The New York herald., 1869-03-31
Our Financial and Political Piunder'
The United States Senate.


not burden, to the country. Everything
1ourished, and indefinite expansion invited in
ternal and external enterprise. Our COM
merce, 80 absolutely essential to national
greatness, was the boast of the nation, and in
every port we waged generous rivalry with
the European maritime nations for the carry
ing trade Of the world. Our foreign or regis
tered tonnage in 1857 was 2, ,463, ,967 tons. In
1867 it had decreased to 1,2lS, ,8l2 tons, allow
ing for the new system Of measurement. These
figure a decrease Of over fifty per cent in ten
years. 1t will be said that the English pratt
cal expeditions caused this. They certainly
did not cause decrease in our domestic in
land tonnage, which was, in 1864, 3,404, 506
tons, and in 1867, 2,262, ,942 tons-a decrease
Of thirty three per cent in three years.
Our national debt in 1860 was less than
sixty-fve millions of dollars. It is to-day over
two thousand five hundred millions. The ex-
penses of administration were then estimated at
sixty-two millions; now they have swollen to
over three hundred millions In 1860 the
President in his annual message, in speaking
of the finances and comparing the government
expenditures with those Of previous years,
said: San overfowing Treasury had pro-
duced habits of prodigality and extravaganza
which could only be gradually corrected" If
this was said of 1860 what should be
said of 1869? Three hundred millions
Of dollars administrative expenses against
about one-ffth that amount in 1860!
And yet we have not grown five times
as large, have not five times the population,
commerce, internal trade and general national
development wes had in 1860. 1t is true that
one hundred and forty millions Of our expendi-
lures 60 for interest; but sixty millions 60 for
civil service, the latter, an enormous amount
for the purpose. is about equal to our whole
expenses eight years ago. While all these
openly accumnlating there have been growing
up in their shadow certain associations which,
seeing how poorly guarded Is the national
wealth, have, with satanic wisdom, supposed
that in the decline Of all prosperity it is well
to struggle for the spoils. These associations
curse us more than our real national debt,
and when we consider how they bleed us Of
our wealth we feel that our interest-bearing
debt is something near ten thousand millions
of dollars.
So great is the influence of the associations
emanating from the Illicit manufacture of
whiskey, from the building of railroads with
the public plunder, and the thousand and one
minor 'jobs" that lance the veins of the nation,
that they may be said to rule what honest, un-
suspecting people are under the delusion Is
our republic. The ''rings" have wormed into
Congress until its principal branch stands like
rotton log in our pathway. They gathered
from the debris Of the war, from >he wreck of
our commerce, from the national debt, and
from the many evils that the last eight years
have engrafted upon us all the elements OF
financial and consequent political cor
ruption, and have rolled them under
the wings Of that august old hen, the Senate OF
the United States There she sits in her wis
dom, mounted upon the hundreds of millions
of annual spoils, clucking and clucking over
the eggs, twisting them, turning them and try
ing to hatch something acceptable from them.
The only product that marks the last four
years Of this Senatorial incubation is the Ten
ure of Office act, and to this bird of evil omen
the Senate clngs with such tenacity as any
old hen ever clung to q single chicken.
We have in o few bold dashes shown our
financial and commercial condition. We pre-
sent the picture to the Senate. Docs 1t sup
pose that the nation will tolerate it much
longer If it clings to and protects everything
that threatens political dissolution and the
ruin Of our prosperity? 1t mistakes the
temper of our people. We are not made of
such poor material. The refusal to repeal the
Tenure of Office act after the people, by elect
ing Grant, repealed 1t by their votes, shows
to-day that the Senate Is in conflict with the
people, who fancy that they placed the Senators
in their seats to make such laws as the States
North and South desire. Instead OF taking
this view of it the Senate has become so cor
rupt that, in its blindness, 1t imagnes that it is
simply party instrument placed in power TO
control the vast wealth Of the nation and
make such laws as the subtle brains Of the
men behind the scenes may suggest as neces-
sary to increase the plunder.
Death sometimes occurs because the remedy
Is applied too late. 1t Is often 50 in the his
tory Of nations. The people have too often
waited until the wall Of revolution was forced
from them by the very weight Of intolerable
government. The people Of the United States
have the sense to profit by historical precedent
and reason from 1t. They will not wait until
the Senate, after destroying the executive
power, usurps also that Of the Judiciary and en-
thrones itself upon the ruins Of our constitu-
tion. They will at once decide that it is better
for the nation to overturn the Senate than to
have the Senate 60 on in its usurpations until
IL overturns the nation. Both these measures
would be revolutionary; but lesser revolu-
tion at once Is better than great revolution
in the future. The former would be effected