Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1880 — POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY. [ARTICLE]

POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY.

“ Look Here, Upon This Piclurc-aiid on Tliis.” [From the New York Herald (Independent).] . There have been two particularlymemorablo conferences at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in recent times. The first was held on the 16th of May, 1876, and its presiding officer was the venerable Theodore D. Woolsey, formerly President of Yale College. It adopted an admirable address, written in great part by Mr. Carl Selnirz, now Secretary of the Interior, from which the following are extracts : * A national election is approaching under circumstances of peculiar significance. Never before in our history has the public mind been so profoundly agitated by apprehension of dangers arising from corrupt tendencies and practices in our political life, and never has there been greater reason for it. We therefore declare, and call upon all good citizens to join us, that at the approaching Presidential election we shall support no Presidential candidate 1. Who in public position ever countenanced corrupt practices; or 2. Who, while possessing public influence and power, has failed to use his opportunities in exposing and correcting abuses coming within the reach of his observat.on, but, for personal reasons or party ends, has permitted them to fester on ; or 3. To whom, however conspicuous his position or •brilliant bis ability, the impulses of tho party manage|khavo shown themselves predominant overxhose of the reformer, for he will be inclined to continue that fundamental abuse, the employment of the Government service as a machinery for personal or party ends ; or, 4. Who, however favorably judged by his nearest friends, is not known to possess those qualities of mind and character which tho stern task of genuine reform requires. In one word, at present, no candidate should be held entitled to tho support of patirotic citizens, of whom the question may finally be asked : Is he really the man to carry through a thoroughgoing reform of the Government? Can he, with certainty, be depended upon to possess the moral courage and sturdy resolution to grapple with the abuses which have acquired the strength of established custom, and to this end firmly to resist the pressure even of his party friends. Whenover there is room for question or doubt as to tho answer, the candidate should be considered unfit for this emergency. Tho man to be intrusted with the Presidency this year must have deserved not only the confidence of honest men, but also the fear and hatred of the thieves. He who manages to conciliate the thieves cannot be our candidate. The second conference to which we refer was held yesterday in the same place. Its presiding officer likewise was a citizen of Connecticut—ex-Gov. Marshall Jewell—and, upon examining the lists of participants on each occasion, we immediately identify our accomplished editorial compatriot, Mr. Murat Halstead, of Cincinnati, as assisting prominently at both. But yesterday’s gathering appears to have been much more miscellaneous than the one in which he was active four year’s ago. Indeed, it must have reminded the Bible readers present —among whom, of course, we reckon Mr. Halstead—of St. Peter’s vision at Joppa, in which a certain vessel was seen descending from heaven, “as it had been a great sheet knit at the four comers and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of-the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.” Among others there were Senators Blaine, Cameron, and Logan; ex-Senators Dorsey and Conover, ex-Secretary Robeson, Messrs. Chauncey I. Filley, P. B. S. Pinchback, William E. Chandler, and several more, concerning whom Mr. Halstead must have grown deaf, indeed, since 1876, if he did not hear a heavenly voice like that which said to the apostle, “ Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” While the proceedings were in progress, according to the press reports, Gen. Belknap, formerly Secretary of the War Department, also was one of the gentlemen who were paying visits of congratulation to Gen. Garfield in an adjoining room. How so promiscuous an assembly got along peaceably with one another, and with Mr. Halstead, through the day, would be a wonder, did we not recollect that there were no quarrels among the animals in Noah’s ark. In both instances

a consciousness that they were “all in the same boat,” and that their only chance of getting to land depended upon keeping the peace, perhaps, explains the mystery.