(ENDORSED "DRAFT OF CIRCULAR," ALL IN TILDEN'S SCRIPT)
"_Centralism_ in the _government_, and _corruption_ in _administration_
are the twin evils of our times. They threaten with swift destruction
civil liberty and the whole fabric of our free institutions.
"_National Government._
"The Democratic party was originally organized by Jefferson to oppose
these evils. It ruled the country for fifty of the seventy years of
the present century, and protected us from disunion on the one hand
and from centralism on the other, and from corruption. Under twelve
years of rule of the Republican party, the Federal government is
rapidly usurping power from the localities and from individuals, and
has become more corrupt than was ever imagined possible. The masses
of the Republicans, like the masses of all parties, are honest. No
doubt some allowance ought to be made for the effect of a great war.
But the system of false finance which has corrupted us into a nation
of gamblers was as unnecessary as corrupting. And the principle and
measures of the Republican party, their centralism, tariffs not for
revenue but to control the labor and capital of the people, legislative
grants and jobs of all kinds tend to corruption. And the ideal standard
of their statesmen is lower than any ever held by the followers of
Jefferson and Jackson.
"_State Government._
"In 1846, twenty-five years ago, I went to the Assembly to sustain the
administration of Silas Wright. Not a man in either House was even
suspected of corruption. The Democracy under Martin Van Buren, Silas
Wright, William L. Marcy, and Azariah C. Flagg had ruled the State
during the life of the old Constitution from 1821 to 1846. They were
all men not only of transcendent ability, but of personal purity. They
gathered around them men of like character in all the counties. They
wielded party power not only in favor of good measures, but in favor
of good men. No corrupt Senator or Assemblyman could live in their
atmosphere. The race ran out.
"From 1846 to 1870--23 years--the Democracy never had a majority in the
Senate, and but twice a small majority in the Assembly. Those bodies
became what the Republicans, and the party from which they sprang, have
made them. When William H. Seward and Thurlow Weed came into power the
character of the legislative bodies fell in an instant, and during all
the 23 years of Republican ascendancy it continued to fall."