho fled. Ho was for a short time a lawyer in Wisconsin, but without clients. Ho was a Minister at Madrid, but did uot reeonstruct the diplomacy of the world. He was a Major General, but perverse Mstory refused to record his victories. Ho was transplantcd into Missouri, and the generous Repubiicans of that State bore him into this Senate. Tnat elevation did not provo fatal to him, but hia party died - died not in spite of him, but becau8e of him, andunder the blows which he inflicted. Having outraged ono party and not yet received absolution from the otbêr, he denounced both as machines. Having failed as a do&ler in legitímate politics, he turned bis attuntion to the contraband article. In 1872 he helled to lead Horace Greoley and B. Gralz Brown to the Baliimoro market, and taugüt the Detnocraoy of that yar that they should cali nothing ommou or undean if it promised to beat Grant. For six yoars he tracluced the li'li'.iLhcan party, probably through more languages thau any otlier man living. Upan that ïiliistrinus Captain who from the 4th of Julv, 1863, to the 4th of March, 1877, led the Republican party, who alitays led Lis party to victor; and always lifted his country to reuown, at whose approach but recently the Ëautern continent stood up and uncovered, he tbrew more mud than any dredge uot worked by bteam over threw in the same time. After reviowing stilt further Secrotary Schurz's career, Mr. Howe took up the Packard case and tho Lonisiana election, and said: When the President was inaugmated Stephen B. Packard was Governor of Louisiana. Within raxty days aftor that iuanguration he ceased to be Governor. Wheu he disappeared the wil) of Louieiana was subvertod and trampled upon. ÖUiïh an event is always a matter of sincere regret to all who reppect republican inBtitutionü. But very few such eventa would l required to rendor the republican institutions that by-word and that hissing on this continent which for centuries they have been on the other. Ho then reviewed at length the work of the Louisiana Commission in a sarcastic tone, and said : If it was their mission to depose an actual Governor, they did not consumo time enough. Under tho constitution of Louisiana ftrar years aro required for that purposo. I could not, therefore, see in all that transpircd iu Louisiana the development of a now policy for tho Republican party or tho abandonment of an oïd policy. I saw only the acquiesoünce in what seemed to be a disagreeable necessitv. But I was tot prepared to see tho act advcrtif ed as one of the Presideut's choice, which evory Kopuhlican as well as every Democrat wan bound to approve. It was, therefore, a matter of surprise, and profound regret also, that I heurd tbo President declare in his late animal message that " the di.scontinuance of the use of tbc army for the purposo of upholdiag local Governmenta in two States of the Union was no less a constitutional duty and rquiroment, under the circumstauces exUting at the time, than it was a mnch-needed meanure for the restoration of local self-government and the promotion of national harmouy." If that be a correct definitiou of tho Pretüdetit's Southern policy, I am no longer in doubt as to whethcr I approve it er not. It is impossible that I shonid approve it now or ever. It is a clear abandonmeut of one of the plaiuest itnd most solenin dutics charged upon the President ■ y tho constitutiou and laws of tho United Ktates. When tho President abandoued the Government of Louisiana to domestic violence, he surrendered the constitutionsl rights of a tingle State. But, wbfin he advertied he would nevcr interfere where the resnit of an olection is disputcd, he Burrendered a national prorogative vital to our institutionw. He abjurcd a constitutional dutycBsi.ntial to every State. He procliiinitd a license to insurrectkm. Henof'fied nunoriiy in ovrjry State, when defcated by ballot to anpeal to the bayonet, and ho proclaimed iu advauce that the nation shall Lu neutral in the conflict. If Packard was not eleotod Goveruor of Ijouisiaua, notliing can bo more certain than that Flayes was not elected PrtBideut of the United Steles. Without tho r ,i ral ,'Ad of Louisiana the whole wo-ld knows Hayos had not tho yotcs in tho Electora! College necessRry to constitute an election. If Lonisi&na did not vote