Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1869-09-08

utCS of 1868. You seem to be as care
less in fixing the amount of local levie'
provided for, as in the number of act;
passed; neither of which bears any spe
cific relation to the actual facts. No
less than three-fOUTths of all the specia
levies authorized were for the large
cities. The levies authorized for the
city of Cincinnati alone exceeds all 9th
eT leviOs. That city and Hamilton
county were represented by eleven Rep
ublican members, all of whom united il
the passage Of the bills of which you
complain. The only opposition they
encountered was from Democrats.
Special legislation is, as a general rule
expensive and vicious. The present
Constitution was intended to prohibit al
legislation of that character. In lS5t
the KnOw-NOthing Republican Legisla'
tUTe commenced restricting the author
ity of counties, townships, and cities, tC
make leVies for ordinary purposes
/ These restrictions, under the Legislature
/ of 1862, were carried to such an CN-
tremity that Improvements of every
kind were prohibited, and it was with
extreme difficulty that sufficient money
could be received by taxation for cur
rent expenses. If q court house, Jail, in
firmarV or union school was burned
down, or a bridge swept away by high
water, there was no means fOrTebuilding
it, except by application to the General
/ Assembly to authorize 4 special levy fol
such purpose. There were upwards OF
eleven hundred bills introduced into the
Fifty eighth General Assembly, a very
large portion of which were to author
ize special Ievies. The evil was seen and
felt, especially by the committees ia
. al, ,.,f.ur.rI
conceded that the General Assembly
would need to be in perpetual session to
act intelligently upon all such bills. In
order to avoid this vicious system OF
special legislation consequent upon the
restrictive policy adopted by former leg
islatUres, measures of general legisla-
ton were devised and passed into the
laws, covering the whole matter Of lev
les for the erection of town houses,
court houses, jails, infirmaries, bridges,
and union school houses. In addition tC
these may be included the Municipal
! Code" which provides a complete sys,
tenn of government for villages and
cities; and a system Of finance that eff
fectually superseded the whole system
of special legislation. BY reference tC
the Ormerit will beseen that these meas
Ures general legislation were supported
alike by Democrats and Republicans
/ While these measures were chiefly IN
trOdUced by Democratic members, the
real Legislators of your own party, Il al
Iude to such men as Col. Pond, AIessrs
/ Garfield, Dixon, and Dennis, of the
House, and to Messrs. Burrows and EV'
erett of the Senate), were active and eff
ficient in Maturing the bills, and in the
advocacy of their passage.
You further charge that "they the
/ Legislature added the State liabilities
for various purchases about 81, ,5OO,GOO.'
. A decent regard for candOr and fair deal.
ing would have required you to make
the further statement, that the rebuild
Of the Central Lunatic Asylum, at a cost
of 800, ,OOO-the rebuilding of the old
Blind Asylum, at q cost of $3.50, ,O0O-thG
completion of the new asylum at Ath'
ems and the completion of the DeafanC
Dumb Asylum at COlumbus-the estab
lishmenJ of Reform ScheOl for girls
the erection of new buildings on the Re
form Farm near LancasteT-the pay
ment of a Judgment in favor of the as
/ signees Of the Ohio Life and Trust Com.
pany-and provision for nearly half &
million deficiency in the State Treasury
were all extraordinary eXpenses-as
well as the Morgan Raid Claims OfnCar-
. ly S600,00O. the present payment Oi
which seems to have been vetoed by the
Attorney General.
| These provisions are what you have
seen proper to term "FCckICsS and URHCc-
/ eSsdTy crDCRSCS.V Be that as itmay, all
the acts providing for these "Unneces-
/ sary expenditures" were as generally
sUppOrtsd by Republican as by Demo-
cratic members. l suspect that if these
| ''FCcElCSS and unnecessary expenditures
! had not been made, the cry would have
gone forth from the 9th June cOnven-
| ton, that a democratic Legislature"
| had refused to make provision for the
/ unfortunate insane, and for the care of
| the blind, and for the reformation of
young females who are on the high
way to destruction.
Notwithstanding the very speciOus
manner in which you found your char
! ges against the legislative branch of the
State Government, you have, / think,
rendered an inpOTtantService to tn eDub-
| lie, initiating a discussion on the imDOr-
! tant matter OftaXatiOn. The only fear
! is that others in the Republican party
will not follow your example. Whilst
! the producing classes of this State pay
annually, in round numbers, $50, 600, 600
of State and local taxes, which are eX-
pended in the paymentOf the State debt
in the maintenance of the State Govern
ment, in the support of schools and the
benevolent institutions, the cOnstrUc-
ton of roads, bridges, and public build
ingS, they at the same time pay S45,0OO,
600 annually to the officers of the FEEDER
al Government. Not u single Demo-
crat is tn be found in the entire list Of
revenue officers of the General Govern
ment; thatth immense sum is annually
collected and disbursed by Republican
officials. The same is true of every rev.
enue officer in the United States They
are all Republicans. That party is,
therefore, responsible to the whole peO-
pie for an honest collection an aDDlica-
ton of the $50, ,O0O,O 600 annually collect
ed. I will make no charges against
them for corruption and dishonesty
This has been done by the late Henry
J. Raymond, the Chicago Tribune, and
Colonel Dom Piatt, all standard au-
thorities in the Republican party, in
language that cannot be mistaken.
Colonel Piatt, who has the best of op-
pOrtmities for making observations at
Washington, stated in his speech at
Xenia, on the 5th inst, !THUt 3uc hare
the most corrupt Government in the
world. It is run by rings. There is no
mOneyed interest in the land that is
without its ring in Washington
We have the railroad rings, land job
bing rings, whisky rings, that branch
in every conceivable direction. And
they were intriguing, boring, caUcusing
and, through wine and women batting
without cessation
Ola the vast sums collected by the
Federal authority, it is estimated that
less then One-half finds its way into the
treasury. The other goes to enrich cor
rupt officials, and to support "rings,n in
and ont Of Congress" ="
This question Of taxation, whether
State or FcdcIai rises high above all par
ty considerations, because il most di-
rectIy affects the morals and education
of the mass of the people. They only
are friends of the people who earnestly
and in good faith set etthemscIvesa ut work
i'm the reform of existing abuses. Re
form in this directiOnwill bCas welcome
to the country through Republican as
through Democratic sources.
it surprised no one that you should
enter complaint against the General
Assembly for passing laws to enforce
constitutional provisions against negro
voting, for that is n tenet of your own
party Nor viii entCrin any discus
sion upon The merits of the s0-called |
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. |