Somewhere
about 1880, being in Boston, he gave an interview to one of
the papers in which he commented very severely on the want
of able leadership in the Republican Party in Massachusetts.
I suppose the criticism was directed at me, although he did
not mention my name. In 1880 Massachusetts gave a Republican
majority of 48,697, and Kansas a Republican majority of 41,897.
Mr. Ingalls's leadership in Kansas had been manifested very
largely in the control of official patronage. He said in
the Senate that he and his colleague sought to get rid of
all Democrats in office in Kansas as with a fine-toothed comb.
So far as I had been concerned, and so far as the Republican
leaders in Massachusetts had been concerned, with the exception
of General Butler, a different policy had been adopted. We
had never attempted to make a political instrument of official
patronage. There had never been anything like a "boss" or
a machine. Our State politics had been conducted, and our
candidates for office nominated, after the old fashion of
a New England town meeting. When an election approached,
or when a great measure or political question was to be decided,
men who were influential consulted together informally, ascertained
the public sentiment, deferred to it, if it seemed to be right,
and did what they could to persuade it and guide it by speech
and discussion in the press, if it needed guidance, and trusted,
hardly ever in vain, to the intelligence of the people for
the result.
Pages:
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910