Bloomsburg democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1867-1869, 1868-09-16

from those political communities ah9
they be permitted to form or amend
their own institutions precisely as we in
Pennsylvania are authorized to form or
amend ours We say further that this sys..
tenn of unrestricted negro suffrage is evil
and must lead to bad and deplorable conse'
quenccs in the future. Why, is it not man
ifest to any man of intelligence who has
considered this subject that unlimited COL
ored suffrage in the South means corrupt
elections hereafter. That this large mass Of
voters will be influenced by appeals to their
passions, uninstructed and uncultivated as
they are, nobody can question. But they
will be more largely and fatally subject to
the influence Of money,to the distribution OF
the good things Of this life by which their
votes will be affected, and this will extend
through the whole mass OF the communities
which compose those States We know
that the great evil we have to guard against
here, North, and in fact the evil to be most
guarded against in all free countries, is the
corruption of the electoral body SO long
as the great mass of the electoral population
remains sound and pure you can maintain
free government. When influences come into
existence that taint and corrupt it essential
w. the government must change Its form.
When the people become too base for free
institutions, they will depart from them
some new form Of government better suited
to their natures and to their condition Will
take the place Of the old This is the his
tory of the world from the beginning. We
look upon the establishment Of this system
Of unlimited negro suffrage in the South as
a judgment Of degradation upon our, poltl-
cal institutions and when we behold this
consequence following upon usurpation we
see clearly how necessary it is to maintain
the old doctrine upon which our govern
ment was founded, and down until recent
times administered, that Congress shall ey-
ert no power which has not been clearly con-
terred upon it by the fundamental law.
THE DEMOCRATIC POLICY.
Now, gentlemen, what do those who speak
for the Opposition party because We may
now describe ourselves as such) teach and
proclaim in this contest? They teach and
they proclaim two things as the material
and vital matters for consideration by the
people first, that this system of reconstruc-
ton mus. be abandoned at least so far as the
federal government is concerned, and next,
that the expenses of the federal government
and its imposition of burdens upon the
people must be thoroughly reformed. What
makes expense =? Departures from the Con-
stltntion. What makes burdens upon the
people ? An expanded system Of federal
government. So that to whichever Of these
questions-reconstruction or public expcn-
dlture-you turn your attention, you find
that it establishes or vindicatcs the propo-
sitlon with which / began, that this govern
mcnt of ours must be administered as re-
stricted and limited government, leaving the
great mass of political powers to be exercised
in the States, in the localities where their
exercise is required, and that upon this
doctrine alone can our government he main
tained and be made to subserve the interests
OF the people.
GOVERNMENT EXPENSES AND REVENUE.
Now take this matter of expense. l
have already spoken Of rcconstruction.-
Over fifteen hundred millions of dollars were
collected from the people of the United
States in thiity-six months, beginning July
!, 1865, and ending June 80, 1868, reducing
the gold duties on imports to the grecIback
standard. Between fifteen and sixteen
hundred millions of dollars were collected
of the people of the United States by their
government in those three years. How
much of that has been paid on the public
debt? A comparatively small amount
Most of it has been expended by govern
ment upon current objects. have an idea
that six hundred millions of that mass Of
money should have been paid upon the
principal of the public debt. In my judg-
ment that would have left US plenty of
money to pay the interest on the debt, which
must be met, and pay literally for pensions
and bounties and all other legitimate and
proper objects of government outlay. But
it has cost you one hundred millions Of dol
lars year to keep up your army in time of
peace. Fifty-six thousand men are arrayed
under the flag of the United States, when
10000 or Is, 900 would be adequate. Your
navy has cost thirty or forty millions year,
which should have been eight Or ten mil
lions at the utmost. The Freedmen Bu-
reau has cost an amount that nobody can
compute, because the facts cannot be fully
known. In 1866 Congress appropriated
over six millions to that Bureau specifically,
and in the next year nearly four millions
but part of the outlays by that Bureau do
not appear in appropriations devoted to it
expressly; they are covered up in army ap-
preparations, because army supplies have
been turned over largely to it. A large
number of the officers of the Bureau have
been army officers and it was measure of
economy to employ them; but if there had
been no such Bureau in existence, all those
officers and the men connected with them
might have been discharged and returned to
the pursuits of private life. Congress,
which formerly authorized an expenditure
of $4,000 a year for publishing the laws,
last year spent three times that amount for
that purpose. This is sample item, re-
ported to us by the Department Of State.
Congress increased its own compensation
over $6OO,OO0 in the item Of salaries. BY
reducing the compensation to $4,000 a year,
which would be sufficient, there would be a
saving now of S3l7. 900 per annum--more
than quarter of million! The contin
gences and incidentals Of the two Houses Of
Congress are enormous and scandalous
half a million could easily be struck of
without impairing the energy of the gov
crnment in either one of these Houses.
But | cannot go over the various items
upon which there has been undue outlay
and upon which there might be retrcnch
ment. The general result we have before
us and undisputed- fifteen hundred millions
of dollars collected in thirty-six months, ter
and half millions week, million and &
half day and nearly the whole Of it ex
pended upon other objects beside the public
debt. Nobody has ever pretended tha
more than two hundred and fifty. millions