Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1871-05-04
Address OF lhe Democratic Mem
hers of Congress-.
TO the People. of the United States:

i Washington have enable US to become
fully acquainted with the actions and
designs Of those who control the Radi-
cal party, and We feel called upon to
utter few words of warning against
the alarming strides they have made
towards the Capitalization OF power
in the hands of Congress and the
|! Executive. The time and attention
Of the Radical leaders lave been al
most wholly directed to devising such
legislation as will, in their view, best
preserve their ascendancy, and no re-
! gard for the wise restraints imposed
BY the Constitution has checked their
reckless and desperate career. The
President of the United States has
been formally announced as a candi-
date for reelection. The. declara-
tions of his selfish supporters have
been echoed by a subsidized press,
and the discipline Of party has al
ready made adhesion to his personal
fortunes the supreme test Of political
fealty. The partisan legislation to
which we refer was de,reed and
shaped in secret caucus, where the
EXTREMIST counsels always dominated,
and was adopted by II subservient
majority, if not with the intent, GER
tainly with the effect to place in the
hands of the President power to
command his own denomination, and
to employ the army, navy and militia,
at his sole discretion, as a means OF
subscribing his personal ambition.
When the sad experience of the last
two years, so disappointing to the
hopes and generous confidence OF the
country, is considered, in connection
with the violent utterelces and rash
purposes of those who control the
Presidents policy, it is not surprising
that the gravest apprchensions for
the future peace Of the nation should
be entertained.
AT time when labor is depressed,
and every material interest is palsied
by oppressive taxation, the public
Offices have been multiplied beyond
| all precedent to serve as instruments
in the pcrpetuation Of power. Par
tisanship is the only test applied to
the distribution Of this vast patron
age. Honesty, fitness and moral
worth are openly discarded in favor
of trucking submission and dis
honorable compliance; hence enor,
nous defalcations and widespread
| corruption have followed as the natu-
raj consequences Of this pErnicious
system. By the official report oi
| the Treasury, it appears that after
the deduction of all proper credits,
many millions of dollars remain from
ex:-collectors of the internal revenue,
and that no proper diligence has ever
been used to collect them. Reforms
in the revenue and fiscal systems,
which all experience demonstrates to
be necessary to frugal admlnistra-
-tinn Of the Government, us well as u
measure of relief to an burden
ed people, have been persistently
postponed or wilfully neglected. Con-
sress now adjourns without having
even attempted to reduce taxation, or
to repeal the glaring intpositlons by
which industry is crushed and i'm
poverished. The treasury is overflow
ing, and an excess OF So0,00o,00o oi
| revenue is admitted; and yet, instead
of some measure of present relief.
barren and delusive resolution Is
passed by the Senate to consider the
tariff and excise systems hereafter
as if the history of broken pledges
and pretended remedies furnished
any better assurance for future legs
lation than experience has done I'm the
past.
Ship building aid The carrying
trade, once sources OF national pride
and prosperity, now laaguish under
!. crushing loadof taxation, and near
" every other business interest ls
struggling without profit to maintal"
itself.
Our agriculturists, while paying
heavy taxes on all they consume,
either to the Government or to mo-
nopolists, find the prices for their own
products so reduced that honest labor
| is denied it's just reward. and indus
try is Frustrated by iHvidious dis
elimination. Nearly 200, 900, ,000acres
of public lands, which should have
been reserved for the benefit of the
people, have been voted away to giant
corporations, neglecting our soldiers
and enriching a handful of greedy
spectators and lobbyists who are
thereby enabled to exercise most
dangerous and corrupting influence
over State and Federal legislation.
If the career of these coasplraiors be
not checked, the downfall of free
government is inevitable, and with it
the elevation OF military dictator
on the ruins of the republic.
Under pretense of passing laws to
enforce the fourteenth amendment,
and for other purposes, Congress has
conferred the most despotic powers
upon the Executive, and provided
an official machinery, b. which the
liberties of the people are menaced
and IL yacced right of local self
government in the States is ignored,
# not tyranically overthrown. Mod
eled up to the sedition laws, so odious
in history, they are at variance with
all the sanctifed theories Of our IN
stitutions. And the construction given
by these Radical interpreters to the
fourteenth amendment i, to use the
language of an eminent Senator, Mr..
Trumbull, of Illinois, an annihilator
of States. Under the last enforce
ment bill "the Executive may, in
his discretion, thrust aside the gov
ernment of any State, suspend the
writ OF ha6eas corpus" arrest its
Governor, imprison or disperse the
Legislature, silence its judges, and
-. L.. IL