ded and courted by men who have long purred
about every new Administration.... Some of these disinterested
patriots and reformers have been since the days of Pierce the friends
and suitors of all Administrations and betrayers of all. The assaults
they incite are somewhat annoying. It would have been a luxury to
unfrock some of them, but it has seemed to me the duty of every
sincere Republican to endure a great deal rather than say anything to
introduce division or controversy into party ranks.... I am for
peace.... I am for everything tending to that end.... I am for one
thing more--the success of the Administration in everything that is
just and wise and real."

The Senator thought Hayes deserved the same support other Republican
administrations had received. Whenever he is right he should be
sustained; whenever misled by unwise or sinister advice, dissent
should be expressed. This right of judgment is the right of every
citizen. He exercised it in Congress under Lincoln and Grant, who
never deemed an honest difference of opinion cause for war or quarrel,
"nor were they afflicted by having men long around them engaged in
setting on newspapers to hound every man who was not officious or
abject in fulsomely bepraising them. The matters suggested by the
pending amendment," he continued, "are not pertinent to this day's
duties, and obviously they are matters of difference. They may promote
personal and selfish aims, but they are hostile to concord and good
understanding between Republicans at a time when they should all be
united everywhere, in purpose and action. Let us agree to put
contentions aside and complete our task. Let us declare the purposes
and methods which should guide the government of our great State."

After this plea for harmony, the Senator commented briefly upon the
remarks of other delegates, complimented Platt, and then turned again
upon Curtis. Being assured that the latter did not refer to him as the
Senator for whom Lincoln looked under the bed, he concluded: "Then I
withhold a statement I intended to make, and I substitute for it a
remark which I hope will not transgress the proprieties or liberties
of this occasion. It is this: If a doubt arose in my mind whether the
member from Richmond intended a covert shot at me, that doubt sprang
from the fact that that member has published, in a newspaper, touching
me, not matters political--political assaults fairly conducted no man
ever heard me complain