President Grant drifted into a political control that ultimately made his administration intensely sectional and factional, and during his first administration he was intolerant of criticism, and often openly disregarded Republican sentiment in sustaining many of his favorites, who brought scandals upon his rule. On great questions, however, Grant certainly was great. He conceived the idea of territorial expansion that has been so successfully carried out by the present administration with the hearty approval of an overwhelming majority of the people. He made an earnest movement for the annexation of San Domingo, and he gave exhaustive public and private efforts to attain it. This policy was severely criticised by some of the leading members of the party, prominent among whom were Sumner and Greeley, and the San Domingo scheme was ridiculed from one end of the country to the other as a wild, visionary, political enterprise, designed to give place and fortune to administration favorites. So bitter did the Republican national feud become that the anti-administration leaders decided to take the initiative in opposing Grant’s re-election. At no time in the history of any administration was the political machinery of the Government so complete and despotic as it was under Grant, although not in any degree personally directed by himself, and it was well known that the opposition would have little voice in the regular Republican convention, and that it was entirely powerless to prevent Grant being presented as the Republican nominee. The first national conventions of the year were held at Columbus, O., in February. The Labor Reformers were first in the field, as their convention was held at Columbus on the 21st of February, with Edward M. Chamberlain, of Massachusetts, as President. This convention was made up largely or wholly of men who believed in the greenback policy, as it demanded an indefinite issue of greenbacks, which would be a legal tender for the payment of all public and private debts. The following is the full text of its platform: We hold that all political power is inherent in the people, and free government is founded on their authority and established for their benefit; that all citizens are equal in political rights, entitled to the largest religious and political liberty compatible with the good order of society, as also to the use and enjoyment of the fruits of their labor and talents; and no man or set of men is entitled to exclusive separable endowments and privileges, or immunities from the Government, but in consideration of public services; and any laws destructive of these fundamental principles are without moral binding force, and should be repealed. And believing that all the evils resulting from unjust legislation now affecting the industrial classes can be removed by the adoption of the principles contained in the following declaration, therefore,