UNITED STATES. 



779 



Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, 

 tliis _'.'>t h day of Miiy, in the year of our Lord 187tf, 

 un<l "t tin- independence of the United States the 

 one hundredth. 



By tho President : U. 8. GRANT. 



HAMILTON FISH, Secretory of State. 



Tho attention of tho people was early in the 

 year aroused to tho subject of tho presidential 

 election. A convention of colored men was 

 held at Nashville on April 6th and 7th. The 

 attendance was numerous, and, although reso- 

 lutions were adopted expressing strong adher- 

 ence to the Republican party, yet some of the 

 leading colored men "advised tho blacks no 

 longer to remain in the Republican party, but 

 to make terms with their white Southern 

 friends, and hereafter to vote for honest and 

 competent men without reference to party." 

 Mr. Pinchback, of Louisiana, declared that 

 " the colored people were beginning to think 

 for themselves, and would never again vote the 

 Republican ticket in a solid column, as hereto- 

 fore." 



About the same time a movement of dissat- 

 isfaction wijh the Republican party was mani- 

 fested by the appearance of the following 

 circular, addressed to many prominent Repub- 

 licans: 



NEW YORK, April 6, 1876. 



DEAR SIB: The wide-spread corruption in our 

 public service, which has disgraced the republic in 

 the eyes of the world, and threatens to poison the 

 vitality of our institutions ; the uncertainty of the 

 public mind, and of party counsels, as to grave eco- 

 nomical questions involving in a great measure the 

 honor of the Government, the morality of our busi- 

 ness life, and the general well-being of the people ; 

 and the danger that an inordinate party spirit may, 

 through the organized action of a comparatively 

 small number or men who live by politics, succeecl 

 in overriding the most patriotic impulses of the 

 people, and in monopolizing political power for 

 selfish ends, seem to render it most desirable that 

 no effort should be spared to secure to the popular 

 desire for genuine reform a decisive influence in the 

 impending national election. 



Mindful of the fact that this patriotic desire is 

 honestly struggling for effective expression inside of 

 existing political organizations, as it is also strong 

 outside of them, and believing that by all proper 

 means it should be encouraged and made to prevail, 

 the undersigned invite you to meet them, ana others 

 of like purpose who have been invited in the same 

 manner, in a free conference^ to consider what 

 may be done to prevent the national election of the 

 centennial year from becoming a mere choice of 

 evils, and to secure the election of men to the high- 

 est offices of the republic whose character and abil- 

 ity will satisfy the exigencies of our present situa- 

 tion, and protect the honor of the American name. 



The conference will be held in the city of New 

 York on the 15th of May. You are respectfully and 

 urgently requested to be present, and to commu- 

 nicate your acceptance of this invitation to H. C. 

 Lodsre, Esq., P. O. box 1,988, New York City, or 81 

 Beacon Street, Boston. 

 Verv truly yours, 



WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, New York. 



THEODORE I). WOOLREY. Connecticut. 



ALEXANDER H. BULLOCK, Massachusetts. 



HORACE WHITE, Illinois. 



CARL 8CHURZ, Missouri. 



The conference thus called assembled at the 

 Fifth Avenue Hotel, in New York, on May 



15th. Persons were present, and united in the 

 DToeeedhtgs, from Maine, New Haujp.shin.-, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode uland, 

 New York. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ol.io. 

 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, and Min- 

 nesota. An organization was effected by the 

 choice of the following officers : 



President : Theodore D. Woolsey, of Con- 

 necticut. 



Vice-Presidents : New Hampshire, George 

 G. Fogg ; Vermont, Charles W. W. Clark ; Mas- 

 sachusetts, Henry L. Pierce, Martin Brimmer, 

 Julius H. Seelye, Mark Hopkins, James Free- 

 man Clarke ; Rhode Island, Rowland Hazard, 

 Thomas Wentworth Higginson ; New York, 

 William Cullen Bryant, John Jay, Oswald Ot- 

 tendorfer, Edward Salomon, Bradford R.Wood, 

 Cyrus W. Field, Charles Butler, Samuel Os- 

 good ; Pennsylvania, Thomas Balch, Henry C. 

 Lee, William Welsh ; Ohio, ex-Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor Muller, J. D. Cox ; Indiana, Colonel Mar- 

 tin; Illinois, John H. Bryant, Robert Collyer; 

 Wisconsin, Frederick W. Horn, M. M. Davis; 

 Missouri, John McNeil, James S. Rollins. 



Secretaries: H. C. Lodge, of Massachusetts; 

 Francis A. Walker, of Connecticut ; Henry Ar- 

 mitt Brown, of Pennsylvania; August Thierne, 

 of Ohio ; Enos Clarke, of Missouri. 



A Committee on Business was appointed, 

 consisting of Carl Schurz, Parke Godwin, La- 

 fayette S. Foster, John W. Hoyt, and Martin 

 Brimmer. On the next day the committee 

 reported " an address to the American people," 

 of which the following extract contains the 

 principal points: 



It is useless to console ourselves with the idea 

 that the corruption among us must be ascribed sole- 

 ly to the immediate t fleets of the civil war, and will, 

 without an effort at refoim, soon pass away. There 

 is another cause which is not transitory, but threat- 

 ens to become permanent. It is that system which 

 has made the offices of the Government the mere 

 spoils of party victory : the system winch distributes 

 the placos of trust and responsibility as the reward 

 of party-service and the bounty of favoritism ; the 

 system which appeals to the mean impulses of self- 

 ishness and greed as a controlling motive of politi- 

 cal action ; the system which degrades the civil ser- 

 vice to the level of a mere party agency, and, treat- 

 ing the officer as the hired servant of the party, and 

 taxing him for party support, stimulates corruption 

 and places it under party protection; the sys-ttm 

 which brings the organization of parties under the 

 control of their most selfishly-interested and there- 

 fore most active element the place-holders and the 

 place-hunters thus tending to organize a standing 

 army of political mercenaries to be paid out of the 



party spirit. 



Every student of our political history knows that, 

 since the spoils-system was inaugurated, corrupt ion 

 has steadily grown from year to year ; and so long is 

 this system lasts, with all its seductions and demor- 

 alizing tendencies, corruption will continue to grow 

 in extent and power, for patriotism and true merit 

 will more and more be crowded out of political life 

 by unscrupulous selfishness. The war has only given 

 a sudden stimulus to this tendencv : but without the 

 war it would have grown up, ana will not cease to 



