632 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



cure for the evils thnt I have mentioned; but when 

 some great, overshadowing question possesses the 

 public miud, those having the right of that question 

 obtain power, and, as long as they can keep that 

 question to the front, hold it. Sucii is the case with 

 the Republican party in the State of Massachusetts. 

 Organized for the overthrow of slavery, thereby to 

 elevate labor, so that no laborer might call another 

 man master, the Republican party has remained in 

 power in this State, without let or hindrance, for 

 more than twenty years, covering whatever faults 

 and wrongs of State administration it might have 

 by the mantle of the advocacy of the principles of 

 liberty, equality of right in all men before the law, 

 and equal protection of all men by the General Gov- 

 ernment. For these principles the war was fought, 

 and to the realization of the results of the contest 

 the great majority of the people of the Common- 

 wealth, without regard to party, have been and are 

 pledged ; so that during that time there never has 

 been a contest where the proper action of that party 

 in governing the State has been fairly in issue, and 

 not overshadowed by national questions. 



Skillful management of the machinery by which 

 success in politics is achieved through a State Com- 

 mittee sitting in permanence, reproducing itself 

 year by year, controlling all the conventions of its 

 party by the appointment of the presiding officer, 

 who should appoint all its committees a clique, or, 

 as the term is used, a " ring," has been formed 

 which governs the State. Men never devote them- 

 selves assiduously, to the neglect of other business, 

 to the management of political affairs, without they 

 intend in a greater or less degree to live by politics 

 to fasten themselves, their relatives, their depen- 

 dents, and their confederates in some way upon the 

 body politic. Therefore, without making charges 

 of any greater degree of unfairness or dishonesty in 

 the Republican party than any other as long in 

 power, it is safe to say that abuses have crept in, 

 wrongs have been done, maladministration has been 

 effected, and laws have been manipulated, for the 

 benefit of such ring, to the detriment of the whole 

 people of the Commonwealth. The wise and good 

 men who have taken part in the Republican party, 

 bound to it by their devotion to its principles as a 

 national party, have found themselves utterly pow- 

 erless either to correct its abuses or overpower the 

 manipulators. 



If such abuses exist in a State, the evidences of 

 them can be readily conjectured. Many public of- 

 fices will be found filled without responsibility to 

 the people, and sinecures created. The tendency 

 of legislation will be to remove sucli offices farther 

 and farther from the people, thus to evade the just 

 responsibility of executive administration. They 

 will conceal their doings and expenditures, and 

 usurp constitutional government, until the execu- 

 tive, elected by and immediately responsible to, 

 and who must act in sight of the people, willbecome 

 the mere figurehead of administration. The public 

 debt will largely augment. Many sorts of enter- 

 prises will be undertaken by the State, some of them 

 foreign to the true theory of the proper action of 

 government, in which the State will be made a part- 

 ner to furnish from its credit money needed to carry 

 out these projects, without even a participation in 

 their supposed profits ; and the losses paid by tax- 

 ing the people. Wastefulness and extravagance in 

 carrying on necessary governmental affairs will be 

 engendered. Taxation, increasing in amount year 

 by year, will become oppressive upon the individual 

 and upon private enterprise. By a skillful evasion 

 of the law, a dominant class will be enabled to con- 

 ceal their property so it shall escape its just share 

 of the public burdens ; the industries, commerce, 

 and prosperity of the State will decay and languish, 

 BO that capital will lose its just and full returns, and 

 labor is underpaid, underfed, and unemployed, and 

 orimes against property and persons increase. 



Let us see if we do not find the evidence of all 

 classes of such ruinous legislation, unconstitutional 

 appointments to office, change of forms of govern- 

 ment, burdens of oppression to the people which we 

 have enumerated, in the legislation and government 

 of this Commonwealth during the last twenty years. 



The address next proceeded to present a 

 bill of fifteen particular points, which made a 

 profound impression, and closed as follows : 



In order that the people may have one State elec- 

 tion, so far as I am concerned, conducted on State 

 issues only, I have carefully abstained from putting 

 forward any views or making any enunciation of 

 principles upon which national administration of 

 national affairs should be conducted, either in en- 

 dorsement or criticism of the past, or statement for 

 the future. On all these questions 1 have the most 

 decided and unchanging opinions, with all of which 

 it is more than probable the major part of the people 

 of the Commonwealth may not fully agree. What 

 they are is well known, for what I have done in the 

 last seventeen years, when for the first time I left 

 the State in the public service, has not been done in 

 a corner. 



I do not assume even that many of those thnt 

 have given me evidence of their trust and confi- 

 dence by their signatures to a request that I should 

 come before the people for their suffrages as the 

 supreme Executive Magistrate of the Commonwealth, 

 thereby signify their agreement with or endorse- 

 ment of all my political views and opinions ; but I 

 do assume that thereby they have expressed their 

 belief that, if I am elected to such office, I will bring 

 to it all the power, all the capacity, all the executive 

 ability I may have shown in any other public station, 

 and devote myself earnestly, faithfully, and boldly 

 to the best interests of the Commonwealth, holding 

 myself in all things firmly to the right and stub- 

 bornly against the wrocg, whatever shape either 

 mav take. 



"We do not osk, therefore, those who act with us 

 to pretermit, change, or alter any political opinion 

 whatever upon any subject, but only, seeing the 

 necessity, as we see it, of "relieving the people's 

 burdens and to bring about a more equal and efficient 

 administration of the laws of the Commonwealth," 

 they will go with us for that end only. 



I subscribe myself, fellow citizens, your obliged 

 and faithful servant, BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. 



The Prohibitory State Convention assem- 

 bled at Worcester on September llth. Be- 

 tween 200 and 300 delegates were present. 

 John C. Pitman, of Newton, was made Presi- 

 dent, and the following resolutions were 

 adopted. 



1. Resolved, That the Prohibitory party of Mas- 

 sachusetts, in convention assembled, do again avow 

 as their unwavering purpose the legal suppression 

 of the liquor traffic, a traffic which is the most rapa- 

 cious robber of the rewards of industry, and which 

 imperils every interest of society. 



2. Resolved, That the attitude of a State toward a 

 traffic so ruinous, and at the same time so powerful, 

 can never be changed without an open avowed party 

 issue ; that no such issue can be made inside of a 

 party that is divided between license and prohibi- 

 tion ; that a party so divided can neither adopt one 

 side nor the other without losing the votes of the 

 minority ; that it will therefore make no such issue ; 

 that when compelled to act, it can never act higher 

 than its average sentiment, and must at the best 

 adopt a weak, wavering, and inefficient policy ; and 

 that for this reason a political party making the 

 suppression of the liquor traffic an open, avowed 

 issue is an indispensable necessity. 



3. Resolved^ That henceforth we will put in nom- 



