The Hickman courier., 1871-04-29
Key Note of the Campaign
Address OF Democratic Com
gressnen.
An Earnest Appeal 30 the Peo-
ple OF the United States.

United States:
Our presence and official duty at
washington have enabled us to become
fully acquainted with the actions and de
signs OF those who control the Radical
party, and we feel called upon to utter
few words of warning against the
alarming strides they have made towards
centralization of power in the hands of
Congress aud 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 Drsserve their aseendeDcy, and no
fegsFa Tor tine restraints imposed by the
/ Constitution has checked their reckless
and desperate career.
The President of the United States
has been brnally announced as candi-
date for re election. The declal ations,
and his selfish supporters, have been re-
issued by subsidized press, and the dis
cipline of the party has already made
adhesion to his personal fortunes, the
supreme tests of political fealty. The
partisan legislation to which we refer,
was decreed and shaped in secret caucus,
where extremist couusels always domi-
mated, and were adopted by subservi-
ent majority. if not with intent, certain
ly with effect to place in the hands of
the. President power to command his
own re nomination and to employ the
army, navy and militia, at his sole dis
cretion, and as 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 vio-
lent utterances and rash purposes of
those who control the Presidential poll
cy, it is not surprising that the gravest
appiehensions for the future peace of
the nation should be entertained. At a
time when labor is depressed, and every
material interest is palsied by oppressive
taxation, public Offices have been multi
piled beyond all precedent to serve as
instruments In the perpetuation of pow
er. Partisanship is the only test appli-
ed to the distribution of this vast pat
runage. Honesty, fitness, and moral
worth are openly discarded in favor of
trucking submission and dishonorable
compliance Hence enormous deialca-
tions aud wide spread corruption have
followed as the natural consequences of
this pernieious system. By the official
report of the Secretary of the Treasury
it appears that after the deduction of all
proper credits, many millions of dollars
remain due from ex Collectors of Inter
nal Revenue, and no proper diligence
has ever been used to collect them.
in tho ravcprra nd fiscal
TENS which all experience demonstrates
to be necessary to the frugal administra-
tian 81 -As.e k.ss,.sr nrnent. as veil as q
measure OF relief to an over burdened
people, have been persistently postponed
or willfully neglected. Congress now
adjourns without having even attempted
to reduce taxation or to repeal the glar-
ing impositions by which industry is
crushed and impoverished. The treasury
is overAowing and an excess of eighty
millions of revenue is admitted, and yet,
instead of some measure to present re-
| lief, 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 unapplied
remedies furnished any better assurance
for future legislation than experience has
done in the past. Ship building and tbe
carrying trade, once sources of national
pride and prosperity, now languish un-
der the crushing load of taxation, and
nearly every other business interest is
struggling without profit to maintain
itself Our agriculturists, while paying
heavy taxes on all they consume, either
ito the Government or to monopoists,
find the prices for their own products so
reduced that honest labor is denied its
just reward, and industry is Frustrated
by invidous discriminations.
Nearly 200 100000 acres of public
lands which should have been reserved
for the benefit of the people, have been
voted away to grants and corporations,
negIectiug our soldiers and enriching a
handful Of greedy speculators apd lob
byists, who are thereby enabled to ex
ercise most dangerous and corrupting
influence in our State and Federal legis
latioa. IF the career of those conspira
tors be not checked, the downfall of free
government is inevitable, and with the
elevation of military dictator on the
ruins of the republic. Under pretense
of passing laws to enfore the Fifteenth
Amendment and for other purposes, Con
gress has conferred the most despotic
powers upon the Executive, aud provided
an official machinery by which the iber-
ties of the people are menaced and the
sacred right of local self government iu
the States is ignored, If not tyranically
overthrown, laws so odious that they are
at variance with all the sacred theories
of our Institutions. The construction
given by these Radical interpreters Of
the Fifteenth Amendment, to use the
Language of an eminent Senator TTrum
bull of Illinois. is the annihilation Of
the States Under the last enforcement
bill the Executive may, in his discretion,
thrust aside the Government of any State,
suspend the writ of habeas corpus, arrest
its Governor, imprison or disperse the
Legislature, silence its judges and tram
pie down its people under the armed
heel OF the troops. Nothing is left to
the citizen of State which can any
longer be called 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
posts. and disregarding party names aud
minor differences. to insist On decent
equalization of power, the restoration of
the Federal authority within its just aud
proper limits, leaving to the States that
control of their domestic affairs, which is
essential to their happiness. tranquility
and good government. Everything that
malicious ingenuity could suggest has
been done to irritats the people of the
Middle and Southern States. Gross and
exaggerated charges of disorder and
violence owe their origin to the mischiey
GUS minds of the political managers in
the Senate and House of Representatives
to which the Executive has, we are sorry
to say, lent bis aid, and these have help