Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian., 1859-06-04

HOW WE ARE GOVERNED.
4 1t is undoubtedly true, both that the coun
try has been governed by Mr.. Calhoun and
his disciples, with brief interval, ever since
his accession to power under Mr.. Tyler's ad
ministration, in 1S42, and that the principles
and policy of Mr.. Calhoun, according to which
the Government has been conducted during
that time, are obnoxious to a great majority
of thepeople. 1t follows from this, that the
rule of the minority has been substituted in
our Government for that of the majority. II
is important to inquire how this great change
has been effected ''i-
The combination of the property-holders in
the States in which Slavery exists, effected
by w0rking upon the cupidity, pride, and am,
bition Of most of them, through the questions
connected with Slavery, which have been
made for that purpose, is obviously the basis
of this revolution
The property when combined, can
readily obtain political power at the outset Of
a contest. AS the individuals of this class
are for the most part interested in Slavery, it
is not surprising that they should be combined
by questions connected with that institution,
and that they should thus far have dominated
in the Southern States during the period in
question.
The enormous increase of public expendi-
ture during this period points to the means by
which they have been enabled to make that
division in the North, which is the other re-
quisite to their ascendancy. They have some
natural allies at the North as there are some
there, as everywhere, who would support a
class or aristocratic government, from innate
hostility to popular government But it is
by the public money and Office, and by the
immense powers exercised by the Depart
ments over the business relations of the peo-
pleas, for example, the practically unlimited
discretion exercised by the Department of the
Interior over the land titles in the new States
which enables them to support corps of
mercenaries, attributed throughout the North,
to maintain party name and organization, to
dupe multitudes, and to perpetrate the frauds
on the baliot-boxes now Systematically resort
ed to, to carry the important elections. This
system of organized fraud was first put in op-
Grafton in California, and 50 successfully that
it is not believed that any election has in fact
ever taken place in that State since 1850. 1t
has been since applied in Pennsylvania, in
Kansas, in st. Louis, in Detroit, in New
York, and in numerous other places, even in
Maine, among others. The public attention
has been particularly attracted to the frauds
in Kansas, which have been investigated by
committees of Congress and it has been saen
with what effrontery, ind utter disregard of
appearances even, they were perpetrated by
officers in the General Government; and that,
so far from being rebuked CT CT punished for it,
their acts have been defended by the Admin
istration, which has thus demonstrated that
these acts were approved, if not instigated, by
the President. The frauds in Maine, which
were investigated by the Legislature, were al
so the work c: officers of the United States.
The fraud by which the Pennsylvania election
of October, 1886, was carried, which decided
the Presidential election of that year, was ju-
dicialiy proved in the contest made by Mr..
Mann, the Republican candidate for District
Attorney at that election.
The evidence taken, and to be submitted to
the next Congress- in relation to the elections
in the other places named above, show similar
proceedings. In short, the details are only
what it might be foreseen they must necessa-
rily be, where a party attempts to maintain it
self in power against public sentiment Fraud
or force must be rcsorted to.
I 1t could also be toreseen that the money to
pay the perpetrators of these abuses would in
some form come from the Treasury, for the
people always have to pay for the appliances
by which they are subjected
No one who compares the enormous eXpen-
diture made for Utah and Paraguay expedi,
tons, for the army and navy, for public build.
ings and vessels, or indeed for every object
with the result obtained, and remembers that
the men under whom all this apparent waste
is committed are not fools, can fail to see thai
the ostensible are not the real objects of the
expenditure.
The primary object with the organization
both in its Congressional and Executive a
gents, is to supply the means to hold power
in defiance of public opinion. Nor can it b.
expected that men in such positions will scru
pie to evade the laws or regulations which arr
in the way of their devoting to such objects
large portions Of money put into their hands
But the investigations of various committee
of the last House Representatives, in refer
ence to certain transactions of the forrne
Clerk of the House, of the Superintendent 0
Public Printing, of the Printer, of the Wa
and Navy Departments, supply copious detail
Of the system by which the public none,
passes into the hands of the disbursing agent
of the organization. The report of the Nava
Investigating Committee, and the evidenc
accompanying it, is especially instructive, an
shows how exclusively the Executive is occr
pied in disbursing public money, in turning
to political account, and how secondary til
ostensible objects of appropriations are to tt
paramount object of maintaining possession
the Government. All the transactions bro
! in review by the report and evidence prove
this; but the transactions with w. N.
Swift, who advanced $4,000 to carry tn
Pennsylvania election above referred to, an
was repaid in purchase from him Of yefus
live-oak timber, will be sufficient to ilustra
Row the public money is applied to such pu
poses, how the laws and regulations are ev'
ded to do, and how gentlemen, even of tt
, high standing of Mr.. Bocock, are obliged
E excuse and defend these fragrant abuses b
f the moral duress to which they subject then
i selves hv adherino tc tie organization. lis