American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-01-30
The Vacant Leadership.

Mr. WaSn0rlrne, or Illinois, and
Ben. T. Butler are making u manful
struggle for the vacant leadership of
the House of Representatives.
The charges of moral, military,
social and political turpitude under
which Gen. Butler rests, though
sufficient to blast the character of
any gentleman, so far from impair.
ing the standing of member of Con
gress, is rather % recommendation,
and gives old cock-eye rather the in
side track III the contest for the
place of the old Pennsylvania mis-
cegenator. Elihu Washburne, how
ever, as the personal friend and
spokesman Of the New Man who is
soon to occupy the house at the
other end of the avenue, comes out
very strong, and will force Butler
upon his best metal
Ellhu reliss upon his sound judg-
ment, moderate conservativeisn and
earnest advocacy of economy and re-
form for the victory Ben is piquant,
ilnpudent, and eloquent, and doesn't
mind stealing the livery of heaven,
of Washbulne, or any other that is
popular. Washburne is respectable;
Butler has the natural advantage of
being great sccundrel, and this
will decide the matter in his favor.
The words of either of these mon
are now listened to by the country
with the greatest interest.
Washburne, who is rupp osed to
foreshadow the policy of Grants Gd-
ministration, says:
The excitement and passion
growing ont of the war, and ont of
the contests connected Herewith, will
die away with the lapse Of time, and
the people will compel Congress to
confront other and different ques-
tons than those which have for
so many years overShadowed and
swallowed up everything else. Nth
the unreconStructed States admitted
into the Union acith txH and equal pro-
lection for all men ha all the States and
cith manhood suffrage secured by leg
islatiOn or constitutional amendment,
the minds of the people will turn to |
questions of finance, of taxes, of
economy, of decreased expenditures,
and honest and enlightened legisla.
ton; and to questions Of tariffs and
to questions of railroad, telegraph,
and express monopolies, which are
sucking the very life blood of the
people, to the administration of the
revenue laws, and to the robberies
and plunderings Of the Treasury by
dishonest office holders. ..-.
1t is for Congress to keep down
the expenditures, and it is for the
President to see that the laws are
executed and that the
revenues are collected but it is for
Congress to see also that they do
not keep the letters upon the limbs
of the President, so as to render it
impossible for him to faithfully exc
cute the laws
Gen. Butler, seems. at least theO-
retically. to have overcome his par
TALLY for the precious metals, and
the maintenance of rag
money as the sole currency of the I
country as compensation therefor,
he proposes to enhance the value of |
greenbacks TO the actual value of !
silver spoons and gold watches. He .
says:
:" l stand here. therefore for the in
paper money, the green |
back, which has fought our battles /
and save our country, which has (
been held by us as a just equivalent |
for the blood of our soldiers, the |
lives of our sons, the widowhood of |
our daughters, and the orphanage of /
their children.
stand here for the currency by |
which the business transactions of
forty million people are safely and
successfully doue, which. founded on |,
the faith, the wealth, and property
Of the nation, is at once the exemp-
lar and engine of its industry and
pOwer--that money which saved the
country in war, and has given it
prosperity and happiness in peace
To it four million men owe their
emancipation from slavery; to 1t
labor is indebted for elevation from
that thrall of degradation in which
it has been enveloped for ages. l
stand for that money, therefore,
which is by far the better agent and
instrument of exchange of an en-.
and free people than gold
aud silver-the money alike of the
barbarian and the despOt."
Oh Ben, what condemnation of
Yourself do you utter in those last
lines-a barbarian and a despot -