The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1846-01-29
awe are Isight!v


sentiment which will find response in the breast
of every lover of Republican simplicity and equal
rights throughout the State We are right. We
have taken ground, bold, opon and uppreciable by
every capaciry-the Issue is now The Peoples
Party against the party Of Chartered Monopoly,
Special Privileges, Partial Legislation and all
those adjuncts which tend to distribute wealth
unequally and unjustly, and give the few undue
power over the many.
Equality of righ,s is the only firm basis upon
which the glorious structure Of our Republican,
ism can long be maintained in purity and vigor
But equality of rights cannot exist under any
form OF government in which wealth ia heaped
in tho hands of a few and the many are COMPEL.
ed to toll and sweat to keep down the demon of
poverty and the approach Of want Such peo-
pie can not continue intelligent, be the facilities
Of learning ever so plenty, they are harrassed by
physical necessities, which blunt their sensibili-
ties and benumb their intellect, and leave them
the prey of the Demagogue and the Capitalist
the one to deceive them by temporary expedients,
the other to control them by his power over their
subsistence Such state of things has not yet
resulted except in isolated cases in our country,
but it has not been the providence of our legisa-
ton that has prevented it. 1t has been rather
that the broad forests and prairies of the West
open their ample bosom to receive those whom
otherwise, the abuses of legalized charters, cor.
porations, monopoly and restriction would have
devoted to unremitting scrvitude-had our bound
aries instead of embracing continent, been
confined to narrow limits.
1t has been the tendency of power hitherto, to
steal from the many to the few. In this country
party composed Of every shade of opinion from
the clustering fanatic to the cold, selfish, and
avaricious money-lender, have devoted them
selves to the curbing of freedom, making il sub
servient to their interests. Corporate monopolies
of every variety and character have been created,
which take, to the extent of their privileges, pow
er from the people, and which, as their object
is to conce nitrate wealth without labor, take
from industry its rewards TO bestow on the unde-
serving. Inmitatng the policy of England which
has wrung from her millions all but the shadow
of liberty, restrictions have been imposed upon
trade, under the protence that the interests ofabo
have demanded them, while the declining prices
Of the factory operatives prove that the tendency
Of all such restrictions but serve to coin the sweat
and sinews of industrious poverty into enormous
profits for the millionaire. In England, under the
same system, the holders of landed property CEN
tury and half ago numbered over e5O,00o, now
monopoly and special legislation have reduced
them to 10000, and the numberis continually di-
minishing. So in Ireland, her land holders lit
tie exceed nine thousand, while her people num-
Der nine millions. No wonder in that land that
misery, want and crime are sown broadcast over
her fertile soil. Such results cannot be carried
out here to the same fearfnl extent; but when we
see the Cincinnati Life and Trust Company en-
dowed with privileges which are absolutely mon
ttrous in republican country-when we I" look
at its practically unlimited capitalists perpetual
charter-lts power to demand rate of interest
limited only by the necessities of its victims and
its own heartess rapacity-its authority to vest
its capital in mortgages on real estate valued at
double the amount loanedn-and look at the Bill
reported by that arch-aristocrat, Alfred Kelley,
to give that institution the power to Bank upon
its evidences of Debt" Bills Recetrablen on
which the Company already receive Interest,"
thus doubling profits, without the slightest at
tempt TO secure the peope-when we see that
besides the iniquitous power of making their
promises TO pay, money, the State Bank of Ohio
have been empowered by this most corrupt OF
Legislatures, to deny the privilege even of
banking to all but select few, to be chosen by
the corporation of Bankers themselves! When
sefshness and avarice will net now permit even
competition among the plunderers of the people /;
are there not in these, and like facts, the most
damning evidence of matured conspiracy against
popular rights and popular equality? Is not there
abundant proof that the wings are determined to
rob labor of its reward and concentrate power in
to the possession of as base, mercenary and
mindless an arstucracy as ever cursed and pill
laged mankindg And are we not right in avow-
ing " uncompromising hostility" to such state
of things1 "If we must have masters" as John
Randolph said, "at least let it not be clerk
with quill behind his carp
The object of the Democracy is to simplify,
fine its action rather to the preservation of rights
than grants Of privileges--to enlarge the circle of
individual freedom as far as may be consistent
with general safety-to dispense as impartially
the blessings of its protection as the showers
which water the earth--not to destoy credit but
to prevent it's being forced into unnatural and
unworthy channels, to make it depend upon
honesty and capacity, rather than on the gam.
bling chances of special Legislation. Neither
does Democracy desire to take from the rich to
bestow on the poor, but rather to check the null
tiplication of laws, now too prevalent, which ar
bitrarly create these distinctions. There need