Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1871-05-05
Address of the Democratic Mem.
bers of Congress.

Address of the Democratic Mem.
bers of Congress.
J To the people Of the United States: 1
Our presence and official duties at Wash.
ington have enabled us to become fully &C.
quainted with the actions and desires of those
who control the Radical party and we feel
called upon to utter a few words Of warning
against the alarming strides they have made
towards Capitalization Of power in the hands
of Congress and the Executive. The time
and attention of the Radical leaders have
been almost wholly directed to devising such
legislation as will, in their view, best pre-.
serve their ascendency, and no regard for
the wise restraints imposed by the constitu:
ton has checked their reckless and desperate
career The President Of the United States
has been formally announced as candidate
for reelection. The declaration of his self
ish supporters have been re-echoed by a
subsidized press, and the discipline Of party
has already made adhesion to his personal
fortunes the supreme test of political fealty
The partisan legislation to which we refer
was decreed and shaped in secret caucus
where the EXTREMIST counsels always domi-
mated and was adopted by subservient ma
jority, if not with the intent, certainly with
the effect to place in the hands of the Pres
ident power to command his own renomina
ton, and to employ the army, navy and
militia at his sole discre ton as means Of
subscribing his personal ambition. When
the sad experience Of the last two years, sc
disappointing to the hopes and generous
confidence of the country, is considered, IN
connection with the violent utterances and rash
purposes of those who control the Presidents
policy, it is not surprising that the gravest
apprehension for the future peace of the ma
ton should be entertained. At a time when
labor is depressed and every material inter
est is palsied by oppressive taxation, the
public Offices have been multiplied beyond
all precedent to serve as instruments 10 the
perpetuation Of power. Partnership is the
only test applied to the distribution of this
vast patronage. Honesty, fitness and moral
worth are openly discarded in favor OF truck
ling submission and dlshonorable csmpll-
ance. Hence enormous defalcations and
widespread corruption have followed as the
natural consequence Of this pernicious sys-
tenn.
By the official report of the Secretary Of
the Treasury it appears that after the deduc-
ton of all proper credits many millions of
dollars remain due from ex- Collectors of the
Internal Revenue, and that no proper dill
gence has been used to collect them. Re-
forms in the revenue and fiscal systems,
which all experience demonstrates to be
necessary to frugal administration of the
Government, as we'll as measure Of relief
to an over-burdened people, have been per,
sistently postponed or wilfully neglected. =
Congress now adjourns without having even
attempted to reduce taxation or to repeal
the glazing imposition by which industry is
crushed and impoverished. The Trea-
sury is OVERLOOKING, an excess Of eighty mil
lions of revenue is admitted, and yet instead
of some measure for present relief, a barren
and delusive resolution is passsd by the
Senate 10 consider the tariff and excise sys-
tenn hereafter, as if the history Of broken
pledges and pretended remedies furnished
any better assurance for future legisl alton
than experience has done iu the past. Ship
building aud the carr ying trade, one, sources
Of national pride and prosperity, now Ian
guish under a crushing load Of taxation,
and nearly every other business interest is
struggling without profit to maintain itself.
Our agriculturists, while paying heavy tax
es for what they consume, either to the
Government or to monopolists, find the
prices of their own products 50 reduced that
honest labor is denied its just reward, and
industry is Frustrated by invidious discrimi-
nation Nearly 200,000,000 acres of
public lands have been voted away
to giant corporations, neglecting our
soldiers and enriching a handful Of greedy
Spectators and lobbyists, who ale thereby
enabled to exercise a most dangerous and
corrupting influence over State and Fed
eral legislation. If the career of these
conspiritors 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 the pretcnce ofpassing laws to en-
force the Fourteenth Amendment, and for
other purposes. Congress has conferred the
most despotic power upon the Executive,
and provided an official machinery by which
the liberties Of the people are menanced, and
the sacred right of local self-government
in the States is ignored, if not totally over
thrown. Modelled upon the sedition
laws, SO odious in history, they are at vari
ance with all the sanctifed theories Of our in
stitutions, and the construction given by
these Radical inter prefers Of the Fourteenth
Amendment is, to use the language of al
eminent Senator, Mr.. Trumbull, Of Illinois
an sannihilation Of the States" Unde
the last enforcement bill ''the Executive
NAV. in his discretion, thrust aside tht
Government Of any State, suspend the 4wri
of Aa6eas corpus" arrest its Governor, i'm
prison or dispense the Legislature, silenc.
its Judges. and trample down its people
under the armed heel of his troops. Moth
ing is left to the citizen or State which car
any longer be called right-all is changed
into mere sufferance.
Oar hopes for redress are in the calm
good sense the "sober second thought" O
the American people. We call upon then
to be true to themselves and to their pos
terity, and, disregarding party names anc
minor differences, to insist upon dacentral
ization of power and the restriction Of Fed
eral authority within its just and proper
limits, leaving to the States that contro
over domestic affairs which is essential tt
their happiness and tranquility and goo(
government.
Everything that malicious ingenuity coult
suggest has been done to irrita'c the people
of the Middle and Southern States. Gros
and exaggerated charges Of disorder ew'
their origin to the mischievous minds of pc
tantial mana cnrs in the Senate and Hous,