The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-06-26
Information.
md Pennsylvania.

Illinois and Pennsylvania.
At the time of the adjournment of the ulinoi
Legislature we gave some extracts from Hadica
papers of that state, wherein the majority of the
Assembly was Characterised a. the most corrupt
set of politicians which ever degraded any com.
munlty, 1t was stated that the Legislature was
rotten to the core, that every bill the result
of a bargain that dishonesty, corruption and
decentralization were the rule, and that scarcely
anyby thought of promoting the interests of the
state if money were offered as the price OF vote
by which, to the detriment of the state, some
private interest might be advanced. The accu-
sations of radical politicians extended even to the
Executive. The Governor, they said, vetoed a
great many smaller bills, which evidently were
the result of corrupt practices but he signed his
name to some which will cost the state millions
without any benefit to the public.
For a legislator to return home to his cOnstit-
uency loaded with such testimonials, appeared
to us as an instance of rare impudence. How
men who were elected to serve the public and
who had behaved so miserably could, without
blushing, present themselves before their wives
and children, their friends and neighbors, really
seemed to be a moral puzzle And yet appears
shat even the radical politicians of Illinois can
be outdone in rascality. For We find descrip-
tons of this same class of politicians in the rad.
cal press ofPennsylvania, which show the radicals
of that state to be so superior to our neighbors
across the river that the latter, corrupt as they
are, appear only as beginners in the art of public
pocket-pfcking.
The Harrisburg State Gaotrd (RadicaD speaks
as follows of the radical majority:
"They are the most venal and corrupt body of
men that sat in deliberation. Anything
that had money in it, however unfair disgrace.
full and destructive it might be, could be en-
bodied in the shape of bill and passed, while
anything which could not be manipulated and
money made out of it, however fair or absolutely
necessary it was. for the establishment of Justice
and the vndication of right was ignored and
treated with contempt, unless, indeed, the ring
which controlled both Houses condescended to
let it become law. Divorce bills were openly
sold in the lobbes and the rotunda. Divorce
bills once killed could be revived, although the
proceeding was in direct opposition to positive
rule, just whenever the parties were willing to
pay. For five thousand dollars any man could
divorce his wife; tor preteXt, sany voluptuous
wife of easy virtue could fling her husband away
by the aid of the divorce committee of the House,
which committee was fiercely accused, in open
session of the House, of taking brides. The tax
on petroleum and coal was brought through the
House, and when it reached the Senate So, 900
vote was offered for its passage The money to
buy the cattle bill through was exposed as fully
IN both branches, the funds of sheep
drover when he is in the market to purchase
stock"
The Philadelphia Telegraph, another radical
paper, thus speaks of the majority of its own
party:
"They combine in a greater degree than any
OF their predecessors host of bad qualities, with
scarcely a redeeming virtue They are at once |
Ignorant and corrupt, too stupid to perfect any |
good legislation, yet sharp enough to eargerly |
embrace every available opportunity for earning |
the wages of venality. If they could dispose Of (
the state wholesale to foreign power, and pocket
the proceeds, there is little doubt that they
would be as ready to mako the transfer as Rus.
STA was to convey Alaska to the United States
but as this species of bold rascality is impracti-
CABLE they are forced to content themselves with
the paltry part of sneuk-thieves, making raids
upon the treasury and the rights of the people
in the style and spirit of the petty offenders who
smuggle themselves into dwellings when front
doors are incautiously left open. to carry off