Selfish men and ambitious men
got the ear of that simple and confiding President. They
studied Grant, some of them, as the shoemaker measures the
foot of his customer. Mr. Sumner and Mr. Schurz and Mr.
Trumbull and Mr. Greeley and the New York _Tribune,_ and
the Springfield _Republican,_ and the Chicago _Tribune,_ and
the St. Louis _Republican,_ and scores of other men and other
papers left the party. They were, so long as they maintained
that attitude, absolutely without political influence from
that moment. When the great reforms which were attempted
were accomplished, they were not there. The reforms were
accomplished. But their names were wanting from the honorable
roll of the men who accomplished them. President Grant himself
and President Hayes and Judge Hoar and Mr. Cox and General
Garfield, and others, if there are other names honorable enough
to be mentioned along with these, stayed in the Republican
Party. They purified the administration. They accomplished
civil service reform. They helped to achieve the independence
of American manufacture. They kept the faith.
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