The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1870-07-02
RICHMOND,
From Lippincott's Magazine.
SHALL WE DESPAIR OF THE
REPUBLIC?

uep Say tHdG Out leS SiSioei'C
bodies and our public officials are
absolutely corrupt that our legal
tribunals are in the control of rich
men-in other words, that the
rings have the courts in their
pocket; that the vast fortunes
made during the war have inspired
a frantic thirst for wealth and
wrought n vast decentralization Of
the country; and that men are now
not ashamed openly to boast of the
transactions which few years ago
they would have as openly de-
nounced.
IF you hopefully dispute them,
they will draw from their memo
ries many facts as startling as they
are disreputable. There is A, they
tell you, in public post Of which
the salary is not over fifteen hun
dred, and it's lawful perquisties
dear at five hundred more. Yet
A, keeps his trotter and lives in q
brown stone house at the corner
of Fifth avenue and Walnut street.
There is b, who three years went
to the Legislature Of Alaska as
poor as job in the days of his trlb-
ula.ion, who now is rich as job in
the days of his restoration. There
is General Cincinnatus, whose
lovely place at Tusculum is the
envy even of Verres, and whose
income tax would permit him to
make of solid gold the plowshare
with which he cuItivates his Sa-
bine farm. There are D, f and f,
the conscript fathers, who drive
regular traffic in plumber, and
whose demands you must satisfy
ere you can get decd Of your
own waterloo on either sea-front
Of Corinthibi-maris SO it goes
through an entire mercenary and
marauding alphabet.
There is no reason to doubt
| these statements. The oaly q4es
ton which concerns us is that
generalized conclusion to which
the narrators SO swiftly jump
that they prove civilization rot
ten ere it is ripe, and that we are
just upon the verge of an utter
wreck of prosperity, character and
national hope. In other words,
the thing to ask is, Are these facts
evidence of vital disease or are
they simply a surface rash by
which the body in q healthy train
ing process is e1pelllng corrupt
humors
Let one generalization meet en-
other, Is it possible for nation
which has just passed through
four years agony of such mighty
and ennohling self sacrifice to fall
SO suddenly into the abyss Of dis
honesty ? The answer is, No! 1t
is rot possible that the nation was
saved by such martyr earnestness
only to sell itself for the wages of
infamy. And it can be also shown
that like state Of thing
officers and much mal>administra-
tion-does not necessarily imply
national ruin.
To refer to history. Three hun
drod years ago, roughly calculat-
ing, the English judiciary was not
even the the woolsack when he
who sat thereon was Francis Bt-
con. Philosopher, statesman,
scholar, he was neither n man Of
the people forced upward into Of
fee by the concurrent forces OF an
ambitious temperament and an
unsettled time, nor yet was he
scion of that aristocracy which
could plead its Norman birth right
in bar of the requirement of or
binary morals. In either case we
might call him an exception. But
he was Of the English middle
class, tue son Of father distin-
guished for his services, the inher-
itor of name without blemish, no
novice to the temptations of a
Court, no stranger to the lofty
teachings Of literature, and and
sprung from the country gentry,
then to England the nursery of its
noblest and best citizens and SER
wants. Yet the lord chancellor
WAS tried for taking bribes-tried
and convicted That such a man,
so placed, could fall into this fault
Is proof of two things-viz: that
neither for suitors to offer nor
for Judges to receive was beyond
Il precedent. Others must have
sinned, and got off better than Ba-
con. If there were doubt on .his
point, Bishop Latimers . sermons,
preached ere Bacon was born,
would ccnclusively prove it. And
the defence which Bacon attempt
ed to set up-that he had not sold
justice. only promptness In its adj
minisiration, shows that a pccmis.
sible license was not unknown 10
those times
Half century later, in the time
of Charles tie Second, came a day
when political virtue hardly seem
ed to exist. The diary Of Samuel
Pepys; commissioner of the admi.
rally and courtier, let US behind
the scenes. Men of probity and
character were not above direct
pecuniary gifts in return for Off
cial service.
In the next reign, another keep
er of the great seal and of the
kings conscience sat upon the
bench, before whom neither age
nor innocence knew mercy or JUS
tice. Jeffreys was that judge to
whose pre-emincncc of brutality
and shamelessness even Scroggs
and Williams owe comparative