"_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." FOOTNOTES: [42] A James Gordon Bennett, Senior, the founder of the New York _Herald_. [43] A fellow-citizen of Governor Seymour in Oneida County. Later an unsuccessful candidate for attorney-general, and subsequent successful candidate and member of the United States Senate. [44] Governor of Pennsylvania. [45] For this speech delivered in the Democratic State convention assembled in Albany on the 11th March, 1868, to select delegates to the convention which was to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency at the ensuing election in November, see _Writings and Speeches of Tilden_, Vol. 1, p. 394.