Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-27

and force, and In defiance Of the DECLARE
tons OF the very men who have now re
constructed" them, will hold the balance
Of power ia legislation, Without any
stnke themselves, and with no form OF
responsibility TO constituents, they come
here with the power, not only 10 legislate
for great national interests, but 10 Tact,
with The control Of legislation In their
hands. Twenty Senators, chosen by the
Freedmen's Bureau and o few satraps,
NAV negative the votes Of New York,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota oai'-
fornia and Maine. They have no inter-
est 10 protect but their own. they re-
spect nothing but themselves. They are
mere drugs thrown to the surface by .
violent fermentation, who, by natural
law, will settle to the bottom as soon rs
the disturbing cause disappears. Inc
precarious tenure Of their appointments,
and the certainty that they will be re-
yoked whenever the people can speak Tor
themselves, render them necessarily IN,
different to obligations which would bind
representative men, IT they have the
other qualities which even their assurance
has not YET ventured TO claim.
A practical idea Of the moral worth OF
this class of men may be formed from
the experience of the carpetbag dele
rates who attended the Chicago Conven-
ttion from the South. They offered them
selves openly for sale to the highest
bidder, and II is said the delegation from
Louisiana was purchased, for three dif-
ferent candidates. It is notorious that
many of them were finally sold fer their
hotel bills and travelling expenses. These
facts are indisputable, and are derived
from the most reliable Radical sources,
and most of them have been published
in leading Radical journals.
These delegates were worthy compan-
ions of the Senators and members who
are to figure here, and it is not difficult
to estimate the commercial value Of the
same article by the prices which recently
ruled at Chicago. 1t is q saddening
spectacle to see our representative sys-
tenn disfgured in the worlds estimation,
and disgraced in our own, by such per-
version as this for partisan purpose.
Well may men doubt about the perma-
nence of free institutions, when the worst
appliances of despotism, and the most
degraded instruments of barbarism, are
employed to carry out the ends Of party
protesting to be republican"
The Radicals we're exclusively rcspon-
sible for legislation heretofore, in con-
sequence of their overwhelming msjori-
ties, obtained by the most iniquitous
means. Now they have assumed an
additional responsibility, and will be
held to strict account for the twenty-five
Senators and fifty Representatives, who
they have introduced into Congress, to
increase the burdens of the Northern
taxpayer, to vote for reputation in
every form that may be presented,
and to control legislation in the in
terest of corrupt corporations and
monopolies. We under
take to say that this is the dearest
acquisition yet made, and that the peo-
pie before long will cry out for the ex-
pulsioH of every carpet bag adventurer
who has been brought here to augment
the power of Radicalism at the cost of
every material interest, and to put in
peril the stability of this government
Should the precedent be acknowledged,
what security would there be left for in
stitutions like ours 1t is bad imita-
ton of the constitutional monarchies of
Europe, where the sovereign increases
the number Of peers in the Seate at will,
in order to strengthen a falling ministry
against the popular will. Radicalisrn
orders representation made for Con
gress, and military satraps execute its
commands; and the tools Of THU tyranny
are called senators and repre- seutatives