Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1876 — The Campaign. [ARTICLE]

The Campaign.

As the campaign proceeds, two things areconspicuous: one, that the candidate who is urged afc thri 'great reformer is entangled in endless explanations; the? other, that intelligent men everywhere are asking for the evidence that the Democratic party has shown itself to be essentially changed. The issues stated in the platforms and discussed by the orators and the press are three: the the South, and civil service reform. But'they all spring from the War, and the Democrats can succeed andittr. Tilden be elected only by the virtually “solid South.” Thus we have precisely the sectional aspect of an election that we had before the war; and the Democratic proposition is that toe vital issues growing out of the contest shall be settled by the Southern party. Democratic. “ reform” means simply —to use words which are well understood—and not for needless offense—a union of rebels and 'Copperheads for the administration of the Government which was saved from their conspiracy, and for the enforcetaeftt of constitutional amendments which they desporately opposed and denounced as revolutionary and void. Before intrusting the National Government to such hands, however, intelligent and patriotic men will long and carefully deliberate. They will hardly find in the fact that Belknap .was a dishonest Secretary of War a sufficient reason for putting Wade Hampton in his place, nor because ofrthe offenses In the Whisky Ring will they think it wise to fly for refuge to Ben Hili or Tucket. They will, oft the con. trary, ask whether a party of which these," with others, are the chosen representatives, a party which really wishes Horatio Seymour and him only in New York, Which repl&ces Schiifz with Cockrell in Missouri, and Feny and Buckingham with Eaton and Bkmum in Connecticiit, is in any sense whatever a party of reform, or any othpr than the old familiar Democratic party which for sixteen years American patriotism and intelligence has spewed out of its mouth. To this question they will find but one answer. Nor can a single good nomination herQ <md there change the general Impression. The real drift and instinct of the democratic parly were shown in the nomination of Mr. Seymour in New in that of Mr. Adams in Massachnsetts. Ms. Seymour was the resistless and enthusiastic choice, overbearing all the canny and crafty plans to impose another name as a pretense of reform.' Mr. Seymour is and has always tiden a Democrat, and the representative of wfrat the country most profoundly distrusts in Democracy—the apologist of slavery, the Copperhead of the war, the candidate of repudiation, and the foe of the .amendments. This was the natural, ardent, instinctive Democratic choice, and the enoiep reveals thespirit and tendency of the Democratic payty. But Mr. Adams was in nd sense the earnest, natural, instinctive choice Of the Convention that nominated bitt. - The managers did not pretend it. They asked his nomination for effect elsewhere. They pleaded for it because it would give to the party which idolizes Mr. Seymour an air of reform. It would enable Democratic newspapers to declare that the nomination was proof of a change of heart- In other words, it was proposed and carried as a fraud. It was a trick to carry an election, like the nomination <*f Mr. Greeley at Baltimore. We do hot' believe tliat there is a single intelligent voter m Massachnsfetts who believes that Mr. Adams represiritts the Dempcratld party in that State, or in any other, in the flame sense that Judge Hoar represents the Republicans, Tie is put Upon the ticket to catch the dissatisfied vote. He does not stand for reform'within the Democratic party; for if that were the spirit of the parly, it wquld not have taken a candidate who is apt now and never was a Democrat, but it would have nominated one of its,own metnlwre. ; It did not dorit. because there is no conspicuous DemocratW Massachusetts who represents rafornr «ithat 'in or out of the parly. The homiuatiou of Mr. Adams msrelyWJWjk.thatWlten the Democrats wish to prove that they are a reform party, fltey must select a ‘candidate ‘who not a Democrat. : leaders underrate. P The in-volv(-<l in,apJiange of parte j?onirol of the Government at this time, are very much public position, he will reflect tha't to bring in the Democratic party is to do a great deal more than change the officers. Not only will a change not necessarily bring reform, but acbaage would neces sarily bring somewhat into question and doubt the settlements- «f the war. It Would do this because it would be »- deliberate. prefereaue by the country of the party which, has been, nflentleualy iu opposition to all that has been accomplished defenseofril defecteof administration which Mturajly under a party k®* in power. B might then be plausibly urged that the .only method to reform would, fia to take the portentous change o( a Democratic restoration. Bat no such argument is now tenable, for the fact, of which every Republican is consOldus, is that the nomination of Hayes and Wheeler, with the letter which New York Republicans declare to be “the

•afatteHMf whe party,” is the sign iff that ■fo|m whil the party which, by recur ■g refoita udder Republican ascendency, "W the Mil purpose of the people.— Sarper’BFriHy.