The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1869-04-16
The Political and Material Cor
ruption of the Country.
From the New York Herald

I
| There is u marked difference between
the present time and the period just
previous to our war. In 1850 the man
who became marked in political or bus
mess immortality was held up to public
scorn and obloquy. Not so to-day. lie
who delrauds the government. his bus
mess associates, or disgraces his constit-
uents in Congress, Is looked at with adj
miration and rs a bright exemplar wor-
thy of imitation. The man who few
years since stole few hundred dollars
from our City Council and called down
the wrath of every citizen may now
! plumber the nation of millions and
boast of the honors which he wins in
the exercise of his peculiar ability.
The Union Credit Pacific Mobilier
Company, whose dirty face we tried to
wash little yesterday, is among the
first of the gigantic swindling combina-
tons whose acts are now having their
natural rebound. The stagnant mass of
corruption which always follows in the
wake of war came upon us in the ratio
of the gigantic material we hurled upon
the rebellion. The whole evil elements
of the country found full play and plen-
ty to feed upon. How we'll it fed, let
two thousand six hundred millions of
national debt answer. How well it still
saps our prosperity, let three hundred
millions OF annual expenditures demon
stratc.
Our great struggle for national pres
crvation was undertaken in the Hottest
sentiment of patriotism. The frs: year
of the war the people shouldercd arms
from principle. We paid no bounty.
land patriotism had not fixed its price.
Two years had scarcely passed before
the decentralization produced by the
prodigal outpouring of national treas
urc extended from Congressman, gov
crnmcnt contractors and the leading
plunderers to the lower grades of soci-
ETY., and the nation became one vast
whirlpool of immortality. With the
incubation of the masses the leading
brains grew boldcr and felt surer of
their power to inaugurate gigantic
system of plumber which depended. in
great part. for success upon a public
opinion thus prepared. SO education
went on. reflected from high to low
and then from low to high. until the
country could take, as we'll PLAYED
jest, the betrayal of its political and
material prosperity. Congress natural
| ly, III our system Of government, rep
resented our general condition. and con-
sequently was ripe for all measures that
aimed at the tapping Of the fountain
head of wealth-the public treasury.
The country was rcady-thcn were
launched in rapid succession the great
schemes for plumber which have since
staggered us and brought us to our
| Uhn,, ftn T,,. -.
Railroad, with its tens Of millions OF
plumber, and, following this, the hun
CRY financial wolves, seeming the ma
tional blood, rushed in and Pacific rail-
road charters from all sidcs-from
Washington and from every State
| flooded the market and filed the whole
space from Texas to British America
with imaginary parallel lines of iron.
The wolves tore the national domain in
to sErcds and pnrccllcd out the land
spoils to their followers. If the Indian
residents stood in their way convc-
nicnt war destroyed their titles to con-
sideration and dcspoicd them of their
possessions. This falling. Il trumped-up
treaty between the plundercrs and the
tribe gave the former the courage and
shamelcssness to present a claim to the
property for the confirmation of the
Senate, as witness the Cherokee land
spoliation still awaiting its turn to
prove the corruption of our legislative
branch Of the government.
The tide flows OH and the vast ocean
of corruption begins TO feel q purifying
pressure. The bubbles are coming to
the surface. and the air is filled with the
stencil of eight years of financial and
political rottcnness. Slowly but surely
upwards the people again move. Now
and then some clcar-hcaded, bold man.
like Mr. Sprague, steps to the front and
denounccs the men who head the de-
moraliZation we have pictured. The
mass moves, and out of the mirc on to
firm ground again. or the two branches
of Congress the Representatives lead
in reform, for they feel the touch of the
people more quickly. The Senate. glut-
ted with power, dictato-ial and ire
sponsible, yield only to force. Around
them, in defense, stands wall of
wealth. handled by the relentless, nm
scrupulouS plLndercrs. They defend
their Senate with the same daring cner-
gy which has characterized its acquisi-
tons; for the United States Senate is
their citadel. Whisky, tobacco, petro-
leum. the tariff, mining, the Custom
House, inside and outside, frontier
smuggling, the Indian Bureau and In
dian land stealers, banking, gold specu-
lating. government bonds and the Uni
ted States Treasury all have their rep
"esentative "rings," which allow moth
ing to infringe upon the patent right
which eight years of skillful invention
have given them to rule the country.
But all this must have an end. In
any other country it would terminate
in revolution, of which the French
tragedy of 1889 is the type. Here, how
ever, the people have too much good
sense and education to call in such a
drastic but uncertain remedy. We have
n new element for the correction Of
such evils, which no other nation ever
had and but one other country now pos
sesses. and that is our free press. This
is to-day the government, the mouth
piece of the people, the national purify
er. 1t carried us safely through our
war. 1t should now array itself against
all Legislative or executive usurpations
of authority and against the "rings"
s,.hL a..