The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1861-04-27
them occupies upon the ticket has been


| bought and paid for.
| This thorough and systematic corruption
| at elections. necessarily eliminates in the
| legislative action of those thus selected,
and thus elected. As they have bought
| their offices, they will lose no chance to
make the thing pay handsomely as an in
| vestment. All legislative actien thus be.
comes corrupt. but it is a geometrical rate
of increase. 1t is corruption raised to the
second power. And as such business is
dangerous when transacted between prin-
| cip3ls. that extraordinary bone of Ameri-
can legislation has been developed and
perfected-ths Lobby. These lobby men
have az keen a scent for jobs as .jackall
for carrion and by mutual arrangements
| log-rolling, and the linking of various
schemes together, a vast complication Of
| corruption is woven around our legislative
bodies as the folds of the net are gather
ed about the shoals of silly fish All
| grades Of office are tainted with this job
| berry in office and legislation from the
President Of the United States and mem
| bers Of his Cabinet-as testified before
| Committees Of Cohgress,-down to door
| keepers and messengers and pages. And
all political parties are spotted with the
leprosy Of it, whether at Washington, or
in Wisconsin, in Albany or Maine, in
Rhode Island or in California. So low has
the public service fallen in the estimation
of the public itself, that to become can
didate is suspicious and to be elected is
almost fatal to all reputation for integrity
Of character
The judiciary has been the last to fall
but, in parts of our country, and especially
here in New York, it is rapidly decaying
| by the same miserable process. The
/ judges too must now be elected by the
people :" and must therefore be pu. upon
the track by the bulliss of the parties,
/ Just like other nominees, And this city
has been the scandal OF Judge on the
Bench, passing upon one OF the ruffians
/ to whom he owed his own nomination and
election, and gratefully awarding him a
fine OF only a sIxpcnce, for outrages against
the peace Of the community which ought
to have sent him to the State prison for
years.
What can be the general moral tone of
n nation whose very posts OF honor are
looked uron by its own best citizens, as
marks of personal disgrace;
AS domestic and local politics have be-
come more and more corrupt, and as the
growing prosperity of the nation at large
removed one subject OF dispute after
other out Of the political arena, what was
]
vote once or twice every year at least, and
whose yotings are generally guided by
party considerations and dictated by party
men, Hsust absolutely haze some question u be
dicided about lfthe characters OF the can
didates will not bear much canyasSIug. and
/ the mode by which they have been
brought out rs worse, the necessity Is eniy
the more absolute for some prtn7pics on
which to appeal to the public for votes.
As these 'principles are thus an abso-
soiute necessity Tor party action ana as
things AT home will not bear scrutiny, the
experiance OF ali Buucomte has demon
strated the Immense superiority OF prIn-
ciples that concern only the state OF things
800 or 1909 miles off, and in regard TO
which there is very strong popular feeling,
but no serious chance Of any exposure or
correction. Accordingly, the natural pre-
JUDGES and strong feelings of 10th sections
of the Union have been, with persever!u .
consrtency, played upon during .long
course of years. The Southern Press has
copied consclentious!y every fierce out
break OF Antl slavery fanstici>m or Aboii-
toe extravaganza, and the Southern mind
has thus been filed with the idea that tin
whole North is essentially Abolition is,,
and determined to DESTROY their most i'm
poTtant roperty interest as soon as Il has
chance. The North has similarly been
filled with extracts from Southern papers,
! giving utterance to the most intense ha-
tired OF the North and everything that be
longs 10 II; while the reproduction oi
, speeches and articles on the revival of the
: slave trade and slavery extension has con
WINGED large portion Of the No.tn tina,
, the horrors of thrt trade are to be r, open
ed if the South can do it, and that negro
slavery is 20 be extended until it cover.
the whole North rs we'll as the South
This systematic misrepresentation and ma
: lignng has now been going for many
. years on both sides; and as Il coroliGgy ic
I II, each has learned IN a great measure to
I despise as well as hate the other Tn,
7 North has despi>ed the South as numer:
+ cally inferior, and poorer and a distin
r guished mainly by braggadocia, and emp
i ty, noisy, se!i-concciled defamation. AuC
e the South has claimed all the chiyalry fol
r herself denouncing the North as 30 spin il
e less that il wouli not fight or resent al
e insult, and so mercenary that no matte
y how deeply il was humiia;ed it wCul,
o submit to everything provided it were onl-
d once permitted to trade and make money
IS OF course large numbers of the est me,
n in both sections have been untainted b,
II ali This; but the general tone Of both sec
8. tions has been running more and more 70
i wears into mutual elimination and cor
e tempt
y When the nation has sunk to this dc
o gree.-when it forgets that the civil power
e are OF God and claims that they are onl
o Of the People and when the People, afte
70 thus arrogating the irresponsible exercis
D. of power in which they ignore God
g have come to hate and despise one another
d when corruption dogs every artery an,
D. vein of the national life when professec
e ministers of Christ proclaim in sui stance
is as the highest quientessence of the ney
e Gospel of the day, GLORY 10 God in tn
Is highest, and on earth WAR, ILI-will toward
Y, men; and wi en-, at the bitterest an,
IS most savage outbursts of this fierce hatred
rs and OH the Lord day, and in what the
o call the Lords House, these matches
:, Christians rise en- maSse, and shout witt
lrrespres sible enthusiasm until the build
a ing rings again:-when the nation and tn
' nations popular" religion, have coma t
e such pass as this what wonder is it tina
( the heavy hand of God should send us tn
e sharp and bitter medicine of Civil War
N What wonder that armies should be mar
r. shalling for the deadly contest with breth
;, rem, at the North , and East, and Wes,
e and South? What wonder that the Ma
!. tional capitol should become living arse
g nal of rifles and bayonets? What wonde
e that all commerce and manufactures ar
d stagnant or destroyed, except the fearful
d industry and indomitabie despatch il
q making and forwarding all the means Q
h human slaughter? What wonder that il
e all those innumerable cases where ther
/: are the ties Of parents or children or kin
e dred or friends in both parts Of the cour
cfa 81 IN