Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1852-10-07
From The LycominF Gazette, Looofoco paper.
TutGa ESeFks.

HORSE IHiEF AND \ CANAL THIEF
IHE ANNUAL Loss SUSTAINED By
KEEPING Up THE PUBLIC NoRKs-
ANOTHER oUTRAGE--THE BINGHAM
d DocK " MONOPOLY" ON THE CoLUM-
BIA RAILROAD
We sheuld like to know what measure
of oppression, what amount of fraud,
would be Sufficient to arouse the people
OF this State to true sense of the danger
in which they are placed. The manage
ment of our public works, for a long
series OF years, has heen characterized by
lying, perjury, robbing, stealing, swind-
ling, and every other species of great ras-
cality and little rascality. At times, ca
nal commissioners, engineers, supervisors
and callectors have been implicated in the
most nefarous MISUNDERSTANDING
which, had they taken place in the pri-
vate walks of life, would have stamped
the Offenders with such indellible marks
of infamy as would have excluded them
forever from intercourse with respectable
people. 1t would seem, however, that a
new school of ethics has been established
in this unfortunate State A canal officer
may steal, with impunity, thousands of
dollars, wrung from the hard earnings of
our tax payers, and with the proceeds Of
his villany he may buy aud build houses.
So far from being punished for his whale
sale thieving, the probabilities are that he
will be retained in Office for further op-
erations-lodged sumptuousiy at the ex-
pens Of the State-and in the place of
losing caste with his political associates,
be will be permitted to get up county
convention and to arrange ticket TO suit
his larcenous propensities. But let some
poor devil Of fellow steal horse, or an
ass, or any animate or inanimate thing,
and the whole community will rise up as
one man to abtain redress for the wrong
committed against the rights of property.
The thief is pursued, caught, tried, con-
victed, sentrnced, and imprisoned. Who
has committed the greatest wrong against
society-the horse thief or the public rob-
Der? Why is it that distinction is mode
between a poor thief? Why is it that the
purloiner Of foundered quadruped is
incarcerated in peniteniary for long
term of years, and the purloiner of thous-
ands Of the peaple'S money is retained in
ofice-revarded with titles of honer-and
permitted to remain at the head Of q local
party organization
The Public works of Pennsylvania
were constructed at cost Of forty mil
lions, the annual interest of which amounts
to, in round numbers, two millions of dol
lars According to our official reports,
our public works are kept up at an ave-
rage annual loss of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars; that is, the receipts
from tolls fall short Of the expenditures
on the State roads and canals, two hun
dred and fifty thousand dollars every
year. In a word, the people of Pennsyl-
vania are paying every year two millions
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
for which they receive no adequate equiv
alent-are paying this enoamous annual
tribute for the exquisite privilege Of be-
ing robbed and plundered, and are, in
effect, martgag!ng their houses and farms
for the purpose of feeling, enriching, and
keeping together, in the fraternal bonds
of swindling, an organized band of cor
rupt politicians who have succeeded for
years and years in controlling the elec-
tions in nearly every county in the State.
If the people are willing that this State of
things should continue, We say ''amen. p
If they are willing that all their cash
means should pass from their hands into
the hands of the tax gatherer, we say
"amen" again Ifthey are willing to send
men to the Legislature who will election
eer for banks-add millions to the State
debt-and who will serve as the tool Of
the canal robbers and not as the honest
representatives of free constituency, we
say "amen' for third time. But as for
us and our house, we shall pursue diff
ferent course If Sodom would have
been saved, provided five righteous men
had been found within her walls; we
think that there is sufficient honesty, in
telligence, and independence in the demo
cratic party of old Lycoming to preserve
it from the Testing embrace of canal rob-
bers.
We cannot close this article without cal
ling the attention of our plundered fellow
tax payers to the last dodge-the last
swindle-the last outrage perpetrated on
the public works under the official sane
ton of the Canal board. 1t is we'll known
that the Columbia Railroad, like the 9TH
or State improvements, was ostensibly
constructed for the benefit of the citizens
of the commonwealth. Companies and
private Individuals had the right to run
passenger cars over the road, provided
they paid oyer to the State agent GER
tain sum for every passenger they carried,
in addition to the payment for the motive
power furnished. Within few weeks,
the Canal Commissioners have had the
cool effrontery to trample upon private