MASSACHUSETTS. 



497 



was on the whole favorable. After declaring 

 the most serious charges against the prison 

 officials to be unsustained, the Governor and 

 Council say : 



Desirous to bring out every fault and to note every 

 opportunity for improvement, and believing that the 

 convict, though a violator of the law, should have the 

 wisest and most humane treatment consistent with his 

 punishment, and that attention can not too often be 

 called to his condition and welfare, we also feel that 

 it is high time that something were said for those who 

 in the service of the State discharge the trying duties 

 of the prison official. They stand between a great 

 bodv of criminals on the one hand, fretting at confine- 

 ment, and many of them of the most abandoned, ma- 

 licious, and violent character, and on the other a crit- 

 ical and sensitive public. Most of these officials are 

 under small pay. They are subject to temptation. 

 Their patience is sorely tried. They are under the 

 stress of constant vigilance. Their kindness is often 

 rewarded by treachery and deceit, and they carry 

 their lives in their hands. In most cases they do the 

 best they can. No evidence reflected on their honesty 

 and competency ; and though, as above stated, some- 

 times under provocation lacking discretion, yet to ac- 

 cuse them of systematic or frequent barbarity and in- 

 humanity is gross injustice. Whatever else be desir- 

 able, the discipline should not be relaxed. The war- 

 den is trying to do his duty. We do not intend to 

 excuse a single error on his part, but the result of our 

 investigation has dissipated many false and unjust 

 impressions regarding him. It will be still more to 

 his credit if he corrects, as he seems cordially ready 

 to do, such faults as we have pointed out. We in- 

 voke, too, the good sense of the community in sus- 

 taining public officers who are charged with the heavy 

 responsibility of the confinement, punishment, and 

 discipline of those who violate the laws and endanger 

 its safety, and who carry into the prison-walls the 

 same elements of desperation, lawlessness, treachery, 

 and violence which make so many of them when at 

 large the terror of its peace. 



The first political convention of the year 

 was held at Worcester, on the 6th of March, 

 by an organization styled the Young Republi- 

 cans, though many of the delegates were by 

 no means specially youthful. The general char- 

 acter and aims of the organization were indi- 

 cated in the following resolutions: 



We declare our adhesion to the principles of the 

 Republican party. Especially do we urge the estab- 

 lishment of the public service on the basis of intelli- 

 gence and good conduct ; the maintenance of specie 

 payments : the passage of laws depriving greenbacks 

 of their legal-tender quality ; the management by the 

 States of their own affairs; the enforcement of all 

 national laws, and the maintenance of equal rights 

 throughout the country. 



Earnestly desiring the success of the Eepublican 

 party at the approaching Presidential election, we pro- 

 test against the nomination of any candidate who is 

 certain to lose the support of any important portion 

 of the party. The decline of the Republican power 

 from 1873 to 1875 showed plainly that the Republicans 

 can not hope for success while supporting candidates 

 who, in office, do not uphold the principles which the 

 party has affirmed. It is our belief that to submit to 

 such leadership is to invite disaster as well as to de- 

 serve it. Nor can the plea of necessity be urged to 

 induce us to serve under those leaders, for there are 

 many Republicans whose record is free from every 

 taint of personal or political corruption, whose fidelity 

 to the principles above declared is proved, and whose 

 fitness for the highest office can not be questioned. 

 We therefore strenuously oppose the nomination of 

 Ulysses S. Grant or of James G. Elaine, since many 

 VOL. xx. 32 A 



considerations will lead large portions of the Republi- 

 can party to vote against either. 



We will gladly support any man who, like Presi- 

 dent Hayes, has shown in words and acts that he is in 

 sympathy with the principles declared by us, and 

 whose personal character is pure and above sus- 

 picion. 



We heartily approve the principles of the Indepen- 

 dent Republican Committee of New York and of the 

 National Independent Republican League of Philadel- 

 phia, and the Executive Committee are hereby in- 

 structed to correspond with those organizations with 

 the view of joint action in the future, if desirable. 



An effort was made to have the reference 

 to Grant and Blaine stricken out, but without 

 success. 



A Republican Convention for the selection 

 of delegates at large to the National Conven- 

 tion was held at Worcester, on the 15th of 

 April. The delegates chosen were George F. 

 Hoar, R. Codrnan, John E. Sandford, and Ju- 

 lius H. Seeley, and were understood to favor 

 the nomination of George F. Edmunds, of Ver- 

 mont, for President. The following platform 

 was adopted : 



1. We declare our steadfast adherence to the ideas 

 and principles of government and policy which have 

 made the Republican party distinctively the party of 

 freedom and equal rignts, of patriotic devotion to the 

 Union, of progress and reform. 



2. We believe in an honest currency, with every 

 dollar equal in value to every other dollar, and in a 

 financial system which shall sacredly guard the na- 

 tional faith and credit, and assure the continuance of 

 specie payments ; and we congratulate the Administra- 

 tion arid the country upon the conspicuous success 

 with which resumption has been accomplished, com- 

 mercial confidence restored, and the puolic debt re- 

 funded and reduced under the able management of the 

 present Secretary of the Treasury. 



3. We believe in the inviolable sovereignty of the 

 national Union as established by the Constitution 

 over all the States and all the people, and in the duty 

 of the national Government by wise laws, efficiently 

 executed, to protect the ballot in all national elections, 

 and to maintain and vindicate the constitutional right 

 of all citizens of the United States, wherever and un- 

 der whatever fiction of State sovereignty or other pre- 

 tense such rights may be assailed. 



4. We hold that free and honest elections are es- 

 sential to the stability and success of government bv 

 the people, and that any attempt to thwart the will 

 of the majority, whether by preventing the lawful ex- 

 ercise of the right of suffrage by fraud in casting or 

 in counting votes, or by unseating, for partisan pur- 

 poses, fairly-elected members of Congress or of State 

 Legislatures, is a crime which will not be tolerated by 

 a free people. 



5. Grateful for what has been done during the Ad- 

 ministration of President Hayes to improve the tone 

 and methods of the civil service, we again invoke 

 Congress to complete the work by necessary legisla- 

 tive enactments, in order that there may be adequate 

 and permanent security against the misuse of the pub- 

 lic service as a machinery of party organization and 

 personal influence, and so that, in the language of a 

 distinguished Senator, " the holders of office may 

 feel that they are servants of law and not the personal 

 tenants-at-will in their place of either heads or depart- 

 ments or of Congressmen." 



6. We have one country and common interests as a 

 nation. We deplore the existence of sectional strife 

 and animosity, and of parties bounded by territorial 

 lines. We earnestly desire that the resources of the 

 South, as well as of the North and West, may be de- 

 veloped under just and harmonious policies by the 

 united energies of our whole people. To this end 



