Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-04-28


Dor is depressed and every material
inte es: is palsied by oppressive tax
o:ion, public Offices have been mutt
piled beyond I'll precedent to Sc e 4
as Instruments in the perpetuation of !
power. Partisauship is the only test
applied to the distribution of this
vast patronage. Honesty, dtnes
and moral worth are openly discarded
in favor Of trukling submission and dis
honorable compliance. Hence eno'-
nous defIications and vide spread
corruption have followed as tie natu-
raj consequences of this pernicious
system. by the official report Of tie
Secretary Of the treasury, it appears
that after the deduction of all Prop
er credits, many millions Of dollars
remain due from eX collectors Of in
ternal revenue, and no proper d Ii
gence has ever been used to collect
them.
Reforms 10 the revenue and fiscal
systems which all experience demon
strates to be necessary to the frugal
administration Of the government, as
well as q measure Of relief to an
ovcrburdened people, have Teen per
sistently postponed or wiIilu'ly neglec-
ted. Congress now adjournS with
out having even attempted to reduce
taxation or to repeal the ghring i'm
position by which industry is crushed
and impoverished. The tref sury is
oycrfowing, and an excess of eighty
millions Of revenue is admitted, and
vet, instead of some measure to pre-
sent relief, barrun and delusive res
olution is passed by the Senate to
consider the tariff and excise systems
hereafter. as if the history of broker
pledges and unapplied remedies fur
nish any better assurance for future
legislation than experience has done
in the past Ship building and the
carrying trade, once sources Of ma
tiona! pride and prosperity, now Ian
guish under the crushing load of tax
alton. and nearly every other business
interest is struggling without profit to
maintain itself. Our agriculturalists,
while paying heavy taxes on all they
consume, either to the government or
or n.onopoliSts, find the price for
their own products so reduced, that
honest labor is denied its Just reward
and industry is Frustrated by invidi-
Gus determinations.
Nearly 1000, 900, 900 Of acres of
public lands which should have been
reserved for the benefit of the people.
have been voted away to grants and
corporations, negIecting our soldiers
and enriching a handful Of greedy
spectators and lobbyists, who are
thereby enabled 10 exercise most dan
ger0us and cOrrupting influence in
our State and Federal legislation. If
the career of those cOnspirators be
not checked the downfall of free gov
eminent is inevitable, and with the
elevation Of a military dictator on
the ruins OF the republic. Under the
pretense Of passing laws to enforce
the fifteenth amendment, and for 9th
er purposes. Congress has conferred
the most despotic powers upon the
Executive. and provided an official
machinery by which the liberties of
the people are meraced and the So
cred right Of local self government
in the States is ignored, if not tyran-
ically overthrow, by laws so odious
that they are at !ariance with all the
sacred theories Of our institutions. -
The construction given by these Rad
ical interpreters of the fourteenth
amendment. to use the language of
an eminent Senator (Trumbuil, of II
linois,) is the annihilatiOn of the
States. Under the last enforcement
bill the Executive may in his discre-
sion thrust aside the government of
any State, suspend the writ of habeas
corpus, arrest its Governor, imprison
or dispense the Legislature, silence its
judges and trample down its people
under the armed heel Of his troops.
Nothing is left to the citizen of
State which can any longer be called
a right.
Our hopes for redress are in the
calm good sense and sober second
thought of the American people. -
We call upon them to be true to
themselves and to their past, and dis
regarding party names and minor
differences, to insist on decentraliza-
ton of power. the restriction Of the
Federal authority within its Just and
proper limits, leaving to the States
that control of their domestic affairs,
which is essential to their happiness,
tranquility and good government
Every thing that malicious ingenuity
could suggest hiss been done to irri-
tate the people of the Middle and
Southern States. Gross and exagger-
ated charges of disorder and violence
owe their origin to the mischievous
minds Of the political managers in
the Senate and House OF representa-
tives, to which the Executive has,
we are sorry to say, lent his aid, and
these have helped to inaame popular
feeling. In all this course Of hostile
legislation and harsh resentment no
word or reconciliation, of kind en-
couragemeut or fraternal fellowship
has eve been spoken by the President
or by Congress to the people of the
Southern States. They have been
addressed only in language Of pro
scriptiOn
We earnestly entreat eur fellow citi-
zens in all parts of the Union to spare
no effort to maintain peace and order.
t. carefully protect the rights Of "
cry citizen, to preserve kindly rel;.-
tions among all men and to discoun-