for Packard tho wholo world knowK that Lonisiana did not vote for II ivoiï. Pack ird receivod nearly 2,000 volos more (ban some of tbe Hayos eleotors. Under the eónstitntion tlie President had but oneplaia dnty to discharge, that wns t asoertaio v.iirtiior tho constituted tribunals of Lonisi&na bad dtc'arcd Packard to bo Qovernor ; if ro. Uien to defend hiü autnority to the oxteut of his aLility 'vhen legal] . quir"d o tn do, if (ify )irc1 not ho ileclared, then it was equally his duty not merely to havo withheld all support of Packard'8 pretenso, but to have given all roquired support to tho claim of Packard's rival. It was hia duty to have dono that, notmeroly on the 20th of April, but to have dono it on tho 4th of Maren immediately upon his assuming the office of Prosidout, and, if ho founditbis eonstitutional duty to requiro Packard to surrender his office, hO shouldhave also reeoguized the duty of suitoudering bis owu. I do not mean to intímate a doubt that President Hayes was ontitled to tho vote of Louisiana. It ia my settled belief that Louiuiana declarcd for him ; but all I certainly knaw is, that if Packard was not olected President Hayes wan not. If the latter is not a usurper, Nicholls is. I can seo no possible escapo frora the couclusion eilher that tho Pre.-ident has usurpod his own office or that ho has aúled Gov. Nicholls lo usurp hit. After a long diacussion of the Louisiana caso and tho Southern quesüon generally, Mr. Howe oontmuod : Mr. President, let no man say I do injustico to the purposes of the President. I am not discussing his purposos but his acts. I understand ho fctill nvows himsolf tobe a Bepublican, and a friend of equal citizenship. It is not for me to dispute him. But it is for me to say ho has offeuded both Iiepublicanism and freo citizenship as Samuel J. Tilden never would have offended them. Pcrhaps had Mr. Tilden been made President events would have transpired in South Carolina and Louisiana as they have transpirad. Mr. Harnpton would have boen Governor in the former Stato and Mr. Nicholls in the latter. 80 far the offense would have boen procisely the same. But that wonld have been an oLfeno not against Republicauism, bnt against Republicans in thoso SUtex. Mr. Tilden would havo decided, perhapa, that Hampton and Nicholls wcre chosen Governora of those State, and that if eo tlioy ougbt to be recognizod, and even if not so, since ho had jurisdiction of the question, would have acquiesced iu bis decisión. But President Ha3es nover mado such a decisión, and does not to make it to-day. Mr. Tilden would have excluded Packard and Chamberlain, beC&UB6 ho decidcd against their elecüon. President Hayes exoluded them because their olection was disputed. Tho former would have giveu an orroueous judgment, and would Uien have seen it executed. President Hayos has abandoned the judgmenl-seat to the rirïo-chibs in those States ; left them to mako the decisión which the constitution and courts commauded kim to make, and, infinitoly woree than that, has permitted proclamations to be made in his name that, when rifle-clubs choose to take tho field in behalf of a ticket, it ie not necessary for them to elect their ticket, but only to dispute tho elect.on of tho other. And, after all ibis prolenged effort at pacification, this ontpouring of concessions and good-wül, the Angel of Peace still refusos to deecend upor us. Day after day the President sends the dove out over tho angry tloods, and night after night the bird returns weary and leafiesi. In these very days that the Government which rules Louisi ana, which was bom of Presidential grace, and not of popular choico, has signalized lts ingratitude by an act not lens insulting to the President thau atrocious in itself. It has dared to accu8e, try and convict a member of tho State Board of Canvaesers of the crime of forging the olection returun of Vernon parish of 1876. Bemerabér, sir, I do not oomplain bocause A nderson was tried for a political offoiiBO. If he is guilty of tho offense charged, I have not a syllable to urge in his defense. The point I make against the Government of Louisiana is, that it prosecutcd not in the name of public justico, but of partisan malico; that it prosecuted a man guiltless of the offonse alleged against him, and known to be gniltless. Audcreon