Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-09-07

men were buried, who made more than
0O,600 wives, widows, more than 300, 600
orphans, these men who sinned against
light and knowledge, and as IsBelieve,
committed the greatest crime of this or
any other century, will never vote to
take from them the last legal mark of dis
appreciation of their crime Amnesty of
such menI denounce as morally wicked
and cruelty to future generations, cruelty
to the children that are now growing up.
L am not willing to instruct positively
that this rebellion was no crime, a mere
political difference mere question be-
tween parties-by voting to admit again
to the congress of the United States, it
may be even to the presidency, the very
men who made that rebellion, and were the
cause of all suffering and sorrow. Pun
ishment has gone by, nobody has been ex-
ecuted, nobody has been imprisoned, and
now the last thing to mark treason as
crime, even misdemeanor, is the 18th
amendment, making these men that l
spoke of ineligible to office, and saw if
we were to turn around and admit, them
to the congress ofthe United States again,
and | tell you they will come if you will
remove the disability.
If we were to admit such men as Davis,
Toombs and Breckenridge back, then we
should stultify ourselves, we should say
that, after all there was nothing wrong in
the rebellion
We should say to future generations,
that there is no crime in trying to over
turn the government. l want to be I'M
derstood on the subject of amnesty. l
will never vote for universal amnesty l
may go in for very general amnesty, but
| will never sit myself, and I will not ask
other loyal men to sit in the senate of the
United States by the side of jeff Davis,
Breckenridge and Toombs.
The senator discussed the civil service
reform. He said President Grant had re-
commended reform in that direction. and
had, under the act of congress, appointed
commissioners to examine the subject and
report to him. Two of these gentlemen
were prominent editors who had written
voluminously in favor of this reform, but
when they were upon the commission
and asked to devise something practical
bic, they met with difficulties at the very
threshold-even constitutional difficult
ties.
He hoped they would present some
thing practicable to congress Our civil
service has many impretections many of
which arise out of the imprefections of
human nature and cannot be removed eX-
cept by improving human nature
1t has been suggested that government
clerks and subordinates should hold office
for life. He would never vote for that :
we want no life tenures in this country.
If the supreme court were to be made
over again, we would moi put men on the
bench for life. Ten thousand clerks and
officials at Washington, that being about
the number there, holding office for life,
would constitute an aristocracy sufficient
to revolutionizc the government in TWEEN
ty five years
He also referred to suggested plan to
give clerks and subordinates term of
eight or ten years, and removal only for
crime or incapacily. That might be good,
but he was not sure.
He did know, however, that had such a
law been in force when the rebellion broke
out the government would have been lost,
for majority of all the employees at
Washington were in sympathy with the
rebellion and if they could not have been
removed the government could not have
been carried on.
He believed our civil service, with all
its imperfections, taken as whole, was
the best in the world. He would not ex-
change it for any of the European sys-
tens. They are not adapted to our coun-
try.
AT the same time he said belong to
the great Republican reform party We
want to make any reform in that branch
that we can, and we will do it, and allow
ME to say, in justice to Gen. Grant, that
he appears to he the first man that has
taken a practical step in that direction
OF course | do not refer to bills that have
been offered in congress, because there
has been a number of them. But | want
to say to our democratic friends who now
appear to be very much in favor of civil
| service reform in their argument before
the people, that during the period that
! party was in power, and when the civil
service was carried on in much inferior
manner to what it is now, that such a
suggestion as that of civil service reform
was never made If reform in civil SER
vice does come, it has to come through
the republican party
He then discussed the questions of tariff
reform and taxation at considerable length
but presented little beyond his well
known views on these subjects. The au
dience listened to the senator with marked
attention, and very frequently loudly ap
plaUded him.
CORRECTED TABLE OF MEASURES
A barrel contains 40 gallons, of 23I cubi,
inches each or 9,240 cubic inches.