The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-05-26
D. C..
HOW WE ARE GOVERNED.

accession to power under Mr.. Tyler's admins
Fration, in 1912, and that the principles and
policy of Mr.. Calhoun, according to which the
Government has been conducted during that
7ime, are obnoxious to great majority of the
people. 1t follows from this, that the rule of
1he minority has been substituted in our Gov
eminent for that of the majority. 1t is impor-
rant to inquire how this great change has been
effected.
The combination of the property holders in
7he States in which Slavery exists, effected by
working upon the cupidity, pride, and ambition,
of most of them, through the questions con-
nected with Slavery which have been made
for that purpose, is obviously the basis of this
revolution.
The property holders, 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 expenditure
during this period points to the means by which
they have been enabled to make that division
in the North which is the other requisite to
their ascendency. They have some natural al
lies at the North, as there are some there, as
everywhere, who would support class or aristo
cratic government, from innate hostility to pop
nlar government But it is by the public money
and Office, and by the immense power exercised
by the Departments over the business relations
Of the people-as, for example, the practically
unlimited discretion exercised by the Depart
ment of the Interior over the land titles in the
new Ststes-which enables them to support a
corps of mercenaries, distributed throughout
the North, to maintain party name and organ
ization, to dupe multitudes, and TO perpetrate
1he frauds on the ballotboxes now systemati-
caly resorted to- to carry the important elections.
This system Of organized fraud was first put in
operation in California, and so successfully that
1t 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 Kan
sas, in ST. Louis, in Detroit, in New York, and
IN numerous other places, even in Maine, among
Others The public attention has been particu-
larry attracted TO the frauds in Kansas, which |
have been investigated by committees of Con-
gress and it has been seen with what efront- |
cry, and utter disregard of appearances even,
they were perpetrated by officers in the General |
Government and that, so far from being re-
buked or punished for it, their acts have been |
defended by the Administration, which has
thus demonstrated that these acts were approved, |
if not instigated, by the President. The frauds
in Maine, which were investigated by the Leg |
islature, were also the work of officers of the |
United States. The fraud by which the Penn
sylvania election of October, 1856, was carried,
which decided the Presidential election of that |
year, was judicially 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 Ia short, the details are only what |
it might be foreseen they must necessarily be,
where a party attempts to maintain itself in
power against public sentiment. Fraud OF force |
must be resorted to.
1t could also be foreseen 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 expend-
iture made for Utah and Paraguay expeditions,
for the army and navy, for public buildings 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 that the ostensible
are not the real objects Of the expenditure.
The primary object with the organization,
both in its Congressional and Executive agents,
is to supply the means to hold power in defiance
of public opinion. Nor can it be expected that |
men in such positions will scruple to evade the
laws or regulations which are in the way of
their devOting to such objects large portions of
money put into their hands. But the investi |
cations of various committees of the last House |
of Representatives, in reference to certain trans
actions of the former Clerk of the House, of |
the Superintendent of Public Printing, of the |
Printer, of the War and Navy Departments,
supply copious details of the system by which |
the public money passes into the hands of the |
discussing agents of the organization. The re-
port of the Naval Investigating Committee, and |
the evidence accompanying it, is especially in
structive, and shows how exclusively the Ex-
ecutive is occupied in disbursing public money,
in turning ii to political account, and how Sec
Ondary the ostensible objects of appropriations
are to the paramount object of maintaining
n Il
actions brought in review by the report and evil
depce proves this; but the transactions with
w. c. n. Swift, who advanced $4,000 to carry
the Pennsylvania election above referred to, and
was repaid in a purchase from him of refuse
how the public money is applied to such pur-
poses, how the laws and regulations are evaded
10 do so, and how gentlemen, even Of the high
standing of Mr.. Bocock, are obliged to excuse
and defend these fragrant abuses by the moral
duress TO which they subject themselves by ad
herring TO the organization. He is, however
unable TO Disguise the real character of the
transaction, although he does not state the facts
Sherman presents them. Yet that no one may
saw that the facts are overstated here, we ex-
tract Mr. Bococks whole statement of the trans
action from the Report, at page 30. He says
"The Secretary declined Ito purchase the
TIMBER on the ground that he had no power to
purchase without having first advertised for
proposals, in order that the wants of the Gov