is the victim, not of a mistake, but of malice; not of persocal, but of partisan, malice. He was profecirted by that same feil spirit of party spito which prompted Georgia forty years ago to offer $5,000 for tho privilege of prosecuting Garrisou, and which twenty years ago made South Carolina clap 'her hands at the whipping of Sumner. Andersqn stands convicted in a court conunissioned by Gov. Nicholls, who in turn stands practically properly commissioned by President Hayes. He roviewod the action of the lieturuing Boaid at length, ridiculed the idea that Anderson forged tho returns, and said Whittaker, by the graco of Andrew Johnson, was formerly Assistant Treasuror of the United State at New Orleans ; that as such he was a defaulter to tho Government in the sum of more tban half a million dollars when he sont Andersou to prison ; that Whittaker had been under indictment for that heavy embezzlement, but that, on the 19th of Aprü last. just as Nicholls took the ofllce which Pacliaid ought to havo had, the iudictment against Whittaker was nolie prossed, and ho was permitted to eend Andereon to the penitentiary where he ought to be himself. Mr. Ho.ve spoko in tho following tono of civil-sorvice reform An eminent statesmao. from Kentucky recontly made a pilgi imago to Boston in the interest of civil-service reform. There, in sight of that great monument which marks the spot where immaculate valor diod for immortal truth, ho dared to say, " The canso of reform in the hands of brave men will not bo put down or defeated by the scoSs and derision of its enemiec." I shuuld liko to ask this apoatle to the Bostonians who 1 ho.se enemies of reform are against whose derision he has to incito brave men. In spite of all the vociferous prateabout a reform of the civil service, noman lias fonnulatcd it, noman has deñoed it. I do ijot know what thev mean bv it. Tho President did issue an order forbidding those I employed iu tbc civil tervico frora acliug on political coinnuttces or ]olitic?.l conveutions. Is that whatismeantbyrufonn of the civil service? If so, the President lias already abandoned it, or I am nnsiufomied, or, if bc tti!l bolieves that means reform, he is tiie only man in the United States who doy believe it. This is not reform. That is tyranny which no predecertsor of his ever attempted, and no sucjessor wil! venture to imítate. Ouco it was iudustrioualy aJvortisod tuat public oflicers should not be removed duriog their official terms without cause. As alreu'ly re.maiked, I belic-ve in that rule. I have myseif adhered toit, but the President has fiagrantly violated it. That surely caimot be vrhat is meant bf Uie reform of the civil eervhe. Latterly it has been suggested tliat the great reform consisted in inaliiug appointments to office regardlens of the advicc of Senators and liepresentatives from States. aid so smishing the machine. In some conspicuous cases the very roverae hae been done. What mie thcre is upon this or on any poiut touching appointments it is not given to finite iutellience to know. Bnt I have foiir reniaikn to make upon this last suggestion. 1. AU the Presidenta havo been, all the Presidenta must bt, and President Ilayes is, gnided by sorae aóS'ice, and that advice does come ana will come from one or the other of thrco sources: Either it will be fmpplied by those hom the several Stetcs have eolected for tlieir ropresontatives, or by those who have not been, but aspire to be, choseu as representatives, or it wiU come from office-brokers who havo no political aspirations, but do a chiefly cash business. 2. Wheu any President will absolutely relieve representativos from all responsibility for that multitude who want office anddonotget it, he will ahield them from that servico which most impairs usefumése and imperils the contiiiuanee of their employment. 3. When any President, will take upon himKelf tho sole responsibüity for all of whora ho does and all of whom be does not appoint. ho will not need to pledgo himself against a secoud term. The best man ever bom could not achieve a second term under snch a load. 4. Whüther the peopla wiU have an improved civil service when its agents are selected npon the advice of tiloso not in Conffreafl depends nj)on whetht r the people seud their best men to CongresB or kesp them at komo.