t has been
in several of our National Conventions an uncertain and an
untrustworthy force.

The Republican nominating convention of 1876 was held at Cincinnati
on June 14. The delegates from Massachusetts were:

_At Large._--E. R. Hoar, Richard H. Dana, Jr., Paul A. Chadbourne,
John M. Forbes.

_From Districts._--William T. Davis, Robert T. Davis, John
E. Sandford, Edward L. Pierce, Henry D. Hyde, J. Felt Osgood,
Alpheus Hardy, C. R. McLean, James M. Shute, James F. Dwinal,
George B. Loring, Henry Carter, William A. Russell, C. H.
Waters, James Freeman Clarke, James Russell Lowell, A. J.
Bartholomew, George F. Hoar, James F. Moore, William Whiting,
Edward Learned, S. R. Phillips.

The struggle for the nomination equalled in bitterness and
in importance many of the contests between different political
parties that had preceded it. While the great majority of
the Republicans retained confidence in the personal integrity
and patriotism of President Grant, it had become painfully
manifest that he was often an easy victim to the influence
of unscrupulous and designing men. Grant never lost his hold
upon the hearts of the Northern people. Wherever there was
a contest in any State for political supremacy the least worthy
faction frequently got his ear and his confidence. He never
wavered in his attachment to the doctrines of his party--
protection, sound principles of finance and currency, honesty
in elections. But the old political leaders, whom the people
most trusted, were more and more strangers to his presence,
and ambitious and designing men, adventurers who had gone
South to make fortunes by holding office, men interested in
jobs and contracts, thronged the ante-chambers of the White
House. The political scandals, always likely to follow a
great war, seemed to be increasing rather than diminishing
during his second term of office.

I never though that the proper way to put an end to this
state of things was to abandon what I deem sound political
principles, or to abandon the party that was formed to establish
them. I should as soon have thought of turning Tory because
of like complaints in the Revolutionary War, or of asking
George III. to take us into favor again because of like scandals
which existed during the Administrations of Washington and
John Adams. But I thought, in common with many others, that
a party of sound principles could be made and should be made
a party of pure politics.

The tw