The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-08-23

violate them whenever they stood in the way
of the accomplishment of their purposes.
(Cries of "That's just it.") We have heard
it declared upon the floor of congress, in the
senate of the United States, that everything
that INSTRUCTED their purposes must be re-.
moved, though the obstruction be the consti-
tuition ITSELF the palladium Of our liberties.
We have seen the councils of our nation con-
trolled, not by that calm reason and noble
department. which were exercised by those
who welded the destinies of this government
IN Its earlier and better days but we have
seen them prostituted to the greed of self
aggrandlzement, and overridden by those
who are filled with the unenviable ambition
10 grow great at the expense of the country,
and at the expense of the people.
these things we have witnessed within the
last few years. We have seen courts consti-
tuted for the purpose of trampling upon the
very organic laws of the land that they were
bound and sworn to protect and preserve.
We have seen men in power run riot, feeling
that they were only responsible to the faction
that created them, at the expense OF the
great mass of the people of our country.
Our government, then, so far from oelng one
which operates equally upon all classes CT
the community, and diffuses its blessings,
like the dews of heaven, upon all, would
seem. in the estimation of those who control
its destinies, to have been formed for the pur-
pose OF benehting the few of power and
wealth, to the exclusion and detriment of
the great mass of the people who are inter-
ested IN its faithful administration and the
equality OF its operation, and who remember
with sorrow the men who formed the base
upon which our republican institutions were
erected.
THE CONGRESSIONAL UsURPATIoNS,
u shall not undertake, upon the present
occasion, to discuss the usurpations of the
last and prlor congress of the United States.
| merely allude to them for the purpose of
stating that their action is dangerous to civil
liberty in our country, and that it behooves
every mani care not what his political feel
ings may be, whether he be democrat or a
republican-to cast about him and see what
is, and must be, the effect of such disregard
of the fundamental laws of the land and
thereby to prepare himself by such lights as
he has before him, to guard against the dam
ages consequent upon such action.
THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.
1t is my purpose to-day to address you
more particularly upon the financial condi-
ton of our country; and | leave to others
(who shall follow me, and who can better
elucidate them than can u the discussion OF
those other issues in which we are all so
deeply interested. leave it to them who
have been eye-witnessess of the scenes that
have been transpiring in the congress of the
United States, to portray before this people
the danger of longer permitting the assump-
tons of which that congress has been guilty
composed, as it is, of body of men who
set at defiance the President of the United
States, who set at defiance the supreme
court ofthe United States, who set at defiance
the constitution of the United States,-and
who know no law except the passion of the
hour.
1t will be my purpose my fellow citizens, to
| show you, if / can, that the policy Inaugural
| ted in reference to our finances. by the re
| publican party that is welding the destiny
| of our government to-day, is most ruinous il
| its consequences to the people, and must nj
| timately lead to the bankruptcy of the coun
| try, nationally and individually considered
| This policy of theirs, its detrimental inlu
| ence, is felt not only in the adjustment OF
| the tariff laws, but is more severely felt ii
their financial scheme for the aggrandize
| ment of one portion of the country to the
oppression of another, and in the matter o
the currency that they have furnished III
| with, and in the enormous debt which they
| have imposed upon the country: and it is il
| regard to these points that, as | said before
| desire more particularly to invite your
attention.