first post-election utterance. It is in itself an event of great importance.
But in spite of the favorable impression produced by it on the Independents and those Republicans who, although they did not vote for you, more or less sympathized with us, there is still a drift of feeling prevalent among a great many of them, which manifests itself in such things as the following paragraph taken from the Boston Advertiser, a paper which advocated your election quite heartily [quotation omitted].
I have found similar things in other papers. This indicates a lingering of the old distrust of all Democrats, and a latent inclination to return to old political associations—watching you, as you fight your battle, not without some sympathy and hope, but after all from the standpoint of a doubting and critical “opposition.” There would be sound reason for this if there were any great divergence between you and them as to the objects to be accomplished, or if you were certain to be overborne by the adverse influences in your party. But considering that your political purposes and those of the Independents and liberal Republicans are in the main the same, as I think they are, and that you have the support or acquiescence of a strong enough portion of the Democratic party to make success appear at least possible, and that, moreover, in a certain sense you will have to make the party of the future, this attitude of critical opposition or expectancy is simply calculated to prevent or at least delay the reorganization of political forces and the concentration of energies for harmonious effort which must take place to render that success certain. These are the arguments I have been using with my friends as far as I could reach them, to make them understand that in the difficult struggles you will have to go through for the accomplishment of our common object, we should not stand by and wait to see
